Oprah Karenina

So this woman on the plane next to me yesterday was reading Anna Karenina. In related news, she is also a member of the Oprah book club. In another shocking twist, she was reading Anna Karenina because it was recommended as part of the Oprah book club.

My initial reaction was (inside my head): ha! you're a member of the Oprah book club? Of course you are! because I had already decided I didn't like her for other reasons, such as her tendency to ignore her own book and read Harper's over my shoulder.

And then I decided that my initial reaction was inappropriately snobbish, because after all, because of the Oprah book club she is in fact reading Anna Karenina, which in the interest of full disclosure I feel I have to point out that I've never read even though it's been on my list for some time.

And then I wondered why I had this reaction in the first place. I mean apart from the facts that this woman annoyed me anyway and that I'm a big snob. That's not usually the kind of big snob that I am. Especially when in this case it turns out that I have no actual right to snobbery.

I finished Microserfs this weekend and have little of interest to say about it except that I wanted it to be better and I feel it could have been better, but it wasn't better. I started Fingersmith yesterday on the trip home next to the Anna Karenina woman and initial prospects are promising. A Victorian lesbian love story! What's not to like about that?