You can always set the book down

Subject: You can always set the book down.

The Jane Austen Book Club is one of those schmaltzy films about five attractive women and one young attractive (rich) young man who are drawn together into a book club to discuss their individual conclusions after reading each of Austen's books.
The film draws parallels with the actual lives of the women and the implications of Austen's characters with the subtle interplay which men evoke on the lives of the women in comparison to the modern complexities of their own lives.
The persuasive argument that relationships are nothing without shared interests, the intellectual spike when, as the metaphor goes "both people are on the same page".
Books are but manifestations of someone else's story but a story which you can identify with and travel the same road. Sometimes it's a story which is so well written that the language takes hold of you and you elevate the substance to mean even more than the author intended. This is no bad thing since, like my previous blog it's about stimulants which boost our perception. A good book, either fiction or non fiction can transport us from the mundane and ordinary to another level because we feel commonality with 'someone else'. It's this commonality which releases us from the enormity of doing the journey on ones own.
Music, books, cinema, are all substitutes for the real thing but if the real thing is not available it's better than nothing and at least you have the option of putting the book down, at least you are in control.