If You Know Me, Don't Read This

By Anne Chudobiak

There is a new bookstore in my neighbourhood. My kids and their friends are really excited about it: they like to visit the bookstore cat; they like to climb the bookstore couch; they like to talk to the bookstore guy. I used to be excited about it, too, before I came across the Funky Monkey blog.

Have you ever stumbled on the blog of someone you know, not very well, in real life? It’s awkward. You’ve never had an actual conversation, but suddenly you know their views on mass culture (to quote, it sux).

I didn’t know whose blog it was at first. There was a profile, but no picture, and no last name.

I was only there because the latest post was about a book I’d recently reviewed, Catherine Kidd's Missing the Ark. The blogger had written about it for another paper. (I’d read his review when it had come out and had wondered who the reviewer was. ) It was clear from his review that he'd enjoyed the book more than I had, although his blog seemed to indicate that he hadn't finished reading the book before the review went to print. He liked the book in part because it was about babies, a timely topic for him: “babies keep popping up in real life. They’re hanging out on the couch with their moms at the book store where I work, they’re coming in and out in strollers, they’re jumping in glee over the cat.”

That’s when I figured it out: The blogger was the reviewer was the bookstore guy. How funny to think that I might have contributed to his enjoyment of a book I hadn’t really liked. I'd have to be more careful with the kids. I didn't want them accidentally influencing literary discourse.