The Debris of an Ordinary Life

 

It must seem strange. I take so long to update this blog, because that's how long it takes me to finish books that fail to hold my attention, and then suddenly, I finish a book in a day.

I'd never heard of this book or the author. But when I was scrolling through non-fiction during the Big Bad Wolf sale, this book and its description caught my eye.

A professor finds 148 books in a skip, discarded diaries of someone who has been writing them for about 5 decades, simply thrown out, just like that. They eventually end up in the hands of a biographer who specialises in telling the story of ordinary people. 

Faithfully, he tells you what happens with the books from the moment they were fished out of that skip. And how, after years, he finally pieces together the identity of the person who wrote the diaries. 

My favourite chapter is the one in which he tries to figure out their height based on some complicated ad maths formula using sine. My mind carefully extracted itself when he went on to explain how he formulated his calculations and how he calculated, the way it does when anyone tries to explain what an offside is. Or the difference between a put and call option. 

Anyway I brought my mind to see the result of his complicated calculations: 7.6 metres.

At which point I burst out laughing and warmed to the biographer. He was no better at ad maths than I was. 

He also attempts a sketch of the diarist, adding features every time they volunteer some personal information. The sketch progresses through the book. And it is not unfunny. 

I am glad I picked up this book. I think I can usually gauge how much I enjoy a book based on how quickly I finish it. 

And this has to be some kind of record.