The best and most fun time to be seasonally appropriate is the autumn because Autumn is the very best season. As F Scott Fitzgerald said in my absolute favourite novel, The Great Gatsby; life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. I'm all for new beginnings, autumn liberates me. So I have been reading everywhere that red is the colour of the season and I am here for that. Red has always been one of my favourites - festive, bright, and passionate.
Here's me in all my scarlet glory, great big earrings, cosy jumper, wham bam here I am lipstick, and The Circle by Dave Eggers, on my recommended reading list for my MA I am soon to start.
Amazingly, I have finished The Circle in time to write this post and still be relevant. Let me tell you all about it.
If you use social media at all, which most of us do on the regular - even if it's just lurking, I think you will really enjoy this book. The story follows a young woman starting a new job at the prestigious technology company The Circle, which holds some similarities to Facebook or Google. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a novel with a female main character, but a woman whose femininity is not the subject of the novel.
I found it truly made me think about the way in which we use social media; the benefits and drawbacks of sharing and contributing online, how we should be sharing, the idea of complete transparency and 'going transparent', which I found to be reminiscent with the concept of daily blogging, just without the editing ability. In addition, the fanbase vloggers have and how often they feel as if they are owed the complete details of these vlogger's lives once some details have been shared with them. The subject of the impact of keeping secrets is discussed and whether that can ever be a good thing, and the pressure that comes with this. And with sharing your own life, how to go about sharing other people's lives, if at all.
The idea that there are soon to be two groups of people, the people that share and the those that don't, and how each of these groups are viewed by the other.
It gave me definite 1984 vibes what with the technology element and how eerily similar it is to the world we live in. As The Circle was published in 2013, many of the references to the media are still very modern, including the Julian Assange Wikileaks event. The Circle is social media on steroids, it is terrifying and prescient and one of the best books I have read this year. For 500 pages I read this book in a few short sittings which is unusual for me, interestingly because one of my many screens tends to distract me. How very circular. I also found that on occasion I would wake up in the middle of the night petrified by the events of the plot - so be warned.
Although I had never heard about this novel until I saw it on my reading list, it would appear that I am very late to the party on this one as I read the plethora of quotes from every major Newspaper, Magazine, Blogger, and Author on the cover and inside. It was published whilst I was in the midst of my degree, not yet having rediscovered my love for reading for pleasure through my little bookseller christmas job of my third year, so this is a possible reason.
Another reason for me not picking up this gem sooner is the cover - I know, I know you should never judge a book by it's cover, but it is important to note that the design of a cover is huge part of the publishing process. Having read the novel I can so see how the cover plays into the plot but had I simply seen the book on a shelf in a bookshop I don't think I would have gravitated towards it as a story for me. Looking at the books on my shelves I am far more likely to pick a book that I think is beautiful - for me The Muse but Jessie Burton, the Russian Vintage Classics series, Lorali by Laura Dockrill or (the hardback of) The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan. Having loved this so much I'm definitely going to step out of my comfort zone more often in the future when choosing new books because while I love all of my aforementioned beautiful books inside and out, I'd hate to think that I was missing on on more like The Circle.
In conclusion, red is fabulous. Wear more red, buy more more red, read more red.