Welcome back to the most fascinating corner of the internet. That’s right, it’s time for another incredible installment of Am I the Literary Asshole, an advice column that asks you to please drink responsibly. I’m your host, Kristen Arnett, and I can’t believe it’s already November.
This year has both flown past and also crawled along at a snail’s pace. I guess two things can be true at once? Strange how that’s often the case!
I’d love to celebrate some cool weather with a nice bottle of red wine. As a side note, I once bought some of those teeth wipes from a wine shop after the owner assured me that they absolutely work to remove red wine stains. Reader, they do not work.
I wound up looking like I had chompers carved from a block of mahogany at a keynote speech (after downing several glasses of merlot at the open bar). When I swiped that wipe across my teeth it was akin to using tissue paper and expecting it to effectively remove a blood stain. But in this instance, I’m happy to chance the stains and enjoy a couple of glasses with you, my friends.
So let’s uncork this bad boy and take a peek at our first question: 1) There’s a weekly silent book club in my city that costs $100 a month to attend. Which is weird because it’s held in free spaces at public cafes where people buy their own drinks, and read their own books silently in their own seats. On one of their posts, I replied with what I thought was a gently-worded question about where the money goes.
But unfortunately the rest of the local bookish community saw that and ran with it. There are many completely free events in town that people work very hard on but struggle to find an audience. So the replies to my comment brought that resentment to the surface, and many replies called the organizer a grifter, a con-artist, and many much more colorful words.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
