Read The Circle - By Dave Eggers

With the weather cooling down and even some slight precipitation in Venice recently, it's that faintly perceptible shift of the seasons that we do get here that makes you want to just stay in and read sometimes.  That was my feeling last week, and it perfectly aligned with the arrival of the new novel/cautionary tale by Dave Eggers, The Circle.

Eggers has long been one of my very favorite living authors and inspirations (he founded the excellent 826 tutoring centers across the country), and he proves to me why with every new project he does. This one should be required reading for every person in the world to read, or be read to. After being at dinner recently and being the absolute only person not looking at my phone, I've had many a conversation about how social media is really making us all more anti-social. It's sad. I rebel.

The Circle addresses this - to the extreme. The Circle is like a all-encompassing Facebook, that links every account you have and everyone can keep track of exactly where you are and what you're doing, even to the point of full "transparency," where cameras show what everyone (including Governments) are doing at all times. If you don't agree to transparency, then you're instantly suspicious. This kind of life is a complete nightmare to me, but it's not too hard to see it coming to fruition. This is Orwell's 1984, for now.

This is a super important book, that I flew through, enjoying every page, all while mounting concern for the reality of it all grew in my mind. Please read The Circle, and let's have some good discussions about it/figure out how to save each other and the world. 


*Happy Birthday, B!