One man’s taste in literature may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best. That’s why Victor King, a Los Angeles attorney, doesn’t care how much the rest of the world may admire the novels of Jane Austen. “Austen is just impenetrable to me,” King writes on his blog. “I simply do not care who gets to marry whom; I do not care which suitor comes from a better family.” What he does care about is the new Encyclopedia Britannica, which he’d like to have around the house for his newborn son—but rather than just go out and buy one, he wants to see if he replicate the “One Red Paperclip” phenomenon.
Thus One Boring Paperback, a blog chronicling King’s ambition to trade the copy of Pride and Prejudice he’s had kicking around since college for some better book, and to keep trading up until he gets his Britannica. No takers yet as of early Wednesday morning, but if his search is going untowardly one day, it is sure to mend the next, right?
(And, yes, I deliberately misquoted; he hasn’t been at it a month yet.)