A Little Light Reading

A few years ago (I could tell you exactly what year but I am a charter member of Recovering Perfectionists Anonymous - whoops!) I read a book called Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence by Bill James, which I found on the new book shelf at the library.  Being consumed with stress, worry, and anxiety about teaching, parenting, and applying to grad school, I decided to reread the book as some "light reading."

If reading pages and pages and pages about serial killers doesn't distract you from your current worries, I don't know what will.

Of course then you have new worries.

Anyway, I remembered the book as being very well-written: clever, funny, with analysis of famous crimes in the past and comments on our judicial system, both past and present. However, I couldn't really remember the way the book ended, and I suspect that is why I wanted to reread it.

Now I know.  For some reason, his editor let him endlessly write about serial killers, way beyond anyone's ability to take it anymore. At one point, he even comments that he will meet with his editor and decide which ones to take out later, but I am not convinced that meeting ever happened. What this section is missing is his analysis, and it becomes a little like looking at billboards along a highway from a speeding car. Each new paragraph is a billboard of yet another serial killer I've never heard of with a cursory summary of the crimes committed.  I honestly didn't know there WERE that many! Like I said, new worries.

At the end of the serial killer section, he does give us some analysis on how these kinds of cases are solved, and that is interesting and worthwhile. By then I was feeling a little numb, however.

The best part of the end is the analysis of the JonBenet Ramsey case, which I paid no attention to as it was occurring, so I didn't know any of the details. It seems clear that the Ramseys were not involved and I hope someday they figure out who did it.

On the whole, worthwhile reading if you can stomach it. Oh, and Lizzie Borden? Innocent.