A book well worth reading

One thing our dad gave us was a love of books. He was a lifelong reader. He often said a person could never be lonely as long as he had a book. Dad credited one of his first school teachers with giving him the gift of reading. He didn't have a lot of formal education, but as a true autodidact, he was a highly educated man.

We've just finished reading a great book. 419 by Will Ferguson is one of those rare reads. It's fiction, but it's changed our world view. Remember last year when we were railing against those telephone scam artists? Well, 419 is about an email scam . . . that old Nigerian diplomat scam. We've all had the emails. However, Ferguson weaves his story around both the scammers and the victims. He's a travel writer, so the parts that take place in Nigeria are completely believable. He's also Canadian, so the parts that take place in Calgary seem authentic, too.

When we say it's changed our world view, it's because you get to see what goes on in the mind of the scammer, the forces that shape his motives, and you get to see how easily we can all rationalize our own behaviours.

419 is an exciting, twisty story that has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize. It's really worth the read.

We're never really comfortable lifting artwork and photos from the internet without permission, so we've decided not to show the cover of the book. Click on the link, if you're interested. But a blog post without a photo? C'mon! So, to fill the void, here's a photo we took on Thursday of some Michaelmas Daisies in our garden. They're beautiful, and they only bloom here in the early fall. We can't believe the summer's blown by already.