consensus reality

Okay, so when my dad was in high school there was this really popular novel called Valley of the Dolls. Everyone thought Valley of the Dolls was the next great work of literature, the must-read of the decade.

So my dad picked up a copy of Valley of the Dolls. He started reading, and it wasn’t very good. But everybody seemed to think this was just the best book ever, so he assumed it must get really good further in.

Then the book ended.

This is all my roundabout way of saying that I’ve got the first Captive Prince book on my Kobo, but I haven’t read it because I’m worried it’ll be my Valley of the Dolls.

(Epilogue: one morning a few years ago, I was reading that week’s bestseller list aloud. I got to the name “Jacqueline Susann” and my dad immediately piped up with, “That’s the bitch who wrote Valley of the Dolls!”

It’s been 50 years. He's still not over it.)