At first I thought it means awning and then I realize it is not spelled canopy, but rather canape, for which Firefox’s quick search shows it means those little bite sized dim sum like food. For Asian immigrants like me, hors d’œuvre is a type of dim sum no matter what you say otherwise. Somehow my mind makes an unexpected shortcut to capybara and cayman. Why? I have no idea. The mind has a mind of its own. Probably because all these words share the first letter “c”? English can be so confusing to my mind, which is not originally wired for alphabets.
Canape didn’t appear in the book, but rather it appeared in the book review. I should have got the kindle version of “Winners Take All” since it mentions many names–people or organizations or books”–which I have no idea of. It would be convenient to highlight them, but it’s impossible to do in an audio book. The narration is not doing the book justice. This happens many times when the author does the narration. He performs it in a rushed way. No doubt his brain rushes forward in a higher speed than what the verbal communication is capable of achieving. Such a mismatch has often made a smart man look awkward or weird in social situations. Although a narrative book is not the same as a conversation in a party, it does involve speech, tone, poise etc.
I feel that what I want to say about this book has already been said by the review in Guardian. I won’t be able to say anything interesting. It is not even a topic I am interested in, but I know probably I should be interested. This is the thing. Whenever I am telling myself I should be interested in certain things, I just won’t be. It is a worthy cause, but it seems it is not an interesting enough topic to attract my attention. If it is not on sale in Audible, I would never have bought it. And this brings me to something I am interested in: how to transform a mundane topic into something interesting. How about write something about the author, analyzing his intention of writing the book, exploring his psychological fear and aspiring vanity, throwing something about his relationship with others.
Haoyan Do 