Books

Can a book save your life from a bullet? Let's find out

Jon Davis | Tuesday 18 January, 2011 10:32

There are those that claim a book saved their lives. But they’re speaking metaphorically, right? Surely a book can’t physically save someone’s life, I mean, it couldn’t stop a bullet? Well those chaps at Electric Literature are taking this question very seriously and brought the big books of 2010 to a shooting range to find out.

David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (480 pages) and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom (562) are among the mammoth novels which find themselves in the firing line. Yet despite their hundreds of pages and thousands of words none are a fitting substitute for a flak jacket. They all get pulped.

Even the solid Kindle, which can hold up to 3,500 books, can’t halt a bullet. It may be the future of reading but it won’t save your life in fire fight. As the spokesman for Electric Literature, Tom Shillue, declares, the only consolation is you’ll die quickly.
So the advice is clear, don’t place a novel in your best pocket when visiting a bad neighbourhood, it won’t save your life.

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