Books on Tap discussion

Hi everyone! Sorry we can't meet face-to-face. I hope you have a chance to respond to the two polls I created.

My first question is one that I think most all of you are all grappling with. How does his thievery impact your feelings about this book and his story?

Good question! I think I feel very much like the homeowners who were robbed. They didn't care about the possessions, but more the loss of privacy and emotional safety. The chronic fear was far worse then the loss of a few items.

It doesn't excuse the stealing, but at the very least, Christopher Knight felt remorse. That is very different than some criminals.

It was interesting how the different camp owners responded to his actions. It appeared that those who were most angry were the one's less convinced that his story was true. More comforting to feel he was a common criminal than ... whatever he was.

It is far easier to condemn someone than to feel empathy. In this case, it's so mixed - how do you feel empathy for someone who stole and broke into homes, but how do you feel anger towards someone who was trying to live a life that worked best for him and not taking more than he needed all while feeling remorse? There are always crime stories where someone robs a bank and says they were doing it to feed their family. We feel like that person doesn't deserve empathy because they made a bad choice, but from the outside, we can understand the desperation. This story is uniquely fascinating because Christopher existed so long and with such skill in those conditions. As you said, hard to digest that it was a true story.

As an co-owner (family trust) of a cabin next to a lake, I get what everyone is saying. I was ready to be angry if he professed some kind of sage enlightenment and/or objective tied to his experience. But my feelings softened when it became clear he wasn't interested in any of that. A "pure hermit" or "pure recluse" would have hunted for his survival, but that was never his intention. His embarrassment about his thievery seemed genuine and made the question of just what he was all about more interesting. Which leads me to tomorrow's question ...

Audrey wrote: "There is a haunting feeling when you enter your secluded home on a pond and you know someone has been there while you were out. Something is missing, or maybe you misplaced it, or maybe you never h..."

Agree entirely about the irony of his behavior resulting in others not be able to realize the peace and tranquility he desired. But what's interesting is that he hated this notion of "peace and tranquility." Puzzling. Not much empathy or awareness of what others might be feeling partly because he couldn't really understand what he was feeling.

He left society because he wanted to be left alone. In the end he wanted to be left alone (from Finkel) .
When I go to camp, it is for the peace and quiet (my version of being left alone in a sense).
Yet, he wasn't leaving others alone by his actions. So, the book is (partly) about a hermit who stole from others for so many years, and that certainly impacted how I felt about Knight - but those feelings came from the original news articles when the story broke. I have different feelings about what the author did with the topic. (for another question...)

Oh - and Tom, my beer of choice this evening was a Founders Porter (very good, from Oak Hill Beverage) :-)

Tommy wrote: "Oh - and Tom, my beer of choice this evening was a Founders Porter (very good, from Oak Hill Beverage) :-)"

Good choice! I had a Sebago Haze Forward