Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Blurb from Goodreads

Foucault’s Pendulum is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. The novel is full of esoteric references to the Kabbalah. The title of the book refers to an actual pendulum designed by the French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth, which has symbolic significance within the novel.

Bored with their work, and after reading too many manuscripts about occult conspiracy theories, three vanity publisher employees (Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon) invent their own conspiracy for fun. They call this satirical intellectual game “The Plan,” a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled—a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum. But in a fateful turn, the joke becomes all too real.

The three become increasingly obsessed with The Plan, and sometimes forget that it’s just a game. Worse still, other conspiracy theorists learn about The Plan, and take it seriously. Belbo finds himself the target of a real secret society that believes he possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

Orchestrating these and other diverse characters into his multilayered semiotic adventure, Eco has created a superb cerebral entertainment.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Today is the first Monday of May! Where did the time go? I can’t believe that we have already completed the four months of 2022. Nevertheless, I hope that the first four months of the year have been kind to all of you and that they have been fruitful. For those whose patience has been stretched to the limits, I hope that the coming months will be better. Apart from this, I also hope that you are all doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. COVID19 is still very much a force to be reckoned with. Despite the decline in cases, I hope everyone is still observing minimum health protocols. It is, after all, better to be safe than sorry. Another surge will be a blow to our morale; we cannot afford to have another one. I just hope that the pandemic, with all its variants, will soon come to an end.

To kickstart the blogging week, I am posting a new Goodreads Monday update. After weighing all my choices, I have decided to indulge in the works of European in the coming month as I have quite a few books on my pile waiting to be opened. Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, for instance, has been gathering dust on my bookshelf for at least six years. It is about time to start my journey into Proust’s critically acclaimed work. However, it is not Swann’s Way or any books in In Search of Lost Time that I am featuring for this Goodreads Monday update. Rather, I have chosen to feature an author that I am familiar with. For the longest time, I have been wanting to read Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum.

I have previously read two of the Italian writer’s works. Baudolino was the first and while it was interesting, I was not fully impressed with it because it somehow reminded me of Don Quixote. On the other, The Name of the Rose is a book I cherish, one of my all-time favorite reads. Despite this mixed experience, I still want to read Eco’s other works and one that stands out is Focault’s Pendulum. I have a copy of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana but it is Foucault’s Pendulum that has my attention because it was also listed as one of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, along with The Name of the Rose.

Another facet of the book that piqued my interest was its premise. “Semiotic adventure,” it says on the blurb. Eco is also a renowned semiotician. Interestingly, Foucault’s Pendulum echoed similarities with The Name of the Rose. This goes in the book’s favor although I surmise that the former has its own merits separate from the latter. I just hope I can acquire a copy of the book so that I can delve into it immediately. How about you fellow reader? What book written by a female author are you looking forward to? I hope you could share it in the comment

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