This bizarre little news item popped up on my Yahoo! home page and it was just too wacky for me not to share.

At this point, I assume most of you have heard of Pinterest.  (For those who haven’t, it’s a social networking site on which members create “pinboards,” which are essentially collages of bits of inspiration – decorating, food, travel, reading, fitness, quotes, or basically any kind of inspiration you’re looking for.)  I joined early on and have run hot and cold on the site – I’ll indulge in marathon pinfests, and then ignore the site for weeks.  Oh, and there was one drunken bout of pinning that left me with a picture of a giraffe licking a squirrel on my “Just Makes Me Smile” pinboard… and there it stays to this day, because I’m oddly reluctant to erase it.

So one of the standard pinboards that Pinterest starts users off with is a “Books Worth Reading” pinboard.  (You can delete it, but I kept mine.  And Anna Karenina is on it.)  Ann Romney put two books on her “Books Worth Reading” pinboard – The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton, and Anna Karenina, which she professes to be one of her favorite books.  And now the political world is all atwitter (see what I did there?) over Mrs. Romney’s choices of reading material.  What does it mean, the pundits and analysts are gasping, that Mrs. Romney enjoyed reading a book about an adulterous affair and open marriage and following one’s heart even if it goes against society’s mores, enough to pin it and declare it “worth reading” to all the world?

Sheesh.  Why would Ann Romney choose to pin Anna Karenina as a book worth reading?  Maybe because it IS worth reading.  Why would she consider it one of her favorite books?  Maybe because it’s a wonderful book.  Maybe because Anna’s journey from doting mother to social outcast to desperate woman is powerful, moving and beautifully written.  If we love a book, does that automatically mean that we’re going to act on every mistake the characters make, or replicate all of their bad choices?  Or that we agree with every message in the book?

Look, guys.  Anna Karenina is FICTION.  It’s also a great world classic.  To be honest, I’d judge Mrs. Romney a little bit if she couldn’t get past the fact that Anna makes some bad choices and appreciate the gorgeous language and the emotion of the story.  (Plus, hey, there’s a whole other storyline about two characters finding true love in a traditional marriage.  But nobody talks about that part.)  I don’t think it means anything that Mrs. Romney considers Anna Karenina one of her favorite books… except that she has good taste in books, that is.

N.B. This obviously isn’t a blog about politics.  In fact, I work hard to keep my politics off this blog.  (Oh, I have definite opinions.)  I’m not going to tell you who I am supporting for the 2012 presidential election, so please don’t take this as a declaration that Romney is getting my vote.  I’m just baffled that anyone would consider Mrs. Romney’s public admission that she (gasp!) loves one of the most beautiful and moving books ever written as a declaration of policy or a statement on the values of the Romney campaign.  Please, political pundit friends, PLEASE don’t read anything into Mrs. Romney’s reading choices.  They don’t mean anything, except that she read and loved a magnificent book.  Good on her.

Do you think a candidate’s wife’s reading choices are a statement on the candidate’s campaign values?  Or do you think that we should all back off and let Mrs. Romney read and pin in peace?