Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Okay, confession time. I've actually never read any Philip K. Dick before this... I know. Bad nerd. They've always been on my list, but the book club seems to the be only thing that gets me to bump the classics up to the top. Another confession, I've never watched Blade Runner start to finish (I always walked in when my dad was in the middle, so I feel like I've seen it a dozen times, but never in the correct order). I'm glad about this, because it let me appreciate the book without trying to predict the movie.

So onto the book: Naturally, I enjoyed it. I've never heard anything but good things about it, and it was everything I expected while still managing to surprise. The whole idea of empathy as the idea that makes us human while the story tugs at our own empathy throughout the story is incredibly well-constructed. I love the idea that animals are the way we demonstrate humanity, and that the most disturbing scene in the entire book operated on my empathy for a spider. Brilliant.

The android vs. human theme has obviously drawn a great deal from this book since the time of its publishing, and that alone makes it worth a read. The way our empathy shifts between them, Decker's preference of knowing the artificiality of his toad at the end of the day, but that not stopping his wife from declaring his attachment to it, it resonates through the science fiction of the seventies and onward. While the book wasn't an emotional revelation for me, I still feel I am a better person for having read it, and I hope many other people who have put off reading the classics as newer and shinier books arrive (I still need Ancillary Sword and I need it badly!) will take the time to explore where these new and shinier books came from.

Also, it's only 123 pages. I wish more modern authors could capture that amount of depth in that few words. Just brilliant. It's becoming a lost art.