Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
I don't know if anyone who checks my blog reads the gadget that lists the books I am reading. Come to that, I'm actually not sure if anyone checks my blog. Anyway, I have to admit to the fact that a couple of books listed are ones that I have been currently reading for quite a long time.
I feel a bit ashamed to admit this - especially since one of my long-term reading commitments was a present from a friend ("The Library of Shadows"). It feels a bit ungrateful somehow to have not yet finished it. I was reading it before we went to New York (blimey, that was April). I didn't take it to New York because I wanted to read something set in New York, and I never really returned to it. I was actually fairly near the end and was enjoying it (contrary to appearances), but it is now so long ago that I feel maybe I should re-start it. Can I still technically be said to be currently reading it, if this was nearly 5 months ago?
Another book I started but have not read much of is "The End of Mr Y." This is because I have 2 types of books - intelligent books, and breakfast books. The intelligent books - like "The End of Mr Y" - I get through a lot more slowly. This is because you need to devote all your attention to them, and I rarely seem to get time to do this.
In comparison, a breakfast book is - unsurprisingly - a book I can read while having breakfast. I like reading in the morning when having breakfast, but I can't cope with anything too intellectually stretching too early in the day. So a breakfast book is fun and undemanding - something I can also read with a little less attention when something else is on in the background (like when Mark is watching a football match in which they seem to be faffing around a lot and not actually kicking the ball into the net thing at the end of the field much).
My breakfast books fly past on the blog, but the intelligent books stay there longer because I read them less frequently and they take more time to absorb.
So that is the key to the books I am currently reading: if a book is on there for a long time, then it is more intelligent and takes time to digest. If it is only on there fleetingly, then it probably took less time to digest than my breakfast.
Maybe you're just not that in to books?
ReplyDeleteHow dare you?!
ReplyDeleteThat would be like saying I don't like chocolate (and I believe a day without chocolate is not worth living).
P.S. I decided to stop reading "The Library of Shadows" and return to it anew at another time.
I love all of the Scarlett Thomas' work - even the dodgy genre novels she has disowned! Especially those in places. The end of mr y is great. Popco is also worth checking out when you finish that. And if you can find a copy of it, Going Out is fun too. I just sold off all my copies of her early books though as the price I could get for them was great.
ReplyDeleteI had to get the end of mr y when i was in toronto funnily enough, didn't come out over here until a year later! read it on the plane back. due a re-read soon.
And she lived in Devon back along. Also one of the few authors who used to interact with people on her website, until she got a crazy stalker. Note: I am not that crazy stalker though I probably sound like it.
Looking forward to picking up 'our tragic universe' soon! It's a lovely shiny hardcover.
I did notice you post something on Facebook about Scarlett Thomas a while back! And I hadn't realised that she lived in Devon. I now feel like I should read other books by her (I have seen others, but thought I should read Mr Y first just in case I didn't like her).
ReplyDeleteI was a bit tempted though by Our Tragic Universe though when I saw nice signed hardbacks in a shop in Totnes (this was when it first came out, so they probably don't have any left now).