I love to read. Not a day goes by without me sitting down to read, unless it’s forced upon me by circumstances, such as illness or … something … and I can’t think of the last time it happened, actually.
If you want to torture me, put me in a waiting room for hours with nothing to read. I’ll read the posters, I’ll read the information leaflets, and then I’ll climb the walls to read the small print telling me who made the clock and how to replace the battery. I’ll read the labels on my clothes, the washing instructions on the curtains, and the badges on people’s lapels. Heck, I’ll even read their tattoos if they have any.
I was very lucky because learning to read came easily to me, and I found the whole process of getting words off the page and into my brain quite magical. When I was old enough to join the local library, I remember badgering my mother on a Saturday morning to hurry up and take me down there to change my books so that I could get new stuff to read. We were only allowed four books each week. Four! How mean was that?
In those days, I would read one book at a time, but now I tend to read several books at once, keeping one or two in the bedroom, and others dotted about the house (OK, yeah. In the bathroom too …), so that there’s always something handy.
Here’s what I have on the go at the moment. I’m not going to review them, you can follow the links if you want to know more about them -
Representing non-fiction: Beau Brummel, The Ultimate Dandy (Ian Kelly) and Every Living Thing (James Herriott).
Three works of pure fiction: One for the Money (Janet Evanovich), The Witching Hour (Anne Rice), and Honey Moon (Amy Jenkins).
Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to review them, but I have to tell you that I’m about to give up on The Witching Hour. It is so slow. So. Slow. I keep waiting for it to warm up and get going, but since I’m halfway through now, I think I might be onto a loser.
I have others waiting – I’m particularly looking forward to Making Money, (the latest Terry Pratchett ‘Discworld’ novel), My Horizontal Life (Chelsea Handler) and The Knife Man (Wendy Moore) which is all about a famous 18th century surgeon.
I’ve read pretty much all genres, though I don’t care too much for horror these days, I seldom read science fiction anymore, and politics bores me. I also read blogs, of course, and what got me started on this post was Gemmak telling us that she considers herself a ‘literary lightweight’. So what exactly is that? Does it matter if we don’t read ‘worthy’ books? What is a worthy book anyway? Personally, I read for fun, for information, and for escapism, and I don’t much care what anyone else thinks of my choices.
Here’s a couple of thoughts to leave you with. According to the Literacy Trust, 40% of adults in Britain never read books. Also, the last time I heard an estimation, the average British household contained only five books. OH and I read all the time, and have upwards of two thousand books in our house. Good grief. How many households does that leave with no books at all?
Oh, and Confident Writing has a kind of meme going about her ‘Summer Reading Pile’. I don’t do Technorati, but if you do, and want to join in, tag your post with those words.
“My Horizontal Life (Chelsea Handler) ”
You will not be disappointed. She is one of my female IDOLS.
I have a major girly crush on Chelsea Handler & Tina Fey.
What can I say I love me some smart, funny, hot women.
But after reading that sentence I feel the need to mention that I am straight!!!
When I was an editor working on literature textbooks, I once got in a conversation in which every single one of my co-workers swore they had never bothered to read Gone with the Wind. It’s just a bestseller, don’t you know, not literature. I felt pretty intimidated since that was one of my favorite books while I was growing up. (I was still young then and didn’t admit that out loud to the snobbish co-workers.)
Not long after that, I had to go to the public library to do research for that very same job. And there on the librarian’s desk was the most glorious sign:
“Never apologize for your reading taste.”
Ruth Hull Chatliens last blog post..Prostitutes, Pharisees, and Patience
Ah! I adore reading and like you, I read constantly. When I’m not reading I’m studying my vocabulary words. I have eight books stacked next to my favorite chair downstairs, six stacked next to my favorite chair upstairs (which sits beside three very wide floor-to-ceiling bookcases packed with hundreds more books) and at least ten stacked on my bedside table (there’s hardly room for my clock radio). All have bookmarks in them where I last put them down. It’s delightful. My summer reads so far have been Haven Kimmel’s The Used World and The Solace of Leaving Early, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Journey of a Novel, and Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Plus I read magazines, and tons of excellent blogs like yours!
Jennys last blog post..44 Hours In North Carolina
I also have read since I was small. My mom and dad would let us stay up an extra 30 min if we were reading in bed. a great habit my parents started. I usually have about 5 books I am reading, a few fiction and a few non-fiction and a reference book or two. I dont collect them anymore as I am getting rid of everything I dont use. My sister just brought me a car load of hardcover books that she actually owns. Our library is all on line so I can order books right from my desk, and then they call me when they come in. life is good!
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Meleah – Yes, wasn’t it was your mention of her that made me order that one? I think it was you. Oh, and it never occurred to me that you weren’t straight! For some reason, you didn’t come across as anything but! Anyway, I think we’re allowed to have female idols too, aren’t we?
Ruth – That’s a great story! Good for the librarian, and ‘Boo Hiss’ to the arrogant editors! I can’t say Gone With The Wind is my favourite story, but I have read and enjoyed it and would certainly consider it literature! I don’t see the point of the divide anyway, though. There is some startlingly good writing in best-sellers – and who’s to say they won’t be considered ‘great literature’ by future generations?
Jenny – I’m impressed! More than five at a time and I begin to lose track, or I get engrossed in one particular book and forget another. I do have a lot more books with bookmarks in them .. just waiting to get back on the active list, but I don’t consider I’m actually reading them right now.
I loved Brideshead Revisited! I don’t know Haven Kimmel, but I’m going to look him up. I’m always on the look-out for new authors!
Dawn – My Mum used to do that too! Reading in bed was an enormous pleasure and a great way to wind down from the day. I have never forgotten how upset I was when we had a babysitter one day who hadn’t been told I was allowed to do that, and wouldn’t let me read!! Gah! I’m still a little resentful. BTW – do you see your Sweeney Todd bookmark in there? I love that bookmark!! And the other one is the pirate.
Jay, thanks for sharing what’s in your pile – I can see I’ll have no shortage of books from now on as I keep on adding recommendations from people’s lists.
Your description of you reading all the time made me laugh – sounds so much like me! I’m sure I start to twitch if there’s nothing in a room I can read.
And the trips to the library on a Saturday – what bliss – but what disappointment when the four books were read before the weekend was out!
Joanna
Joanna Youngs last blog post..What’s In Your Summer Reading Pile?
Yet another thing we have in common. I read voraciously, and I have to thin out my books a couple of times a year to be able to still live in my house. It’s my biggest miscellaneous expenditure. I read trade books, sure, but I also go back and read (or re-read) the classics, modern fiction, creative nonfiction, nonfiction, magazines, and so on. Like you, I have to have something with me to read.
I found myself in the Starbucks drive-thru the other day and pulled out a book while waiting. It made the time go so fast!
Right now I’m reading “The Journey” (Billy Graham), “4th of July” (James Patterson – not normally a fan, but his Alex Cross novels were great, and I had a hankering for some Women’s Murder Club), “To Have and Have Not” (Hemingway, of course), and the New Testament. Eclectic, yes.
Last night I picked up a copy of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, which I have never read, and the 25th anniversary edition of “Roots”.
Try to hang in there with “The Witching Hour”; it’s my favorite Anne Rice book.
I see you have “Voyager” in your stack, too. I read that one during a particularly difficult business trip. I went into a bookstore and said, “I want a gut-wrenching romance,” which is not my usual genre. The sales girl said, “This one’s very popular.” And I became a Gabaldon fan.
I could go on and on. I love books -LOVE THEM!
Peace – D
Like you, I am a voracious reader, and I currently am reading “A Confederacy Of Dunces” for the third time. American Revolutionary history is a fav subject of mine, and I really want to pick up the John Adams biography, by David McCullough. I saw the HBO miniseries, it was terrific, so I really want to pick up the book that it was based on.
Mr. Nighttimes last blog post..This feline needs a cattitude adjustment.
Oh yes, I forgot. I also have to get off my ass (arse) and finish “Reading Lolita In Tehran.”
Joanna – Thanks for popping in! I’ve picked up some good recommendations from the comments on your post, too!
RiverPoet – I’m laughing at you in the Starbucks’ drive through, but that’s the sort of thing I do, too! LOL! I’ll keep trying the Witching Hour for a little longer. The friend who recommended it loves it, too. She can’t understand why I’m struggling!
Mr N – Thanks for the British spelling of ‘arse’! LOL! I’ve been recommended ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran’ before, and would like to give it try some time, but I haven’t read Lolita, and maybe I should do that first!
Jay – No need to read Lolita first, as it is only one novel of four that is covered. If anything, read “Tehran” first, as it will give you a good basis for Lolita.
Mr. Nighttimes last blog post..This feline needs a cattitude adjustment.
Oh thats right. You bought that book because “Are You There Vodka Its Me Chelsea” wasn’t available. And yes, I think we need female role modles / idols!
xxoo
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Mr N – OK, I’ll bear that in mind. I guess it might depend which book I happen upon first!
Meleah – That’s right!! And I still need to look out for that one.
Good Lord! I can so much relate myself with you. I read like hungry animals, and I end up reading everything and anything.:p These days I am reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.But I read one book at a time. I am so itchy that I can’t leave a book until I finish it and I need to finish it fast. God save those 40% who don’t read,. How do they survive?
Scratch Bagss last blog post..I Haz Got An Award
I believe I read “The Witching Hour.” A friend had lent it to me saying I had to read Anne Rice and this was a great way to start. I can’t say I even remember very much about it– and, yes, possibly much of that could be because I’d taken it on a trip to New Orleans… But I don’t think so.
Reading is a wonderful experience– clicking with that right book, that right author. I sense folks in the UK are more well-read than we typically are in the US. Here’s hoping the world starts reading a bit more. It’s a wonderful way to learn.
I was always a reader as a child, and I remember that feeling of being desperate to get to the library for new books only too well! I knew my vast collection of Enid Blyton books practically off by heart from reading them over and over again. Last year a friend and I decided to do a marathon re-read of the whole Famous Five series… ah, the memories that brought back!
Sadly, my nomadic lifestyle nowadays means I can’t easily carry books around with me, so I don’t get to read as often as I’d like. But there are always blogs.
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Scratch – Shantaram is an amazing book, isn’t it? I loved it! And I have to admit, I didn’t read much else while I was going through that one.
Jenn – I would have thought you’d remember more of it if you read it in NO? Much of it is set there, isn’t it? LOL! I don’t know if we’re more well-read over here, the 40% who never read a book might argue with that!
Hails – Nice to see you! I loved the Famous Five too – and the ‘Adventure’ series, too – such lovely thick books they were! Ah, happy days!
I would find it difficult not to have access to books, but I guess you can always buy second hand and donate them back! And as you say, there are blogs!
Ahhh! Jay if only we had been born in a different time and opposite sexes. We would have been soulmates
.
Like you, I constantly have several books on the go. We have a wonderful used bookstore owned by a wonderful lady who will save books for me if she thinks I may like them. I have a very good friend who we have our own private lending library running, passing books back and forth to each other. I learned to read before I learned I learned the alphabet which is a good thing as we found out later I’m dyslexic.
I have 2 ginormous bookshelves, 5 smaller ones, and stacks scattered around that drive everyone insane, since I’m very mean about books getting damaged. I could never tell you what my favorite author is, because the list would be endless.
The one thing I have to add is actually an odd one for me. I don’t care for Anne Rice. Don’t get me wrong, I adored the initial Vampire series and a few others that she wrote. But the Mayfair witches was, to me, very disturbing. Full of incest, rape, torment, I found myself much happier with other witchy books. I do believe that Memnoch the Devil was my favorite book of hers though. I read it while I was going through my questioning if God existed phase, and it offered a brilliant and bizarre other side of the story.
JTs last blog post..On the lighter side
The question is my time is so precious that I must read something delightful but oh my I’ve reached that point in my life where I like reading things over again!!
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Ah, I love to read as well. My current ones are Time Travellers Wife and the Golden Compass series. Love your references to THHGTTG, although I haven’t seen the movie, I loved all his books. Wish he were still around to give us more. Also, I read James Herriot years and years ago; and still have my All Creatures set. My tastes also include LOTR and comedy. Have you tried the Louis Rennison books “Confessions of Georgia Nicolson” (there are a whole series of them). Even though they are my daughter’s (they are teen books) I loved them too.
I guess I have a thing for British authors, no?
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JT – Yes – we have ‘bookcases’ as in ‘many’, too! We actually have a remarkably nice custom made one which takes up pretty much an entire wall in our lounge and we had made in sections so we can take it with us when we move. Then there’s one in the dining room, one on the stairs (must make use of that bit ..), one on the landing, one in the spare room, and a mini one in our bedroom. And guess what? We’re running out of shelf-space. Might have to perform one of our traumatic book prunings soon.
Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour? I am just over halfway through and there’s been precious little story. It’s all history and lists, which I find extremely tedious. There’s no way I’m going to remember all those relationships. I want to write to her and say ‘can I tell you about a little thing called ‘editing’?’ LOL!
Sandy – I love to read things over again! I find it soothing, and the books are like old friends to me. I particularly like to read a series or collection over again – my favourites being Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances.
Maureen – Douglas Adams was a huge loss. I can’t decide which of his books I love best, but I regard The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul with great affection.
Time Traveller’s Wife is one of my all-time favourite books in the world. I bought it in an airport and read it flying across the Atlantic – I haven’t read Louis Rennison – I’ll look out for those! I don’t mind reading kids’ books at all!