Thursday night I took the bus from work to my new writing group (1.5 hours). The return trip was over 2 hours long, by which time I figured the BTT site would have so many comments, it wasn’t worth bothering with.
It’s too bad this is the week Deb at BTT (Booking Through Thursday) decided to use a question I had suggested some time ago. I’m sure this is setting a new record for BTT lateness but here’s my entry:
I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?
I am very good at finishing what I start. If I get through the first chapter of a novel, chances are I will finish it. This goes mostly for literary novels. If I’m not amused by something modern and popular, I just figure I don’t get it and move on. If something receives good reviews in the book pages of the newspaper or creates some kind of a stir in the literary media (podcasts, TV, CBC radio etc.) I need to know why. The Shipping News was one novel I might have abandoned because the narrator is so frustrated and frustrating through much of the book. In the end, I was glad I hung in because he turns himself around.
Does this make me a literary snob? Well, I suppose it makes me my very own kind of reading snob. I only read for my own fun/ stimulation. It’s one of the perks of dropping out of grad school. I’ll read anything (meant for intelligent laymen and novel readers). I love to try reading a new genre, but I won’t repeat the exercise if I didn’t like it. Category romance, for example, is something I doubt I’ll try again.
I have it bad for literary language and if a book is funny with a touch of satire and a large dollop of linguistic experiment, I’m in love. Of course, the hardest experiments are the ones that go the furthest wrong when they don’t work. There’s a fine line between entertainment and intellectual exercise and, well, I have my own navel to gaze at. There is only so much time to read in our busy, disjointed, attention-splitting world.
With the constant flow of advertising and noisy media, intruding into our consciousness, I dote on books for their polite habits and pleasant demeanour. Loyal and patient, they sit up and show us their covers, hoping we will choose them.
Happy Reading
I dote on books for their polite habits and pleasant demeanour. Loyal and patient, they sit up and show us their covers, hoping we will choose them..
I wished I’d said that. I guess that’s why you’re the writer & reader and I’m only the reader. I read for moments like this when I run across a beautifully worded phrase that says what I think.
There is no ‘only the reader.’ Good lines will always be plentiful and writers will record them. People are usually too busy living their lives to stop and write things down and why not? Living is more important than writing about it.