There will never be enough time to read all the things. Read what you love, learn from what you love.
It's great to be curious and go outside your comfort zone, but like, don't force yourself to read stuff you're 'supposed to' just because other people love it or its highly acclaimed or whatever. We don't all have the same taste in things, including the people who give out awards, and that's okay.
Tap into your instincts. If you pick up a book, and you're not excited to read it, don't. Pick another.
If nothing excites you, try reading the first couple of chapters. If you you don't want to read more, this is probably not the book for you.
'Joy' might be an intimidating word, but basically, if you love reading it, read it. Hit up your local library and explore to see what else is out there without having to fork over too much $$
Yes and no. Some books are hard and challenging. The joy can sometimes come after persevering for more than two chapters. (Not always--but often enough.) And other times, a book that brought joy at first turns out to be a dud. A few of the stories George has given us are ones I probably would have never read before, or never finished. But then we begin the close observing of the masters. And everything changes. Hard to give advice to others on what or how to read, I think. I press books on others all of the time and they rarely read them. I am me and they are themselves. You just never know. Sometimes i'll say, look, at first you're not going to like this one, but hang in there! Wolf Hall, for instance. Thank God i hung in there as it is a masterpiece.
It's not that I love difficulty in fiction, but with Wolf Hall it was the difficulty that grew on me and kept me in there. Page after page I found I was thinking "Now let's go back over that paragraph or page", and on second reading things fleshed out, densified. Being obliged to revisit the twists and turns of Mantel's style led to a richer experience and now I'm sounding like a chocolate salesman so I'll stop.
My first try i had to quit after 50 pages because i couldn't figure out the narrator. Then, I tried again and finally had the A-ha! moment of understanding the POV voice. After that, all made sense and I read the book with absolute glee. That one is a wonder! But yes, the difficulty--I just HAD to get it!
I had a similar experience with Gravity's Rainbow fifty years ago. I thought the first fifty pages or so were great, and then the book faltered and I couldn't get past what I could not understand or appreciate. I must have tried ten times, which means I read those first fifty pages ten times and then stopped. The 11th time, I forced myself to keep going, and the book improved for me immeasurably, and while not as good as the beginning, it was still a great experience to read it completely. Similarly, Knaussgaards's My Struggle, while tedious and unnecessarily long, has opening pages that are some of the best writing I have ever read. It begins, "For the heart, life is simple: it beats for as long as it can. Then it stops." This section has little to do with the rest of the six volumes and thousands of pages. Very few people would have time to read all of them. I certainly don't (and didn't!). I do love reading new things, but when they begin to disinterest me I put them down. I feel I don't have time to waste on them. I return to old favorites, and each time I read something I have read and loved before, even if I have read it many times, I learn something new. I've said this before in this forum - rereading is a little like rewriting. One sees more each time. Stories are a different experience, easier to manage simply because they are short - one can spend the time necessary to get all the way through a story, even if it doesn't resonate at first. That doesn't mean they are less complex, or a lesser art form, not to me anyway. It seems that everyone I know (myself included) has less time for reading. After digesting the day's news, and worrying about it, and negotiating one's way through the world, reading becomes a luxury. This is not to say it's unnecessary - it just requires a commitment. So I have good intentions now that I have nearly retired, to read more and to do it every day, with the seriousness I brought to my work life.
That's true. But even in a challenging book, something needs to motivate us to keep turning pages, even if it's just to answer the question "What's the hype about?"
Oh it was more of a query into the heavens than an asking for “how”? I’m rarely dissatisfied with my reading choices. Always something to glean. Thanks for the response, Sonal! I think we have the same outlook!
I just finished Wharton's The Age of Innocence, which I found in a free box in my neighborhood, and which I loved far more than I thought I would. Right before that, I read Everett Percival's Dr. No, which I thought I was going to love (like I did his book The Trees) and which I found as a remainder at Powells, the large bookstore near me, the book was okay, good enough to get through, but not something I loved, like the Wharton . You're right, it's tough to know what books will bring you joy. I don't think one can know until they've started to read the book, or maybe with some books halfway through the book.
Ah! That's the mystery Lee. 'Informed instinct' plays a role in teeing me up to decide 'I'll like that' or 'I won't like that'. Then there's the old opportunity cost to be factored in I guess (somewhere in the back rooms of my mind where Rob's Numb Skulls lurk and work away) keeping me alert to the danger that too many reads in too tight a timescale will likely be, well, numbing!
Thanks for plucking my question from the slush pile, George. I loved reading all the responses. What I’m hearing from everyone is maybe it’s a good time to lighten up, ha! Obviously, this question was asked from an anxious place. I teach and edit and have too many hobbies, so it all fuels my TBR stack — oh, right, I’m also a fiction writer like many of you, so there’s the “books to fuel the project” pile. I simply have too many piles, and it’s hard to choose, and I get overwhelmed. Then there’s Black history month. And poetry month. And Gordon Lish’s Former Students Month. The Tyranny of Should, as it were—even when the “should” is concocted by my own brain—which I’m told I need to banish.
A really good question and thanks for asking it. I can relate to what you said and hanker after the days when I could go into a bookshop and explore for hidden treasures. Now, when I go in, I tick off the books I’ve already read. This gives me some satisfaction knowing the bookseller has similar tastes but it does make finding the ‘treasure’ a little more difficult. In order to narrow down the choice of books I have succumbed to reading book reviews and seek out what I’m told is ‘the best’. I’m not complaining because I’m rarely disappointed.
On another note, outside school, I had never re-read a book until a few years ago. This was when I read a book for a book group and didn’t like it. I reread it only to discover it was brilliant (I had missed the point). So that drove me to reread some of the books I love and now the piles just grow bigger. I am grateful to be so spoiled for choice. Aren’t we lucky (if a little overwhelmed)?
Thanks for the wonderful question! Am also loving reading all the responses. I just recalled a three-part CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) "Ideas" program I heard a while ago that may (or may not) help to quell some of the anxiety/overwhelm experienced by those of us who often tend to put "should" and "read" in the same sentence. Unfortunately, I couldn't find part one, but here are the links to parts two and three:
What a great question. Thank you to the Questioner!
I choose books to read from all kinds of sources. If my friend Lisa read a book and loved it, then I have to read that one almost immediately. We've been doing this since kindergarten and everyone should have such a friend! I’ve been known to—many, many times—choose a book by its cover. (I hit up the New Releases shelf at the library and will bring home a book that “looks good.”) I used to read books that friends had blurbed, but then I realized these friends could not be trusted. Blurbs aren’t real—they are favors for friends. I don’t read book reviews, but I will take a sideways glance through the Book Review at the NYTimes and sometimes a book will look like something I might like. I read new books by writers who have written other books I liked. I somehow always know what the “hot” new books are and I mostly avoid those. Some cannot be avoided, though, and I end up reading them. Sometimes I’ll read a book because it’s a huge bestseller and I want to know why. Those books usually suck. I read the classics I used to avoid when i was younger because there's a reason they are classics. Recently, I read Middlemarch and To the Lighthouse, and I’m currently reading War and Peace (with on online book group). HOW BORING IS THIS ARE YOU STILL READING?
I also read a few billion short stories every year. Or it feels like it.
Here’s the thing. I am, at this stage of life, well aware that there are only a finite number of books left for me to read in this lifetime. I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book? I try not to get too anxious about any of it, but it does provoke anxiety. Thankfully, I’m not really all THAT old, but I’m no spring chicken, either.
And so I read, mostly, for pleasure. If I start a book and I don’t like it, I no longer finish.
I feel for George who does not have time to read whatever he wants. Reading for other reasons can, in fact, be pleasurable, but it’s not the same as cracking open True Grit and just loving it. (Great book.)
Mary, I’m a hospice nurse and a lot of patients read at end of life if they can or listen to books on audio. Many RE-read old favorites as a comfort. Some order new books hot off the bestseller list. Full price they say because, why not. I have called libraries with bookmobiles to visit patient’s home so they can choose a few. It’s interesting what they choose. It tells a great deal about them. Although, I’ve had a few patients who were gifted books by friends and thrown against a wall, one patient saying “this book is %#$@ I’m not wasting what little time I have reading that crap” so there’s that. The authors would probably be mortified to know how many times I have seen that happen!
Ha! I love that--who has time for the things we don't have time for? I'm sure you've seen so many amazing things in your chosen career. I think I have a strange mind. Some days, I think of the finite times I will see a certain person again in my lifetime. Strange to think about, really. So the book idea--what books I will never read because life is too short--this is something I stupidly ponder.
I keep re-reading your sentence "I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book?" There's a scary life metaphor there. Or a future prompt!
"You are on your deathbed with a book that you hope will give you your last literary thrill. It turns out to be Fifty Shades of Da Vinci. Describe the force of your feelings in 50 words."
Funny and terrifying about reading the last book before you die. I never worried about that until the enormous list of stories, followed by the enormous list of books, as suggested here in SC. So much to read and so little time. An embarrassment of riches. A weight of almost unbearable insight and joy. OMG. Do I laugh? Do I cry? Just breathe, just breathe.....one after the other......Actually it has reminded me that I will never get through the list, that I must accept my limitations, that loss can also occur amidst plenty....
Oh god, the last book before dying. I've been recently chewing over the thought-exercise of 'If you had one last year/month/day to live in good health, how would you spend it?'. It's a question I'm finding both existential and grounding. But after your post I've mentally updated the exercise to 'If you had one last year/month/day to live, what would you read?' and I feel such PANIC. My soul is secure; my reading list is not.
Apart from ‘how to’ books etc to improve my craft, which I really enjoy, I too read mostly short stories at the moment, Mary. I’ve made up my mind it’s a form I want to get competent at, and so I reckon reading as many good ones as possible is a good idea. It’s also a form where there is enough time to read one or two recommended ones that aren’t so great, and see what the fuss is about, without wasting too much time - although obviously you never know that till you’re already way in!
I didn't mean to imply that I read mostly short stories. I don't! I read mostly books--both fiction and nonfiction. But I also read short stories! And it feels like i read a lot of them.
Oh, right, gotcha! Very impressive that you manage to read lots of books, too. I think I’m the slowest in my friendship group, who all seem to have read two or three new ones, at least, whenever we meet up. Definitely have a lot of guilt on that score!
Merrie: No guilt! And really, not so impressive. I think I'm giving off the wrong impression. I read maybe 30 books a year (all the way through)? I get tons of nonfiction from the library and sort of poke through them. (Philosophy, history, psychology, etc.) I don't read every word in those kinds of books. And short stories--well, I do read a lot of them but probably not as many as you think. (I realize I wrote before that i read a ga-billion of them, but that was a crazy exaggeration. I do read a lot of flash fiction, but those take five minutes to read, if that.) So don't be impressed by me. And don't feel guilty!!!
My best friend and I used to play a game: pick ten books to be stranded with on a desert island. We debated whether the collected works of Shakespeare could count as one book. We decided they did because we just wanted them them all. She always chose the Bible. I rarely did. The other nine books have waxed and waned over the years but it’s a really fun exercise to see not only what books I’ve loved, but what books I’d want to reread. West with the night by Beryl Markham is definitely on my list as is The Sea by John Banville because it is so gorgeously written. I just reread it this week and I know I will reread it again.
Christine you list two books I put high on my list. ( I just read The Sea.) In this particular cohort I'd add A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes and Stoner by John Williams. There are so many gems that don't get enough exposure.
I read Markham’s letters and then I understood why people had questioned whether she had actually written West with the night. The style and vocabulary are completely different. The writer of those letters in my humble opinion was not the writer of that gorgeous book.
Yes, yes--that controversy! I remember feeling a bit devastated by those claims. But--in the end--I thought she was cleared..? Maybe not. Oh dear, I feel a deep dive coming on.
On Middlemarch etc, when I was 30 I read this brutal comment about John Cheever: he got his reading done early.
Arrrgh! I hadn't got much if any serious reading done and here I was, ancient already.
So, I spent the next couple of years trying to get my own reading done: Middlemarch, Moby Dick, Brothers Karamazov, Iliad, Gravity's Rainbow, The Oresteia... and so on.
It was completely worth it and a total waste of time.
It was like watching a storm from a distance: spectacular, beautiful, terrifying, incomprehensible, and if it was truly felt at all it was felt in my gut not in my head and too much for my heart to hold.
So, I guess I am grateful and furious that I read this crushing phrase as early and as late in my life as I did.
And, I HAVE STILL NOT GOT MY READING DONE, which is a great joy and a deflating failure to apprehend.
this bit of An interview about reading w Fran Leibovitz, and she was saying Oprah got a lot of people to read- which was great- but the way they were being taught to read Fran did not approve of, the idea of ‘looking for yourself’ in the book, Leibovitz said, ‘ where’s the Fran in Moby Dick, Theres no Fran in Moby Dick, ( something like that) and I started thinking how great it would’ve been if theyre had been.
It's funny you mention Middlemarch. That book took me ages (my then-girlfriend-now-wife bought me a congratulatory card when I finished) and it did feel like a sludge at some points. But once I finished I looked at it and realized it was one of the best books I've ever read. (Though I'm in no rush to reread it just yet.)
Excellent thoughts Mary! I’m reading War and Peace too in a zoom group with an English prof. I never wanted to read it until this year. I think it’s because we did Tolstoy here in Story Club and I read A Swim in the Pond and he just won me over.
I was always a wild animal type reader. I couldn’t be tamed reading only what I felt like reading. Except when I’m with a teacher I respect and the teacher says read this! Then I’m compliant.
A plug for lit mags! I rarely ever read (let alone subscribed to) literary magazines in the past, which feels silly to admit for someone who has submitted stories to well over a hundred of them in the past couple years. I suppose I was always saving that precious reading time for the classics and/or for recommendations I felt were higher priority than whatever stories wound up in the pages of "[X] Quarterly Review." This must be a pervasive attitude since, I never hear wholehearted endorsements of specific publications, even from mfa students/graduates who have worked on them. Recently though I've been making a conscious effort to subscribe to (and read) more literary magazines, starting with some bigger ones (One Story, Paris Review, The Point, Electric Lit). A couple months in, I've come to realize how mistaken I was! Even while maintaining a steady book reading habit, most of my favorite reading experiences of the past two months have come from my recent magazine issues. I only wish there were more people talking about these stories with the same passion and investment as we often do with new HBO shows or Sally Rooney novels. Where are the secondary channels on the latest issue of The Paris Review or One Story?! After all, part of the promise of literary magazines is the community generated around them, right? I'm hoping to find more of that communal reading experience in the next year. Looking to change my habits up a bit!
I’m here mostly as a reader, not a writer, so it’s a perfect question for me. I keep a note on my phone and write down every book I see/hear/read about that I want to read, and look at that if nothing from my “pile” by the bed is grabbing me. I read most of the classics when I was younger, I’m very interested in the ideas of “canon” and what is considered such and why. I’m very interested in translations, and getting to know other cultures through their literature. I sometimes am on a geography swing where I read a whole bunch of books from a certain area, like Saudi Arabia, or China, books about these cultures and places (non fiction) and books by authors from those places in translation. Funnily (for this venue) have an an aversion to short stories, and almost never choose them, though I have been more I soured by this group. After ‘big reads’ (literary, effort full, or long) I sometimes read a few “amuse bouche” books like mysteries or fantasy or YA. I too read almost exclusively before bed (usually for an hour or 90 minutes) except when on vacation, where I might read all day long (I finished the amazing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr each in a day because I could not put them down). I love love love books and I’m so grateful to writers for the escape they give us. One of the great heartbreaks is when an author you love dies, and you know they will never create another word or world for you. Toni Morrison. Ursula LeGuin. AS Byatt. 💔
I'm also a canon reader and interested in the discussion of what makes it into the canon and what doesn't.. who decides. I spent a year and a half of joy working among the books in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale - in the literature section, running into all the great classics "with introduction by Harold Bloom," right before he died. Knowing his work from grad school, I started reading his intros. One of them said "I spent last week rereading Faulkner" -- Ummm he read ALL of Faulkner in a week! Astounding! His influence on the canon is outmatched of course. I've read a great deal of the classics, and I return to them all the time - they really do hold up. I wish I had time to study them.
Just reading Ursula K. LeGuin's 'Steering the Craft" an AMAZING book about writing craft, second only to this one guy I read, something about swimming and ponds and rain. ;-)
'Into the Woods' by John Yorke is another great read to steer your reading raft towards if you haven't come across way back up stream Lee.
A recent read on the block that I've found a pithy, pointed, purposeful read (twice already) is Tim Lott's "Yes! No! But! Wait!"
And, in an amazingly short order given that it was sourced from the USA mere days ago, on first glimpse and glance the arrival of a very good second hardback copy of 'Creating Fiction' mentioned in Story Club very recently looks likely to be an addition to my bookshelves that will stay the course . . . instructive insights on this malarkey we call writing and are ever coming to know a little better, by and by, here in Story Club.
The idea of ‘canon’ was always very interesting to me as well. I’ve been a huge reader since I was very young (my mom still tells the embarrassing story of how, when I was being potty trained, I used to sit on my little potty until the pile of books in the unread pile had moved to the read pile - these were likely picture books but you get the point). When I was a kid I read whatever fell into my hands and enjoyed it immensely. But when I finished high school I realized I wanted more from my reading experience. I wanted to read what the characters in my favorite books were reading - Austen, Brontë, Woolf, even Shakespeare - I wanted an intellectually curated reading list. I also realized I wouldn’t be able to curate such a list without some help. So I took up a degree in English literature. My reason was: tell me what else to read. I wanted my reading to have the gatekeepers’ approval stamp, or in other words, to discover the canon. Now I have a Masters Degree with a thesis, all because I wanted a reading list 😂
Hey! Same here, I found myself mostly reading contemporary novels by Irish women. It's hard to explain why they are so good. Do you have any recommendations I might have missed?
I hope you don't mind my jumping in here, Ansuya, because you asked Elizabeth & not me, but I'm a devotee of things Irish and would suggest, for the immediate, Mary O'Donoghue's "The Hour After Happy Hour" and "The End of the World is a Cul de Sac", by Louise Kennedy, plus anything by Mary Lavin or Maeve Brennan. Plus a subscription to the lit mag "Stinging Fly" (the name taken from a line from Plato). There's also a wonderful anthology that a friend of mine brought back from Ireland called "The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories", ed, Sinead Gleeson, the "art of the glimpse" taken from William Trevor's definition of the short story.
Thanks for the recs! I’m also in love with Irish writers for some reason.. a love affair that began with Joyce in college but has since moved on to Edna O’Brien, Sally Rooney and many others.
As a journalist who covers books and culture (among other things), I have the terrible privilege to submerge myself in books on any given day. Here's what I do, (please don't try this):
1. For work, I oscillate between old books of journalism, whether it be Hemingway's war reporting, Didion's essays, or more recent inside-baseball sorts of books, like "She Said." This helps keep me sharp, and also reinforces my crippling anxiety/self-worth, which in turn forces me to work harder thereby helping me file articles on deadline hoping my editor realizes she's holding my soul in her hands (jk—kinda). These are kept by my desk and flipped through whenever I need a kick in the pants, or looking for an idea on how someone much more skilled than me tackled a sentence, subject, etc.
2. I have my "wakeup and smell the existential dread" audiobook that I listen to as I open up the house, guzzle my first coffee, and generally surface from sleep. These books are your proudly mid books, the ones that you don't necessarily want to clog your shelves, but are easy enough to follow, even as you low-key disassociate while emptying dishwasher. For example, I just finished "The Maid," chef's kiss.
3. Next is my "sit in the sun and watch people walk their dogs" books. Here is where I feel most heroic. These are mostly ambitious books: your prize winners, the debut darlings, the things I need to have at least one cup of coffee in my system before cracking open. For the rest of the day, I chase this sense of misguided grandeur and elation.
4. I have to keep up! I have the brutal challenge to limp through the advance copies that threaten my mailman's sciatica on any given day. Now, with two cups of coffee in my system, hopefully some sort of exercise out of the way, and a third caffeinated beverage by my side, I begin the real work: the close read. I carve out about 2-3 hours, depending how late I am on a deadline, the state of my inbox, etc. to read something that seems especially promising or is relevant to an assignment I'm either pitching or working on. I underline and highlight and make notes in the margins. When the post-its come out, you know it's really singing.
5. I'm a big fan of book podcasts to learn about new authors and new-to-me authors. I like to listen to these on runs, attacking a jigsaw puzzle, and folding laundry. Oh, and BookTok.
The last book I read was also the first book to bring me real joy in a long time, which was A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and is what led me to this substack!) I completely resonate with this question because each year I try to curate my personal reading list to deepen my understanding of the world. I try to read a biography, a history, a translated work, etc. But reading with that purpose is hard work. The magic happens when I feel my world expanding when I’m reading AND also can’t put the book down because it’s so enjoyable and fun.
I am trying to read alphabetically the fiction section of my local library. It has been about 2 years, about 40 books, and utter joy. I am delighted to report how much amazing fiction is out there. The only down side is that no one wants to join the project and a lot of the books are obscure so I don't find many people to discuss them with. I am still happily wading in the A section, from there I can highly recommend The Arsonist's City by Hala Alayan, Jamie Attenberg's All this Could be Yours, Aktar Ayad's Homeland Elegies.
OMG Sarah what a project! That sounds like something I would decide to do in my teens or twenties, before kids and career took over all my time… more power to you!
In all honesty, it came from loving being exposed to new books at book club and now it seems like work/kids have taken over! It is a very compassionate experiment. I have no pressure on myself, totally motivated by curiosity not deadlines. If I don't like a book after 30 pages I move on!
Since I retired from my job as a university professor in 2020, I read less in my academic subject (philosophy) and more fiction but also history. I try to read in French a fair bit, alternating between classics (Balzac!) and recent novels, and then the same basic pattern in English. I’ve been doing more re-reading since joining Story Club and I’m starting to appreciate how valuable this is: 3 runs though Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day gave me so much more insight. I read before bed, but try to give myself an hour from 5-6.
My reading time and habits changes every year, and I do my best to be content when they do. I often read before bed, although I'm currently teaching my children the classics and going back to re-read (young reader) versions of the Odyssey and others is fun. It makes me want to read the originals too.
I'm doing the same with poetry, as my children have a goal of memorizing a poem a month in our homeschool. My dream would be to learn enough Persian to read Rumi in his original language, but that dream sits much like your reading year, George.
I find that when a book piques my interest, I immediately buy it. That way I don't have to keep a list, and I have an ever-expanding shelf of "read next" options. Once a year or so I go through them and books I've read, and I donate books that no longer fit with my interests or just don't call to me anymore. The local library or Goodwill or our local neighborhood library enjoy these donations. All in all, as long as I'm reading (and I always seem to be), I'm happy. Whether it's for inspiration, for pleasure, for learning, or all of the above.
I once taught a class called "Road Trip!" that attracted a lot of Kerouac fans. The reading list was primarily road trip novels of American Lit. But I included "The Odyssey" to set the stage for our journey motif. This was a required sophomore level lit class. When I polled the students at the end of the class to see which books they liked the best (some great ones - Huck Finn, Lolita, Grapes of Wrath, Wizard of Oz, and more..), they overwhelming chose "The Odyssey" as their favorite. Shows you the power of the classics. I would not have bet that. I stay away from Vegas. :)
That may not have been the driving reason for me to leave Los Angeles, but it reminds me I made the right choice. I have ended up in Bozeman and find this to be more supportive of weird literary rabbit holes in the local neighborhood libraries.
Ha! I love Los Angeles! This is--not joke--a cultural wonderland full of creative people from all walks of life. I do understand loving Bozeman, though.
I grew up in a different part of LA, more industrial, less creative. I joined the navy a few months after 9/11 and never moved back. I don't want to raise my children there anymore, even though for years I thought I wanted to write and direct movies. We visit once a year, and oh how I miss the ocean, the marine layer, a beer at Neptune's Net, or many of my old favorite places, but something about being in the mountains and away from it all captured me.
I have never been a voracious reader, even though my mom taught my sister and I to read when we were each around three years old. I think school had something to do with it--those standardized reading tests in public school gave me huge anxiety. I always did well on the vocab/multiple choice parts but often failed on the comprehension sections, I was so nervous and would lose concentration easily). Another thing, I think, was growing up in a rural farming community where (apart from my parents) there wasn't a lot of appreciation for people who "wasted their time" reading; those who did were often made to feel guilty. As a young adult--at least partly as a result of the above, I assume--I ended up being a horribly slow and tentative, even reluctant, reader. Regretfully, in my undergrad university literature courses I was smugly (and stupidly) satisfied that I could still pull off As and Bs without actually doing much of the reading. That changed a lot in grad school with the mountains of non-fiction/academic texts we had to cover. I actually really enjoyed putting the effort into reading and discussing those texts and, during that time, I barely looked at a novel or short story or poem. Once I started teaching, however, I met a lot of co-workers who were really into fiction reading; some of them were fiction writers, too. I'm SO grateful to them for leading me back to literature and for getting me involved in creative writing courses as well. Just a few years ago in one of those courses, a classmate introduced me to George's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain--which totally changed my way of reading fiction and my way of thinking about reading fiction (thank you George!). Although I am still a very slow reader, I am closer to becoming the voracious type I wish I could have been from the beginning. One thing I have found that really helps if/when the old feelings of anxiety/guilt--and the subsequent lack of concentration--creep in is to listen to the audiobook version of a text while reading along with the printed version at the same time. Of course it's not always possible if there is no audio version, and sometimes I've found the voices of the readers can be off-putting. Also, sometimes (although very rarely in my experience) the two versions don't always match up perfectly in terms of vocab, sentence structure, etc., and that can be distracting. But despite these glitches, having the audio-visual channels operating at once with the same focus seems to be (for me, anyway) a great way of getting deeply into a text.
Sorry, I just "liked" my own comment when I meant to hit "reply" so I could add this one further thought: I still prefer reading "on paper" most of the time, but one thing I do love about reading online is that every time I encounter vocabulary/ideas I'm not familiar with I can easily and quickly look them up. This is a well-ingrained "habit" of mine by now, and while it doesn't necessarily improve my chronically slow reading speed to any degree, I find it almost always enriches the reading experience by providing me with more images/clues for understanding and by removing that horribly insecure feeling I regularly have of not knowing what this or that word/phrase/reference means. Of course it's a practice that completely flies in the face of a lot of reading pedagogy--especially second-language reading pedagogy--but I find it an extremely reassuring and satisfying thing to do. I'm wondering if others have this "habit" as well and, if so, do you find it helpful or harmful to your reading?
Hi Annemarie, I too like reading the digital version of things for the ease of looking up words and phrases. And I’ve become so used to it that when I read on paper I sometimes touch the words, expecting a little menu to pop up and offer me a Lookup or Search. It always makes me smile, just how easily I have become used to expecting this feature from the world.
My writing work requires reading and research. Then, my paying job requires a significant amount of reading and writing (about very unpleasant things). What time I have left to read is mine, mine, mine and I have managed to maintain the same habits that I formed as a free range library child in that I read widely and whatever appeals.
Somehow I have four library cards; I also buy, order and borrow books.
My current challenge is that if I don’t read regularly the quality of my writing suffers, however if read too much, then I don’t have enough mental energy to write well. If I could quit my job, I’d have plenty of time to do both but those bills won’t pay themselves.
me choosing them. I identify as autistic so my “special interests” often dictate what I read. Some special interests are long standing and others are fleeting but I want to exhaust whatever subject/setting/author is obsessing me at the moment. As I get older I tend to read less contemporary fiction and more classic fiction. I often find myself underwhelmed by many extravagantly praised contemporary novels. Of course, I’ve often been underwhelmed by classic novels too (Dickens and Austen, for example, are just not my thing) but the success rate of recognized classics is much higher and time is fleeting. . Finally, I will read anything that a select few authors publish, e.g., Gary Shteyngart, Zadie Smith, and of course, George.
Yes Wim! What is it, I've often wondered, that draws my 👀, unerringly, to the 🎯 of a book cover or spine of the one book that will prove to be just the thing to read that I've - apparently - unknowingly been seeking rather than to any amongst the veritable multitude of venerable others? Could books have a hitherto telepathic talent to get on the write wavelength of readers more rather than less likely to relish reading them?
I'm team "read whatever gives you joy."
There will never be enough time to read all the things. Read what you love, learn from what you love.
It's great to be curious and go outside your comfort zone, but like, don't force yourself to read stuff you're 'supposed to' just because other people love it or its highly acclaimed or whatever. We don't all have the same taste in things, including the people who give out awards, and that's okay.
As I was writing this reply, it reminded me that I had an old newsletter post on this topic. https://open.substack.com/pub/sonalchampsee/p/why-does-insert-highly-regarded-writers
Glad to become aware of your Substack Sonal.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it!
I agree, but in looking at books on a table or shelf, how do you know what will bring you joy, or do you mean choosing by a genre or form you like?
Tap into your instincts. If you pick up a book, and you're not excited to read it, don't. Pick another.
If nothing excites you, try reading the first couple of chapters. If you you don't want to read more, this is probably not the book for you.
'Joy' might be an intimidating word, but basically, if you love reading it, read it. Hit up your local library and explore to see what else is out there without having to fork over too much $$
Yes and no. Some books are hard and challenging. The joy can sometimes come after persevering for more than two chapters. (Not always--but often enough.) And other times, a book that brought joy at first turns out to be a dud. A few of the stories George has given us are ones I probably would have never read before, or never finished. But then we begin the close observing of the masters. And everything changes. Hard to give advice to others on what or how to read, I think. I press books on others all of the time and they rarely read them. I am me and they are themselves. You just never know. Sometimes i'll say, look, at first you're not going to like this one, but hang in there! Wolf Hall, for instance. Thank God i hung in there as it is a masterpiece.
It's not that I love difficulty in fiction, but with Wolf Hall it was the difficulty that grew on me and kept me in there. Page after page I found I was thinking "Now let's go back over that paragraph or page", and on second reading things fleshed out, densified. Being obliged to revisit the twists and turns of Mantel's style led to a richer experience and now I'm sounding like a chocolate salesman so I'll stop.
My first try i had to quit after 50 pages because i couldn't figure out the narrator. Then, I tried again and finally had the A-ha! moment of understanding the POV voice. After that, all made sense and I read the book with absolute glee. That one is a wonder! But yes, the difficulty--I just HAD to get it!
I had a similar experience with Gravity's Rainbow fifty years ago. I thought the first fifty pages or so were great, and then the book faltered and I couldn't get past what I could not understand or appreciate. I must have tried ten times, which means I read those first fifty pages ten times and then stopped. The 11th time, I forced myself to keep going, and the book improved for me immeasurably, and while not as good as the beginning, it was still a great experience to read it completely. Similarly, Knaussgaards's My Struggle, while tedious and unnecessarily long, has opening pages that are some of the best writing I have ever read. It begins, "For the heart, life is simple: it beats for as long as it can. Then it stops." This section has little to do with the rest of the six volumes and thousands of pages. Very few people would have time to read all of them. I certainly don't (and didn't!). I do love reading new things, but when they begin to disinterest me I put them down. I feel I don't have time to waste on them. I return to old favorites, and each time I read something I have read and loved before, even if I have read it many times, I learn something new. I've said this before in this forum - rereading is a little like rewriting. One sees more each time. Stories are a different experience, easier to manage simply because they are short - one can spend the time necessary to get all the way through a story, even if it doesn't resonate at first. That doesn't mean they are less complex, or a lesser art form, not to me anyway. It seems that everyone I know (myself included) has less time for reading. After digesting the day's news, and worrying about it, and negotiating one's way through the world, reading becomes a luxury. This is not to say it's unnecessary - it just requires a commitment. So I have good intentions now that I have nearly retired, to read more and to do it every day, with the seriousness I brought to my work life.
Will I ever read Gravity's Rainbow? These are the kind of questions that haunt me
Fine, Mary. I will try Wolf Hall again! You don’t have to be so pushy. :)
Ha! (Hope you like it.....)
Just looked up Wolf Hall - on the reading list it goes! So interested in Cromwell and More.
That's true. But even in a challenging book, something needs to motivate us to keep turning pages, even if it's just to answer the question "What's the hype about?"
I've a feeling we are actually saying the same thing! Good to chat with you here, Sonal.
Agreed! Nice chatting with you as well!
Oh it was more of a query into the heavens than an asking for “how”? I’m rarely dissatisfied with my reading choices. Always something to glean. Thanks for the response, Sonal! I think we have the same outlook!
i know, Lee. Should have "replied" elsewhere as I was responding to Sonal, not you.
Oh I was responding to Sonal too, mary. My confusing responses
I just finished Wharton's The Age of Innocence, which I found in a free box in my neighborhood, and which I loved far more than I thought I would. Right before that, I read Everett Percival's Dr. No, which I thought I was going to love (like I did his book The Trees) and which I found as a remainder at Powells, the large bookstore near me, the book was okay, good enough to get through, but not something I loved, like the Wharton . You're right, it's tough to know what books will bring you joy. I don't think one can know until they've started to read the book, or maybe with some books halfway through the book.
Ah! That's the mystery Lee. 'Informed instinct' plays a role in teeing me up to decide 'I'll like that' or 'I won't like that'. Then there's the old opportunity cost to be factored in I guess (somewhere in the back rooms of my mind where Rob's Numb Skulls lurk and work away) keeping me alert to the danger that too many reads in too tight a timescale will likely be, well, numbing!
Rob's Numb Skull Elixir and Apothecary Cream has a nice ring to it..... or is it the sound of a snake rattle?
Rob's Preparations are guaranteed free of the least trace of snake oil.
Thanks, Sonal such good advice. I forget sometimes and obsess but thanks again.
Thanks for plucking my question from the slush pile, George. I loved reading all the responses. What I’m hearing from everyone is maybe it’s a good time to lighten up, ha! Obviously, this question was asked from an anxious place. I teach and edit and have too many hobbies, so it all fuels my TBR stack — oh, right, I’m also a fiction writer like many of you, so there’s the “books to fuel the project” pile. I simply have too many piles, and it’s hard to choose, and I get overwhelmed. Then there’s Black history month. And poetry month. And Gordon Lish’s Former Students Month. The Tyranny of Should, as it were—even when the “should” is concocted by my own brain—which I’m told I need to banish.
Don’t should on yourself!
I would wear that t-shirt.
No, you "should" wear that t-shirt!
I thought it was wee^^
banish the "should" but not your own brain.
Ah yes, very wise. 😉
Oops, sorry. Just found part one of the CBC Ideas program:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/think-reading-means-you-re-smart-think-again-1.5567821
Hey, this is great. Thanks for sharing!
A really good question and thanks for asking it. I can relate to what you said and hanker after the days when I could go into a bookshop and explore for hidden treasures. Now, when I go in, I tick off the books I’ve already read. This gives me some satisfaction knowing the bookseller has similar tastes but it does make finding the ‘treasure’ a little more difficult. In order to narrow down the choice of books I have succumbed to reading book reviews and seek out what I’m told is ‘the best’. I’m not complaining because I’m rarely disappointed.
On another note, outside school, I had never re-read a book until a few years ago. This was when I read a book for a book group and didn’t like it. I reread it only to discover it was brilliant (I had missed the point). So that drove me to reread some of the books I love and now the piles just grow bigger. I am grateful to be so spoiled for choice. Aren’t we lucky (if a little overwhelmed)?
Thanks for the wonderful question! Am also loving reading all the responses. I just recalled a three-part CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) "Ideas" program I heard a while ago that may (or may not) help to quell some of the anxiety/overwhelm experienced by those of us who often tend to put "should" and "read" in the same sentence. Unfortunately, I couldn't find part one, but here are the links to parts two and three:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/writers-explain-why-we-shouldn-t-worry-about-what-we-read-or-don-t-read-1.5604615
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/what-makes-us-read-literary-bright-lights-weigh-in-1.5627512
Thanks, these were both interesting articles.
Someone told me once that you should never "should on" yourself. I need the t-shirt!
It seems it is could..more times than not^^
https://open.spotify.com/track/465q3sYTxN7RFDGAbRoYU9
Great question! Kudos!
What a great question. Thank you to the Questioner!
I choose books to read from all kinds of sources. If my friend Lisa read a book and loved it, then I have to read that one almost immediately. We've been doing this since kindergarten and everyone should have such a friend! I’ve been known to—many, many times—choose a book by its cover. (I hit up the New Releases shelf at the library and will bring home a book that “looks good.”) I used to read books that friends had blurbed, but then I realized these friends could not be trusted. Blurbs aren’t real—they are favors for friends. I don’t read book reviews, but I will take a sideways glance through the Book Review at the NYTimes and sometimes a book will look like something I might like. I read new books by writers who have written other books I liked. I somehow always know what the “hot” new books are and I mostly avoid those. Some cannot be avoided, though, and I end up reading them. Sometimes I’ll read a book because it’s a huge bestseller and I want to know why. Those books usually suck. I read the classics I used to avoid when i was younger because there's a reason they are classics. Recently, I read Middlemarch and To the Lighthouse, and I’m currently reading War and Peace (with on online book group). HOW BORING IS THIS ARE YOU STILL READING?
I also read a few billion short stories every year. Or it feels like it.
Here’s the thing. I am, at this stage of life, well aware that there are only a finite number of books left for me to read in this lifetime. I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book? I try not to get too anxious about any of it, but it does provoke anxiety. Thankfully, I’m not really all THAT old, but I’m no spring chicken, either.
And so I read, mostly, for pleasure. If I start a book and I don’t like it, I no longer finish.
I feel for George who does not have time to read whatever he wants. Reading for other reasons can, in fact, be pleasurable, but it’s not the same as cracking open True Grit and just loving it. (Great book.)
Mary, I’m a hospice nurse and a lot of patients read at end of life if they can or listen to books on audio. Many RE-read old favorites as a comfort. Some order new books hot off the bestseller list. Full price they say because, why not. I have called libraries with bookmobiles to visit patient’s home so they can choose a few. It’s interesting what they choose. It tells a great deal about them. Although, I’ve had a few patients who were gifted books by friends and thrown against a wall, one patient saying “this book is %#$@ I’m not wasting what little time I have reading that crap” so there’s that. The authors would probably be mortified to know how many times I have seen that happen!
Ha! I love that--who has time for the things we don't have time for? I'm sure you've seen so many amazing things in your chosen career. I think I have a strange mind. Some days, I think of the finite times I will see a certain person again in my lifetime. Strange to think about, really. So the book idea--what books I will never read because life is too short--this is something I stupidly ponder.
I keep re-reading your sentence "I sometimes think of a dying person reading their very last book and what if it’s a shitty book?" There's a scary life metaphor there. Or a future prompt!
"You are on your deathbed with a book that you hope will give you your last literary thrill. It turns out to be Fifty Shades of Da Vinci. Describe the force of your feelings in 50 words."
It’s terrifying!
As a former cover designer, thank you for 'seeing' me!
I love a great book cover.
Funny and terrifying about reading the last book before you die. I never worried about that until the enormous list of stories, followed by the enormous list of books, as suggested here in SC. So much to read and so little time. An embarrassment of riches. A weight of almost unbearable insight and joy. OMG. Do I laugh? Do I cry? Just breathe, just breathe.....one after the other......Actually it has reminded me that I will never get through the list, that I must accept my limitations, that loss can also occur amidst plenty....
It doesn't matter, Kurt. Really. Enjoy what is in front of you. And . . . .
There’s so much we’ll never get to do…
Oh god, the last book before dying. I've been recently chewing over the thought-exercise of 'If you had one last year/month/day to live in good health, how would you spend it?'. It's a question I'm finding both existential and grounding. But after your post I've mentally updated the exercise to 'If you had one last year/month/day to live, what would you read?' and I feel such PANIC. My soul is secure; my reading list is not.
'My soul is secure; my reading list is not'
Made my day
I hear you.
Apart from ‘how to’ books etc to improve my craft, which I really enjoy, I too read mostly short stories at the moment, Mary. I’ve made up my mind it’s a form I want to get competent at, and so I reckon reading as many good ones as possible is a good idea. It’s also a form where there is enough time to read one or two recommended ones that aren’t so great, and see what the fuss is about, without wasting too much time - although obviously you never know that till you’re already way in!
I didn't mean to imply that I read mostly short stories. I don't! I read mostly books--both fiction and nonfiction. But I also read short stories! And it feels like i read a lot of them.
Oh, right, gotcha! Very impressive that you manage to read lots of books, too. I think I’m the slowest in my friendship group, who all seem to have read two or three new ones, at least, whenever we meet up. Definitely have a lot of guilt on that score!
Merrie: No guilt! And really, not so impressive. I think I'm giving off the wrong impression. I read maybe 30 books a year (all the way through)? I get tons of nonfiction from the library and sort of poke through them. (Philosophy, history, psychology, etc.) I don't read every word in those kinds of books. And short stories--well, I do read a lot of them but probably not as many as you think. (I realize I wrote before that i read a ga-billion of them, but that was a crazy exaggeration. I do read a lot of flash fiction, but those take five minutes to read, if that.) So don't be impressed by me. And don't feel guilty!!!
My best friend and I used to play a game: pick ten books to be stranded with on a desert island. We debated whether the collected works of Shakespeare could count as one book. We decided they did because we just wanted them them all. She always chose the Bible. I rarely did. The other nine books have waxed and waned over the years but it’s a really fun exercise to see not only what books I’ve loved, but what books I’d want to reread. West with the night by Beryl Markham is definitely on my list as is The Sea by John Banville because it is so gorgeously written. I just reread it this week and I know I will reread it again.
it's been so long since i read West with the Night but i remember loving it! I'll have to pick it up again. And yes, The Sea!
Christine you list two books I put high on my list. ( I just read The Sea.) In this particular cohort I'd add A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes and Stoner by John Williams. There are so many gems that don't get enough exposure.
Beryl had a sister who was an electric wire too...Zap!^^
I read Markham’s letters and then I understood why people had questioned whether she had actually written West with the night. The style and vocabulary are completely different. The writer of those letters in my humble opinion was not the writer of that gorgeous book.
It was Hemingway that raved about her writing..that got her noticed^^
Yes, yes--that controversy! I remember feeling a bit devastated by those claims. But--in the end--I thought she was cleared..? Maybe not. Oh dear, I feel a deep dive coming on.
She was cleared..false claims of an angry X husband^^
She had a skill to go through men like a knife through soft butter^^
Yes to the Banville!
On Middlemarch etc, when I was 30 I read this brutal comment about John Cheever: he got his reading done early.
Arrrgh! I hadn't got much if any serious reading done and here I was, ancient already.
So, I spent the next couple of years trying to get my own reading done: Middlemarch, Moby Dick, Brothers Karamazov, Iliad, Gravity's Rainbow, The Oresteia... and so on.
It was completely worth it and a total waste of time.
It was like watching a storm from a distance: spectacular, beautiful, terrifying, incomprehensible, and if it was truly felt at all it was felt in my gut not in my head and too much for my heart to hold.
So, I guess I am grateful and furious that I read this crushing phrase as early and as late in my life as I did.
And, I HAVE STILL NOT GOT MY READING DONE, which is a great joy and a deflating failure to apprehend.
this bit of An interview about reading w Fran Leibovitz, and she was saying Oprah got a lot of people to read- which was great- but the way they were being taught to read Fran did not approve of, the idea of ‘looking for yourself’ in the book, Leibovitz said, ‘ where’s the Fran in Moby Dick, Theres no Fran in Moby Dick, ( something like that) and I started thinking how great it would’ve been if theyre had been.
Moby Dick could’ve used a Fran in it : )
i have still not got my reading done. Yes, a great joy, really! But a deflating failure? Too hard on your sweet self, Niall.
I'm giving True Grit a try.
Thanks.
It's funny you mention Middlemarch. That book took me ages (my then-girlfriend-now-wife bought me a congratulatory card when I finished) and it did feel like a sludge at some points. But once I finished I looked at it and realized it was one of the best books I've ever read. (Though I'm in no rush to reread it just yet.)
that's definitely the way it goes sometimes. You kind of force your way through and when you're done you realize it was fantastic!
Excellent thoughts Mary! I’m reading War and Peace too in a zoom group with an English prof. I never wanted to read it until this year. I think it’s because we did Tolstoy here in Story Club and I read A Swim in the Pond and he just won me over.
I was always a wild animal type reader. I couldn’t be tamed reading only what I felt like reading. Except when I’m with a teacher I respect and the teacher says read this! Then I’m compliant.
Love this!
A plug for lit mags! I rarely ever read (let alone subscribed to) literary magazines in the past, which feels silly to admit for someone who has submitted stories to well over a hundred of them in the past couple years. I suppose I was always saving that precious reading time for the classics and/or for recommendations I felt were higher priority than whatever stories wound up in the pages of "[X] Quarterly Review." This must be a pervasive attitude since, I never hear wholehearted endorsements of specific publications, even from mfa students/graduates who have worked on them. Recently though I've been making a conscious effort to subscribe to (and read) more literary magazines, starting with some bigger ones (One Story, Paris Review, The Point, Electric Lit). A couple months in, I've come to realize how mistaken I was! Even while maintaining a steady book reading habit, most of my favorite reading experiences of the past two months have come from my recent magazine issues. I only wish there were more people talking about these stories with the same passion and investment as we often do with new HBO shows or Sally Rooney novels. Where are the secondary channels on the latest issue of The Paris Review or One Story?! After all, part of the promise of literary magazines is the community generated around them, right? I'm hoping to find more of that communal reading experience in the next year. Looking to change my habits up a bit!
LitHub!
I’m here mostly as a reader, not a writer, so it’s a perfect question for me. I keep a note on my phone and write down every book I see/hear/read about that I want to read, and look at that if nothing from my “pile” by the bed is grabbing me. I read most of the classics when I was younger, I’m very interested in the ideas of “canon” and what is considered such and why. I’m very interested in translations, and getting to know other cultures through their literature. I sometimes am on a geography swing where I read a whole bunch of books from a certain area, like Saudi Arabia, or China, books about these cultures and places (non fiction) and books by authors from those places in translation. Funnily (for this venue) have an an aversion to short stories, and almost never choose them, though I have been more I soured by this group. After ‘big reads’ (literary, effort full, or long) I sometimes read a few “amuse bouche” books like mysteries or fantasy or YA. I too read almost exclusively before bed (usually for an hour or 90 minutes) except when on vacation, where I might read all day long (I finished the amazing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr each in a day because I could not put them down). I love love love books and I’m so grateful to writers for the escape they give us. One of the great heartbreaks is when an author you love dies, and you know they will never create another word or world for you. Toni Morrison. Ursula LeGuin. AS Byatt. 💔
I'm also a canon reader and interested in the discussion of what makes it into the canon and what doesn't.. who decides. I spent a year and a half of joy working among the books in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale - in the literature section, running into all the great classics "with introduction by Harold Bloom," right before he died. Knowing his work from grad school, I started reading his intros. One of them said "I spent last week rereading Faulkner" -- Ummm he read ALL of Faulkner in a week! Astounding! His influence on the canon is outmatched of course. I've read a great deal of the classics, and I return to them all the time - they really do hold up. I wish I had time to study them.
Just reading Ursula K. LeGuin's 'Steering the Craft" an AMAZING book about writing craft, second only to this one guy I read, something about swimming and ponds and rain. ;-)
Yes on "Steering the craft."
Hah! Love that book about ponds and swimming and rain. That guy is really insightful and a phenomenal teacher
Steering the Craft is one of the best books I've ever read about writing. Up there with Pond.
'Into the Woods' by John Yorke is another great read to steer your reading raft towards if you haven't come across way back up stream Lee.
A recent read on the block that I've found a pithy, pointed, purposeful read (twice already) is Tim Lott's "Yes! No! But! Wait!"
And, in an amazingly short order given that it was sourced from the USA mere days ago, on first glimpse and glance the arrival of a very good second hardback copy of 'Creating Fiction' mentioned in Story Club very recently looks likely to be an addition to my bookshelves that will stay the course . . . instructive insights on this malarkey we call writing and are ever coming to know a little better, by and by, here in Story Club.
*i have been reading more short stories because of this group!
First one to complete the list wins a free t-shirt! Right, George? :)
Me too
The idea of ‘canon’ was always very interesting to me as well. I’ve been a huge reader since I was very young (my mom still tells the embarrassing story of how, when I was being potty trained, I used to sit on my little potty until the pile of books in the unread pile had moved to the read pile - these were likely picture books but you get the point). When I was a kid I read whatever fell into my hands and enjoyed it immensely. But when I finished high school I realized I wanted more from my reading experience. I wanted to read what the characters in my favorite books were reading - Austen, Brontë, Woolf, even Shakespeare - I wanted an intellectually curated reading list. I also realized I wouldn’t be able to curate such a list without some help. So I took up a degree in English literature. My reason was: tell me what else to read. I wanted my reading to have the gatekeepers’ approval stamp, or in other words, to discover the canon. Now I have a Masters Degree with a thesis, all because I wanted a reading list 😂
Adi, Harvard Classics were made for you!
Loved this!
I have fallen in love with the writings of Irish women.
Love their prose. Such texture.
I should move. Perhaps in the next (past?) life.
Hey! Same here, I found myself mostly reading contemporary novels by Irish women. It's hard to explain why they are so good. Do you have any recommendations I might have missed?
I hope you don't mind my jumping in here, Ansuya, because you asked Elizabeth & not me, but I'm a devotee of things Irish and would suggest, for the immediate, Mary O'Donoghue's "The Hour After Happy Hour" and "The End of the World is a Cul de Sac", by Louise Kennedy, plus anything by Mary Lavin or Maeve Brennan. Plus a subscription to the lit mag "Stinging Fly" (the name taken from a line from Plato). There's also a wonderful anthology that a friend of mine brought back from Ireland called "The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories", ed, Sinead Gleeson, the "art of the glimpse" taken from William Trevor's definition of the short story.
Adding Aingeala Flannery's The Amusements and Anne Enright's The Wren The Wren as recent favs by Irish women. :) So good!
I just ordered Louise Kennedy s book of short stories! Thanks for jumping in!
Saltwater by Jessica Andrews is one I would recommend as well, and Naoise Dolan.
Thanks for these, Ansuya!
Thanks for the recs! I’m also in love with Irish writers for some reason.. a love affair that began with Joyce in college but has since moved on to Edna O’Brien, Sally Rooney and many others.
Wow thank you! Yes, I love Louise Kennedy and Maeve Brennan too! I thought Caroline O’Donoghue’s ‘the Rachel affair’ was charming and funny as well.
thank you--can't wait
Audrey Magee
The Colony Audrey Magee
Fantastic
oh yes!
They will run you to the ground...So says The Dark Horse!^^
As a journalist who covers books and culture (among other things), I have the terrible privilege to submerge myself in books on any given day. Here's what I do, (please don't try this):
1. For work, I oscillate between old books of journalism, whether it be Hemingway's war reporting, Didion's essays, or more recent inside-baseball sorts of books, like "She Said." This helps keep me sharp, and also reinforces my crippling anxiety/self-worth, which in turn forces me to work harder thereby helping me file articles on deadline hoping my editor realizes she's holding my soul in her hands (jk—kinda). These are kept by my desk and flipped through whenever I need a kick in the pants, or looking for an idea on how someone much more skilled than me tackled a sentence, subject, etc.
2. I have my "wakeup and smell the existential dread" audiobook that I listen to as I open up the house, guzzle my first coffee, and generally surface from sleep. These books are your proudly mid books, the ones that you don't necessarily want to clog your shelves, but are easy enough to follow, even as you low-key disassociate while emptying dishwasher. For example, I just finished "The Maid," chef's kiss.
3. Next is my "sit in the sun and watch people walk their dogs" books. Here is where I feel most heroic. These are mostly ambitious books: your prize winners, the debut darlings, the things I need to have at least one cup of coffee in my system before cracking open. For the rest of the day, I chase this sense of misguided grandeur and elation.
4. I have to keep up! I have the brutal challenge to limp through the advance copies that threaten my mailman's sciatica on any given day. Now, with two cups of coffee in my system, hopefully some sort of exercise out of the way, and a third caffeinated beverage by my side, I begin the real work: the close read. I carve out about 2-3 hours, depending how late I am on a deadline, the state of my inbox, etc. to read something that seems especially promising or is relevant to an assignment I'm either pitching or working on. I underline and highlight and make notes in the margins. When the post-its come out, you know it's really singing.
5. I'm a big fan of book podcasts to learn about new authors and new-to-me authors. I like to listen to these on runs, attacking a jigsaw puzzle, and folding laundry. Oh, and BookTok.
OMG. I'm exhausted! Liz, you are a warrior!
terrible privilege indeed!
Check out the Natural^^
Interesting structuration that your reading / listening habits weave into your typical day Liz.
I'm minded to take a mosey out over the ether to your 'Gasoline Books' . . .
The last book I read was also the first book to bring me real joy in a long time, which was A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (and is what led me to this substack!) I completely resonate with this question because each year I try to curate my personal reading list to deepen my understanding of the world. I try to read a biography, a history, a translated work, etc. But reading with that purpose is hard work. The magic happens when I feel my world expanding when I’m reading AND also can’t put the book down because it’s so enjoyable and fun.
Wait until you swim in a pond in the rain^^
And binge on gooseberries.
Strawberries and cream is more my thing and in the Spring^^
I am trying to read alphabetically the fiction section of my local library. It has been about 2 years, about 40 books, and utter joy. I am delighted to report how much amazing fiction is out there. The only down side is that no one wants to join the project and a lot of the books are obscure so I don't find many people to discuss them with. I am still happily wading in the A section, from there I can highly recommend The Arsonist's City by Hala Alayan, Jamie Attenberg's All this Could be Yours, Aktar Ayad's Homeland Elegies.
OMG Sarah what a project! That sounds like something I would decide to do in my teens or twenties, before kids and career took over all my time… more power to you!
In all honesty, it came from loving being exposed to new books at book club and now it seems like work/kids have taken over! It is a very compassionate experiment. I have no pressure on myself, totally motivated by curiosity not deadlines. If I don't like a book after 30 pages I move on!
Jami's new craft book--1000 Words--is def worth a look.
wow
Since I retired from my job as a university professor in 2020, I read less in my academic subject (philosophy) and more fiction but also history. I try to read in French a fair bit, alternating between classics (Balzac!) and recent novels, and then the same basic pattern in English. I’ve been doing more re-reading since joining Story Club and I’m starting to appreciate how valuable this is: 3 runs though Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day gave me so much more insight. I read before bed, but try to give myself an hour from 5-6.
Try Balzac's short story..I love the Red Inn^^
Thanks!
My reading time and habits changes every year, and I do my best to be content when they do. I often read before bed, although I'm currently teaching my children the classics and going back to re-read (young reader) versions of the Odyssey and others is fun. It makes me want to read the originals too.
I'm doing the same with poetry, as my children have a goal of memorizing a poem a month in our homeschool. My dream would be to learn enough Persian to read Rumi in his original language, but that dream sits much like your reading year, George.
I find that when a book piques my interest, I immediately buy it. That way I don't have to keep a list, and I have an ever-expanding shelf of "read next" options. Once a year or so I go through them and books I've read, and I donate books that no longer fit with my interests or just don't call to me anymore. The local library or Goodwill or our local neighborhood library enjoy these donations. All in all, as long as I'm reading (and I always seem to be), I'm happy. Whether it's for inspiration, for pleasure, for learning, or all of the above.
I once taught a class called "Road Trip!" that attracted a lot of Kerouac fans. The reading list was primarily road trip novels of American Lit. But I included "The Odyssey" to set the stage for our journey motif. This was a required sophomore level lit class. When I polled the students at the end of the class to see which books they liked the best (some great ones - Huck Finn, Lolita, Grapes of Wrath, Wizard of Oz, and more..), they overwhelming chose "The Odyssey" as their favorite. Shows you the power of the classics. I would not have bet that. I stay away from Vegas. :)
This post reminds me that all those free little libraries are a great place to look for one's next book!
They truly are. Sometimes I find unknown gems in there that our city library and our university library don’t have access to. It’s a treasure trove.
You are lucky. Here in Los Angeles I find a lot of James Patterson.
That may not have been the driving reason for me to leave Los Angeles, but it reminds me I made the right choice. I have ended up in Bozeman and find this to be more supportive of weird literary rabbit holes in the local neighborhood libraries.
Ha! I love Los Angeles! This is--not joke--a cultural wonderland full of creative people from all walks of life. I do understand loving Bozeman, though.
I grew up in a different part of LA, more industrial, less creative. I joined the navy a few months after 9/11 and never moved back. I don't want to raise my children there anymore, even though for years I thought I wanted to write and direct movies. We visit once a year, and oh how I miss the ocean, the marine layer, a beer at Neptune's Net, or many of my old favorite places, but something about being in the mountains and away from it all captured me.
Yes! And the giveaway shelves at campgrounds and also recycling centers in our small New England towns
I read the books Barack Obama recommends. The Bee Sting is the best thing I have read in a long time. A big, juicy character-driven novel.
Do you read all or selected recommendation from Barack's Book Bin?
Mmm . . . we've got a talk lined up in the months ahead on Honey . . . maybe I'll check out The Bee Sting . . . for something completely different?
I read the things I’m interested in. But I do start with his list when choosing my next book.
Kathleen, I’m listening to The Bee Sting. Wow.
I listened to it as well. I envy your Bee Sting virginity.
A lovely email to receive!
I have never been a voracious reader, even though my mom taught my sister and I to read when we were each around three years old. I think school had something to do with it--those standardized reading tests in public school gave me huge anxiety. I always did well on the vocab/multiple choice parts but often failed on the comprehension sections, I was so nervous and would lose concentration easily). Another thing, I think, was growing up in a rural farming community where (apart from my parents) there wasn't a lot of appreciation for people who "wasted their time" reading; those who did were often made to feel guilty. As a young adult--at least partly as a result of the above, I assume--I ended up being a horribly slow and tentative, even reluctant, reader. Regretfully, in my undergrad university literature courses I was smugly (and stupidly) satisfied that I could still pull off As and Bs without actually doing much of the reading. That changed a lot in grad school with the mountains of non-fiction/academic texts we had to cover. I actually really enjoyed putting the effort into reading and discussing those texts and, during that time, I barely looked at a novel or short story or poem. Once I started teaching, however, I met a lot of co-workers who were really into fiction reading; some of them were fiction writers, too. I'm SO grateful to them for leading me back to literature and for getting me involved in creative writing courses as well. Just a few years ago in one of those courses, a classmate introduced me to George's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain--which totally changed my way of reading fiction and my way of thinking about reading fiction (thank you George!). Although I am still a very slow reader, I am closer to becoming the voracious type I wish I could have been from the beginning. One thing I have found that really helps if/when the old feelings of anxiety/guilt--and the subsequent lack of concentration--creep in is to listen to the audiobook version of a text while reading along with the printed version at the same time. Of course it's not always possible if there is no audio version, and sometimes I've found the voices of the readers can be off-putting. Also, sometimes (although very rarely in my experience) the two versions don't always match up perfectly in terms of vocab, sentence structure, etc., and that can be distracting. But despite these glitches, having the audio-visual channels operating at once with the same focus seems to be (for me, anyway) a great way of getting deeply into a text.
Sorry, I just "liked" my own comment when I meant to hit "reply" so I could add this one further thought: I still prefer reading "on paper" most of the time, but one thing I do love about reading online is that every time I encounter vocabulary/ideas I'm not familiar with I can easily and quickly look them up. This is a well-ingrained "habit" of mine by now, and while it doesn't necessarily improve my chronically slow reading speed to any degree, I find it almost always enriches the reading experience by providing me with more images/clues for understanding and by removing that horribly insecure feeling I regularly have of not knowing what this or that word/phrase/reference means. Of course it's a practice that completely flies in the face of a lot of reading pedagogy--especially second-language reading pedagogy--but I find it an extremely reassuring and satisfying thing to do. I'm wondering if others have this "habit" as well and, if so, do you find it helpful or harmful to your reading?
Hi Annemarie, I too like reading the digital version of things for the ease of looking up words and phrases. And I’ve become so used to it that when I read on paper I sometimes touch the words, expecting a little menu to pop up and offer me a Lookup or Search. It always makes me smile, just how easily I have become used to expecting this feature from the world.
My writing work requires reading and research. Then, my paying job requires a significant amount of reading and writing (about very unpleasant things). What time I have left to read is mine, mine, mine and I have managed to maintain the same habits that I formed as a free range library child in that I read widely and whatever appeals.
Somehow I have four library cards; I also buy, order and borrow books.
My current challenge is that if I don’t read regularly the quality of my writing suffers, however if read too much, then I don’t have enough mental energy to write well. If I could quit my job, I’d have plenty of time to do both but those bills won’t pay themselves.
Neat turning of a memorable phrase Marina. A picture painted in four words that will stick . . . 'free range library child' . . . delightful!
I find that books often choose me, rather than
me choosing them. I identify as autistic so my “special interests” often dictate what I read. Some special interests are long standing and others are fleeting but I want to exhaust whatever subject/setting/author is obsessing me at the moment. As I get older I tend to read less contemporary fiction and more classic fiction. I often find myself underwhelmed by many extravagantly praised contemporary novels. Of course, I’ve often been underwhelmed by classic novels too (Dickens and Austen, for example, are just not my thing) but the success rate of recognized classics is much higher and time is fleeting. . Finally, I will read anything that a select few authors publish, e.g., Gary Shteyngart, Zadie Smith, and of course, George.
Yes Wim! What is it, I've often wondered, that draws my 👀, unerringly, to the 🎯 of a book cover or spine of the one book that will prove to be just the thing to read that I've - apparently - unknowingly been seeking rather than to any amongst the veritable multitude of venerable others? Could books have a hitherto telepathic talent to get on the write wavelength of readers more rather than less likely to relish reading them?