Saturday, August 19, 2006

Book-Lists; when you can't read you can list

How I long to read. I see the lists of bedtime reading on others' lists; the books read again again and again; the book being read NOW; the book discussions of your ubiqitous Reading-Groups. Is it only me? why can't I find time to read? Why can't I stay awake at night? Why can't I find a spare hour, fifteen minutes even? Why can't I split into multiple identities - or start a Second Life? And in that virtual existence begin a virtual Reading-Group - then there'd be no excuse. Books - notably new fiction are gathering on shelves, coffee-tables, window-sills, every spare surface - from book-shops, free offers in book-clubs, charity shops, e-bay auctions, Amazon UK.

Anyway as I can't seem to escape into the childhood-mode or guilty pleasure of the reading haven I'm going to start a list here of books-I-long-to-read - perhaps on that never never day when I'm on that desert island with no pen, or computer to write and research texts-of-the-past on - which others will possibly never never read. I'll also use wonderful blogs such as
dovegreyreaderscribbles and The Book Bar to keep informed!

And a not-yet-read book to start with .... The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud
Or ....
The Ice Queen, by Alice Hoffman, in which the narrator's Grandmother seems to have a similar problem:

"Our house was littered with books - in the kitchen, under the beds, stuck between the couch pillows - far too many for her to ever finish. I thought if my grandmother kept up her interests she wouldn't die; she'd have to stay around to finish the books she was so fond of"


And no, I haven't read The Ice Queen but just absorbed one or two Visual-Bites from the book featured in newbooks.

2 comments:

  1. Another Devon blog, how lovely to find a kindred spirit here in the South West!

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