Hello, welcome to my blog

Mostly you will find, here, transcribed entries from the secret diary that I used to keep as a teenager between 1970 and 1975. I try to be honest with my transcriptions, but, just occasionally I do edit, to protect myself or others from embarrassment or some other emotion.
Also, though, I like to do a brief review of the books I have been reading, so these are interspersed throughout. I reserve the right to write blog entries, also, about other random things.
Why do I keep this blog? I don't know. I am an academic and one of my research interests is around how people construct their own identities. The diary transcriptions, and what I write about my books, are very much about revealing something of my identity.

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Salman Rushdie - Currently reading . . .

I'm currently reading 'Midnight's Children' by Salman Rushdie. Phew. It's the first one of his books that I've read and I'm having to make myself persevere.
I'm over a third of the way through now, so I'll finish it. It is getting easier, but it has taken me till now to get drawn into the story. I think it's important to work hard to finish it, because it is reckoned to be a great book, and the effort I put in might be repaid. It has felt like work, rather than pleasure, though, up until now.
His story-telling is full of diversions and detail, and references to anticipated future events, and recollections of past events so that it can take several pages to tell of one small incident. When you are reading a book do you ever think you might be a bit dumb, or incompetent, if you are finding it difficult? I do. But then, when I am marking students' essays, or reviewing papers, if I find myself having difficulty understanding them, I have to decide whether it is their writing style, or my inability to process what they are writing. Maybe sometimes there is just a mismatch between style and preferred style.
Never mind Salman. I will persevere. I think I am learning to appreciate you.
Only another 412 pages to go.

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