Oh dear.
I have always been an avid reader. Now why have I lost the ability to concentrate on challenging books?
Having enjoyed AS Byatt's 'The Children's Book', I have just tried 'Possession' and got stuck in a tedious intellectual mire of 2 academics reading the letters of 2 Victorian poets. These were letters about religion, myth, poetry, philosophy. No, no, no, no .....
Having enjoyed several William Faulkner books (even 'The Sound and the Fury' which is notoriously challenging) I have abandoned 'The Reivers' because I just wasn't interested in the story getting off the ground.
Even my in-car audio reading is in a desperate state! I have abandoned a biography of Coco Chanel (what on earth made me pick it up in the first place?!) because I couldn't find myself interested in anything she thought or did.
So - I am currently listening to Ben Elton's 'Chart-Throb' in the car - am on the last CD, so will finish it and report back. Am reading this because it was the only audio-book in a recent visit to an Oxfam shop.
I have just started reading (real book not audio) a William Boyd - 'Restless' - because my other half rates William Boyd, and also because in a recent article in the Guardian Brenda Blethyn the actress chose William Boyd as one of her guests, along with Timothy & Mrs Spall and Charles Dickens, at an imaginary dinner party. I love Brenda as an actress but whether she can be relied on for author recommendations, I don't yet know. I'll let you know.
I have always been an avid reader. Now why have I lost the ability to concentrate on challenging books?
- Is it that I have my brain cluttered with other things?
- Is it because we have moved house recently and it is taking me a while to settle with the dust?
- Is it because, having got older, I am less likely to stick with books that aren't immediately and obviously rewarding (on the premise that life is too short)?
- Is it because I am not making space or time to read?
Having enjoyed AS Byatt's 'The Children's Book', I have just tried 'Possession' and got stuck in a tedious intellectual mire of 2 academics reading the letters of 2 Victorian poets. These were letters about religion, myth, poetry, philosophy. No, no, no, no .....
Having enjoyed several William Faulkner books (even 'The Sound and the Fury' which is notoriously challenging) I have abandoned 'The Reivers' because I just wasn't interested in the story getting off the ground.
Even my in-car audio reading is in a desperate state! I have abandoned a biography of Coco Chanel (what on earth made me pick it up in the first place?!) because I couldn't find myself interested in anything she thought or did.
So - I am currently listening to Ben Elton's 'Chart-Throb' in the car - am on the last CD, so will finish it and report back. Am reading this because it was the only audio-book in a recent visit to an Oxfam shop.
I have just started reading (real book not audio) a William Boyd - 'Restless' - because my other half rates William Boyd, and also because in a recent article in the Guardian Brenda Blethyn the actress chose William Boyd as one of her guests, along with Timothy & Mrs Spall and Charles Dickens, at an imaginary dinner party. I love Brenda as an actress but whether she can be relied on for author recommendations, I don't yet know. I'll let you know.
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