I've discovered that I love reading essays, and one of the things I wanted to do this year was read an essay a week and then write something about it. In part this keeps me honest--if I know I have a set day to post on my essay reading, I will indeed read an essay, but also it's a nice record to have when later on I want to refresh my memory about what I've read. The thing is I'm feeling a little stressed at the moment and am not up to reading an essay just now, so will put it off a bit. I am trying to be better at giving myself leave to not do something I don't necessarily feel like doing (without any accompanying guilt), as there are already plenty of things in life that I don't get that option to opt out of.
Strangely I am very much in the mood to read short stories. There was a time when the mention of short stories would only elicit a groan (well, inwardly anyway) out of me. I'm not sure what happened. One year I read a short story a week and found I loved them (well, maybe not every story I read, but the format). All of a sudden I feel like revisiting a few favorites. So I found the anthology in the library that contains Truman Capote's Miriam, pulled out my own copy of the collection of stories that contains Elizabeth Taylor's A Red Letter Day, Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party, and the photocopy I made of Mollie Panter-Downes's What Are the Wild Waves Saying? found in Minnnie's Room. I plan on tucking into some of these this weekend or in the near future. I've actually skimmed my shelves and have a little stack of short story collections (Daphne du Maurer being one of my favorite short story writers) or anthologies. And I've even started reading the Earth volume of Oxfam's Ox Tales, which I will have to tell you about sometime soon.
Mostly, though, I'm reading lots of really good books. I'm finding it hard to settle on one, but only because so many of them are calling out to me to pick them up. Anna Karenina is still going with me on the bus every morning and evening. Yesterday I made the great mistake of also taking along The Brothers of Gwynedd by Edith Pargeter and Dorothy Whipple's Someone at a Distance. I say 'mistake' only because they are all hefty books. Anna K and the Pargeter are both over 800 pages! The thing is Anna K is my daily read irregardless, and I just don't want to put down the Whipple, but I really need to get moving on the Pargeter.
Edith Pargeter's The Brothers of Gwynedd is an historical fiction novel, set in Medieval Wales and I've been really looking forward to it. So I tried several times this week to begin reading (it's an ARE, and I need to have the first book--there are four books in the novel--read in less than two weeks now--talk about procrastination), but was finding the prose style totally impenetrable. It didn't help that I would always pick it up right before bedtime. It's a big book and slightly unwieldy, which means I don't try and read it on the treadmill and haven't been lugging it to work. I'm glad I brought it with me, however, as it took some reading, but all of a sudden it started making sense and a story was emerging that I could follow with interest. I was starting to have visions of really dry history for some 800 odd pages and how would I ever manage to get through it all? I won't be taking it to work with me normally, but now I have a start and it will hopefully go more smoothly.
As for Dorothy Whipple, I am trying very hard to find something in Louise Lanier's personality or life history that I can feel sympathy for. Mostly, though, I am feeling sympathy for everyone else who crosses her path. I'm about a fourth of the way through the novel, so it's still early days. The thing is the North's are such a nice, normal, middle class sort of family. I already know the novel is about adultery, so is there just a maliciousness in Louise that makes her do what she does? I like that Whipple has been telling the story from Louise's point of view as well; she's quite adept at forming her characters very carefully and truthfully.
My reading pile at the moment is not limited to only these--I'm reading some excellent crime novels as well, but I think I'll save them for another post later on. As for this weekend, I need to pick one book and stick with it, so I can start making a dent in my reading stack! I have books all over the place with their bookmarks at the halfway point or beyond, so I need to find some time to finally finish them.
Happy weekend reading everyone.