I was going to share a few goodies from my library book pile, but I feel sort of guilty about them as I know far more will go back unread than read. Somehow it seems like cheating to tell you how wonderful they look and how much I want to read them (and they do look wonderful and I do want to read them), and then not actually manage to do so. Ah, the neverending library book dilemma. But perhaps I'll share them later and tempt someone else with them. And then you can come back and tell me how wonderful they are and that I really should read them.
Tonight is my last literature class. While I know the students who are taking it for credit (I was only auditing) are happy to be wrapping things up, I have to say I am going to feel a little bereft (is that silly? but it's true) on Tuesday nights. It opened up an entirely new world for me--a literature from a part of the world I had been woefully ignorant). It will be nice to have another free evening and not to have such a long day (I feel like I barely get home, eat something and get my things ready for another day of work before I must turn around a few hours later and start all over again with barely a moment to relax), but I enjoyed the class immensely and would do it all over again in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact I am going to just that. I'll be taking another literature class next semester, but more about it later. And I really do plan on sharing the books I read this fall for my current class. I suspect a few might just end up in my favorite reads list of the year.
I'm now in countdown mode for the upcoming holiday break. I both want time to slow down (I am not in the least ready for the holiday) and hurry up (all those empty hours to fill, and many of them will be filled with reading!). I was thinking to myself that I will just continue on with my current reads and won't have anything new to share reading-wise, but then it struck me that I actually am contemplating which books to pick up next since I very recently finished a couple.
I realize this is a constant theme with me, but here goes. I know we all have this problem (in some fashion or another). I have a number of gaping holes when it comes to my reading. It isn't just a matter of not enough time to read all I want to read (though that is indeed part of it), but in how I select the books I read. Not through a lack of desire or shortage of reading material on my shelves, but somehow I never reach for certain types books. I think I read good books and in a variety of genres, but I rarely seem to pick up contemporary literary fiction. That's not entirely true (all the books I read for my class fall squarely into that category), but I have in mind books that everyone else seems to be reading and talking about now, or authors everyone else seems to have read. I read about them and then wonder, hmm, where have I been lately and what exactly have I been reading?
Award winners for example. Recent Booker Prize winners or Orange (Bailey's) winners, or Nobel or Putlitzer, or just authors who are admired and well known--people like (am pulling names out of the air here) Anne Tyler or Philip Roth or Marilynne Robinson or Jane Smiley. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I have read not a single book (well, excluding Marilynne Robinson whose first book I read years and years ago and loved) by these writers. And I have lots and lots of authors I could add to that list. I often read reviews of their books and it dawns on me I have yet to read 'X'. I'd start a master list of those authors who I must read to fill in that gaping hole except it would be so long I might end up feeling defeated even before I began chipping away at it. And then there are those readers (who I admire immensely) who have not only read X's latest book but most of their oeuvre and can compare and contrast.
I will continue reading the variety of books I read, but I am going to try and make a conscious effort to add into the mix authors and books who are being written about and talked about and awarded prizes. I realize that none of the above necessarily assures the book will be better than anything else I read but I think that there are a lot of really worthy books I am overlooking that I have in my reading piles and that I need to pick up more often.
I mentioned that I finished two books and am ready to choose two new books. The other is a classic. I have also read fewer classics in the last couple of years than previously. I finished Thomas Hardy and now it is time to pick something new.
So to those ends . . . I have been contemplating potential reads. I know literary fiction is one of those elusive terms that is hard to explain but that we all seem to know who might fall into that category. I am thinking right now about Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, Nicole Krauss's The History of Love, or maybe something by Jane Smiley. Or maybe I will go to my shelves and begin scanning. Maybe Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or Zadie Smith? Or maybe someone else altogether.
For classics I should pick up (again) Isaac Bashevis Singer's Enemies, A Love Story and finish it. Or I might read something by Willa Cather or L.M. Montgomery or Evelyn Waugh. Part of my problem is I am overwhelmed by choice and can't manage to pick one book and stick with it. Maybe I should write down ten titles on little pieces of paper and randomly pick? It's easiest when I have a specific book in mind, otherwise I dither and waste time thinking about what to read next.
My task for the week is to make a choice and stick with it. Next time I check in here I will let you know how things turned out!