I've been thinking about the Read Harder Challenge. It's not as though I am not already immersed in a number of really, really good reads. I am as a matter of fact. But if I am not actually in the act of reading I like to think about what I am going to read next. We all do that, right? (Or am I just more OCD than everyone else, which is entirely possible).
My first task completed was to read a Manga comic, which I did. It's not my usual genre, but I enjoyed it. I was contemplating continuing on with the series, but there are so many other books pressing for me to read them now, that I want to move on to those instead. I am in the middle of Death in the Air by Kate Winkler Dawson, which I mentioned before, am thoroughly enjoying and will work for the book by or about a journalist.
So, what next? There is so much to choose from at this point I can easily pick up any number of books, but I am in the mood for something of an epistolary format. So do I choose a novel written in letter form? A book of actual letters? Can I fudge a little and chose a book that uses diary entries instead, or an actual diary (I have loads of those). Is an epistolary novel only made of letters?
I've been doing a little browsing and thinking about what I already have on my shelves (and I had really wanted to try and only read from my shelves, but if a library book would fit better I am not averse from choosing that instead).
Some books that have come to mind--Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar about Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell has long been on my TBR (so long as a matter of fact that I had to have it when it came out and so have a cloth copy).
I could pick a classic and one that is not in my usual comfort zone period-wise and read Murasaki Shikibu's Diary of Lady Murasaki. It's less than 150 pages, but slight does not always correspond with easy reading.
If I wanted to opt for more letters in a more formal format there is In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deobrah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor, though it is rather chunky. Or a book I have long wanted to read, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters 1922-1928, which is the first of a number of collections by her. I wonder how What There is We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell reads?
I have the first of The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: 1903-1917, but you know I would then have to read some of her stories, too. And also long on my shelves Song of Love: The Letters of Rupert Brooke and Noel Olivier, 1919-1915.
I know I have a book of letters between Abigail and John Adams and I am almost sure I have one or two collections of letters from World War I.
The more I think about what might be on my shelves the more expansive my choice seems to become. And there is this list that I can easily dip into (and I have a number of the books unread on my shelves, too).
The appeal of choosing a book of letters is knowing I could keep the book on my bedside pile and read a few every night and just work my way slowly through.
Such is the dilemma now of choosing. Have you read any of these books of letters? Or is there some other you read and found riveting? Ah, the pleasure of thinking about a new book to add to the reading pile.