Thursday 17 January 2008

And she was bad when she stayed home sick......

Bad because I joined two more Book challenges today!!! Like I need to join any more!!! I couldn't really get on the computer much today, I have a bad head cold, and my daughter was home with the same thing. Bad enough I couldn't read, and when I got on the computer, I fell asleep! Which is what I did yesterday at work and why I stayed home today! I was better after a nap so that is when I found the other challenges....Chunkster Challenge (and blogger won't let me put its cool marker on), and Man Booker Prize. I always think I should read more literature/award winners than I do, the problem is most of them are boring. I hate saying this after doing an English Lit degree! but I prefer fantasy and mystery because there is a challenge to them, something additional to just writing about people. I'm not sure.....I loved The Raj Quartet by Paul Jewel Scott (? my brain is fuzzy with this cold.....) and read them all and watched the tv series in the 1980's. I have read Jane Eyre, all the Jane Austen books (see prev blogs), Bridget Jones Diary (ok hardly a 'classic lit', but I love it!), the Anne of Green Gables books, over and over. But the principal books I have read from a very early age were genres - mystery, science fiction and fantasy, or historical. I really don't go for modern fiction, and I don't know why - it's not that I feel guilty! I don't. I know good books are being written in 'regular', and so joining these blogs is my attempt to widen my reading somewhat, to challenge myself to read other books/categories that I do think at the time 'Oh, I'd like to try that'. The TBR list that goes on and on.......I'm proud of what I read, and even with reading mostly mystery and fantasy I still don't read all the books I want to, even in those categories!! There really isn't enough time for all the books I want to read!!
One of the bloggers I visited today talked about how her mother ( at Stephanie's Books?) made a joke out of her reading mostly fiction. She asked herself why she read fiction more than biography or nonfiction, and I liked her answer - I have to paraphrase because now i can't find the site, of course: she learns more from reading fiction that shows through characters all kinds of reactions and ideas, rather than biography/nonfiction which is limited to its subject. I thought that was a very insightful comment, which is why I'm carrying it over here. (If only I could remember where I read it!!!) You can explore in fiction a wider range of ideas, reactions, emotions, questions, than you can in nonfiction. Of course the best biographies by their nature describe the world, and of course the best nonfiction helps us understand and relate better to the world. However, fiction allows us to creatively explore the options we have for understanding the world, and possible outcomes. Something to think about, and let me know, Gentle Reader, what you prefer to read (if you like), and why. Maybe this could be a possible Thursday Book Meme one day? - yes I know I still have to do it, but the kids are running wild and I have no patience, so I will be back later! So anyway, I've now added some more 'mainstream' fiction to my reading this year......Chunkster Challenge is filled with books from other challenges anyway; it's the Man Booker Prize Challenge that will be the real challenge for me. All are books I've wanted to read, been curious about, over the years. H-m-m-m-m, now to see how many challenges I can fulfill this year!

2 comments:

Patricia said...

Wow your writings truly show your dedication and thought about writing! We never discussed books or themes, etc, so this is a new side of you I'm seeing. Obviously it is your passion ~ which I knew about....just not the depth or breadth of your knowledge and opinions! Why didn't you become a librarian?

Susan said...

Hi Patricia! My brother used to ask the same thing! I don't know....librarian didn't seem like a job when I was a teenager in the 1970's....certainly not a career option - and yet sometimes I think I would love to work in one! I think because I knew from age 10 I wanted to write. I ended up in bookstores, instead, and have always thought that i would love to own my own bookstore. (You could work there! WE could have so much fun! and I wouldn't melt down like your A/M!!)
Whenever I get a chance to join your bookclub, I will (next year? when the kids let me out more??). Other than you, there is no one in my life anymore who reads like I do, except my mother who just reads (doesn't analyze or think about it). I used to have a very good friend who read fantasy so we were always telling each other and sharing books, etc. she is a writer too, so we approached books the same way - from a writer point of view, as well as reader.
Well, now you know my secret - I am passionate about books! Honestly, if I still had the books I gave away when I went to England, we would have easily double the shelves etc....(Toby can't really imagine this either!)
We can talk about books any time you like, Patricia....we always have so many other things to share too, that sometimes what we're reading gets left out. :-)