I am a voracious reader. I read all the time. If I’m idle, I’m reading something. I subscribe to about a dozen magazines, most of them journals or literary reviews. The Victoria’s Secret catalog is a review, of sorts.
I also read books. Many books. And at any given moment I have 10 or 20 books on the go.
The problem is, I recently realized, that I haven’t actually finished a book in years. I start them, skim through them, read the endings, browse but I never actually go front to back, straight through, in page order, from cover to cover.
That was not always the case. In the dim recesses of my mind I remember a time B.K. when I read books all the way through. How else would one treat a book? But, when Kids Ruled the World all that changed and the most I could do was cat nap with a book. That’s probably when I started to subscribe to so many magazines with short stories and, thankfully, sidebars!
If not for the sidebar with its snippets of information I would be even more clueless than I am today. Thank you, sidebar, for telling me that pi are round and cornbread are square.
So, getting a jump on the dreaded New Year’s resolutions I am resolving to read one book, cover to cover, this month.
I have two books in mind: On Writing by Stephen King which has been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years, and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen which I bought only recently. My stretch target will be to read them both. Heck, if I managed to blog every single day in November, how hard could it be to read a couple of books?
We’ll see!
*B.K. - before kids
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3 comments:
I am no King fan, but everything I have heard about On Writing is positive. His only cometition among high-profile novelists with such books is Dean Koontz, if you can believe that.
I too am a voracious reader. I love the feeling of a book in my hand, the smell of the paper, the creaking of the spine. I admit that I read more bk, but I refuse to let them be a reason to not read. I've managed to read at least 4 books in the past month, with 3 in the works.
Selecting something you've been wanting to read should help you to get back into the swing of things. You go Bill!
I've only read two Stephen King novels and didn't really enjoy either of them, but On Writing is excellent. I've read a number of non-fiction pieces by him and they've all been great. I'd really recommend Midlife Confidential. His chapter in it is one of the best articles about music making I've read.
http://tinyurl.com/y2qk25
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