I was a voracious reader when I was little and all through my teens. I started up again when I was working and commuting on public transport, but over the last few years I’ve lost the reading love. There are lots of reasons, I drive to work now, the internet sucks up time and Vogue alone takes almost a week to get through(!) but mostly I think a series of bad book choices are to blame. I went through a succession of books that started great but were hard to stick with, and I abandoned before the finish.
So…my new year’s resolution, inspired by (i.e. stolen from) this lovely blog was to read a new book every month. Seems really manageable, and mostly I’ve been getting through them in a fortnight or so, leaving plenty of room if a book is a dud to struggle through.
I started off in January with Eat Pray Love, which seemed like a good “new year/new me” type to kick off with. I was terrified it would be saccharine and sanctimonious and too american and G-O-D loving, and I’ll admit the intro didn’t do much to allay my fears, but thankfully it’s a great read. Bit hard going on the Oprah-effect in India (the “pray” bit) but overall a lovely, straightforward, honest read. Had me googling the author immediately afterwards to find out how the story ended and I’m tempted to give the follow up book a go. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love is a gazillion seller in the US and has been duly Oprah book-clubbed to the hilt. To top it all off it’s due out as a film this summer complete with Julia Roberts in the lead, but it is well worth a read. Light and easy but not frothy and a very straightforward, journalistic writing style from Gilbert.
Colm McCann’s Let the Great World Spin in February was almost the opposite. An absolutely wonderful writing style, truely poetic. Not in the flowery, flouncy descriptive sense, more in the sparse use of the most perfect language to convey a thought. An early phrase recounting how he could “revisit the museum of that afternoon” to relive a childhood memory has stayed with me since reading it. The writing style, and the storytelling device I loved, but the story itself was sad and depressing. Some will no doubt call it realistic, and true to life, but I nearly put it aside half way through due to the unrelentingly depressing lives of the protaganists. Thankfully I persevered but I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. I loved the writing, but not the tale.
So now we come to March, and I am bookless. I could keep up with The Irish Times book club (genius idea by Rosita Boland) who are also doing a book a month, but their March book is The Lovely Bones and I am not one for tales involving serial killers or paedophiles so that’s out. So…do you have a recommendation for me?
I don’t like Thrillers or Killers and I’m not a fan of laborious or historical books, though a historical novel, well told is fine. I’m not big on romantic fiction, but a love story is fine (i.e. Time Travellers Wife), I love some Sci-Fi (William Gibson-esque) and Fantasy (Clive Barker and anything with Vampires—sad but true) and humour is welcome….any thoughts?
