Great-Grandmother's Cookbook
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
When I was a kid, I always had my nose in a book. As a teenager, I devoured shelves of YA fantasy. My favourite author was, and still is, Diana Wynne Jones. In university, I borrowed my roommate's extensive collection of Terry Pratchett novels (all that had been published up to that point) for escapist reading during exam time (the more stressed I got, the more Discworld books that I read). Now, a lot of my time seeps away to reading blogs and doing other things on my computer and I don't read as much as I used to.
Every now and then, I still go on reading binges where I stay up late to finish reading "just the next chapter". But I have also been known to stretch out for weeks slowly limping through a book that I'm just not that into. I have trouble NOT finishing a book. It's like I want to give it the benefit of the doubt until the very end. Or sometimes that I am curious about the story, even if I don't like it that much. This is happening to me currently with Catcher in the Rye. I never had to read it in school and I hear so many pop-culture references to it that I wanted to read it and understand. All I've gotten so far is a bit confused as to why it ended up as a "school book". I find the main character whiny and annoyingly immature and I loathe the writing style. Maybe I missed the age-window where I would have liked it, but I doubt it. It's become my "waiting room" book. I read it when I am essentially a captive audience and have nothing better to do. I can't wait to finish it and get on with some of the other "I should have read this" books on my shelf like 1984, Wuthering Heights, Dune, and Pride and Prejudice. I sure hope that I enjoy some of them more than this one. You can see what I've read so far this year at my LibraryThing account.
On this note, I've posted a new poll asking about what you like to read. You can find it in the sidebar as always. I'm definitely more a fiction gal than non-fiction. Fiction (particularly fantasy) captures and inspires my imagination in a way that non-fiction doesn't usually. My non-fiction books mainly fall into two categories: food/cooking and art. Post a comment if you have a favourite author that you'd like to share.
2 comments:
My favourite fiction authors are disparate:
one group is the spy/who-dun-its written by British authors;
the other group are out and out fantasy authors --- such as Diana W-Jones, Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinely.
Currently reading: the prequel to the Mists of Avalon: Forest House (M. Zimmer-Bradley)
I remember reading Catcher In The Rye during my first year at UQAM when I had a 45 minute commute every morning. Captive audience indeed. I remember feeling pretty meh about it too, but at least it wasn't that hard to concentrate on.
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