So at this point in the year, after almost two months, I have read one book in it's entirety (The Savage Detectives) and am almost through five of the twelve volumes in my edition of In Remembrance of Things Past. (Half way through The Guermantes Way). At this point last year I had twelve books read, so the difference is pronounced.
Of course this hasn't stopped me buying books and I have added the first two books of David Peace's Red Riding Quartet to my 2012 TBR shelf and am planning to contribute to a Muriel Spark Reading Week. Spark is one of my favourite writers and I hope to read a novel Robinson and a volume of short stories, The Go Away Bird. They are both short.
How I will tackle the other books on my TBR shelf I don't know but I'm hoping that my reading accelerates as the year progresses.
I had picked up Disquiet a while back, thinking it would be a quick read. Not so much. I put it down, and haven't picked it back up yet. Soon, though.
ReplyDeleteI had challenged myself one year to read Proust. I believe that was the same year I read Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow. Needles to say, I never got to it. I'm thinking of assigning that to my special "deathbed" shelf, right before Finnegan's Wake. It has always been my dream to be reading FW as my last book, drawing my last breath as I read the final word. I've convinced myself that this will insure my spirit carries on somehow, what with the circular, never-ending nature of the book. Now if I can just figure out when I'm going to expire. Know any good psychics?
@Bubba - have dipped into Finnegan's Wake but never really tried to scale it. I was thinking next year, after Proust is out of the way.
DeleteI'm not sure about any good psychics but I know a few bad Physicks who could help tie down your date of departure!
I wanted to start alternating reading of Musil and Proust, Séamus, but I think I'll save my return to Proust until after I finish Pessoa for the Book of Disquiet group read at the end of March. What you say about the pace has given me cause for concern! Interested in hearing what you think of the Red Riding Quartet. I've heard mixed things about how over the top Peace supposedly is, but I really enjoyed the Brit movie/TV adaptation of it I saw last year. Anyway, happy reading.
ReplyDeleteRichard, the pace isn't quite as slow as it appears. My daughter's sudden obsession with climbing on to every elevated surface in the house as if she's participating in one of those twelve peak challenges means that reading during the day while the kids potter around by themselves has been replaced by following her every move with a sense of nervous anticipation. But I did find when readingDisquiet that I took extra time to let passages sink in.
DeleteI really enjoyed That Damned United by Peace (I was a football fanatic as a child, and Brian Clough was the most interesting person in football) I also enjoyed the TV series so have been looking forward to reading Red Riding for a while.
THe RR books are excellent, although you need to draw a bit of a character map especially if you have a gap between reading them! it is an over used comparison probably becasue it is true but they are the uk version of Ellroy's LA quartet.
ReplyDeleteI've set my own challenge this yr which is finally read dance to teh music of tim - currently just finished the first 3 books ie the spring section
Well, I LOVE Ellroy - that's the kind of comparison that has me excited about Red Riding! Yes, I almost bought a load of the Dance to the Music of Time volumes a few weeks back. They were nice old Penguin editions. but I think there has to be a decent break between Remembrance and Dance?
DeleteAnd sleep?
ReplyDeleteSleep??? What's that. And I forgot to mention our reading of Beautiful Losers. And that I'm doing a 'book swap' on Shelfari - which involves reading We, The Drowned.
DeleteMe, The Drowning
Still nowt from Amazon...
ReplyDeleteSome of those tributaries are long and meandering.
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