October Reading Round-Up
Posted 1st November 2010
Category: Round-Ups Genres: N/A
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This month I started my degree and for three days read nothing for pleasure, concentrating on studying. Initially this was liberating, not being “tied” to a book, but I soon started feeling strangely empty. I’ve got so used to a reading routine, to knowing, if I sit down with nothing to do, that I can continue reading a book. The feeling left me bored with studying and I realised I must stop and find a novel. It worked.
I chose short books that I would get through quickly so I wouldn’t feel bogged down, while at the same time feel I’d made progress and was getting some reading done. Later however, in choosing to start The Fellowship Of The Ring under the weight of some less-than-interesting study subjects, I started to feel unhappy. It took me over two weeks to finish my burden.
All books are works of fiction.
The Books
C S Lewis: The Great Divorce – A man travels with others to Heaven to see if they like the idea of staying there. The idea is interesting but Lewis is far too harsh on things that are part of the human condition and should be worked on with care rather than be damned. This is a problem I also found with The Last Battle.
C S Lewis: The Last Battle (The Chronicles Of Narnia) – A quick ending to the series. I didn’t enjoy the ending at all, which you can read about here (not a review and so contains spoilers).
J R R Tolkien: The Fellowship Of The Ring – An unlikely bunch of people travel with an evil ring to get it away from the dark lord. I won’t be reading the rest of the series, at least not for a very long time.
Maile Meloy: Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It – A short story collection about desire and sex. Brilliant writing, some stories the same, but one is very funny.
Maria McCann: The Wilding – On the death of his uncle, a young man goes to find the secret hidden from him, not knowing that there’s more to it than he thought. A very good story told in a unique way.
In compiling this list I realise just how little I’ve enjoyed the books I read this month, apart from The Wilding which I finished yesterday and loved. I need to remedy this in November.
Quotation Report
In The Wilding, though it may be a factual reference to plant life, it’s still rather funny to read that Jon walks out into the ha-ha.
For November I’m going to forget shorter books and choose ones that I’ve heard a lot of good about, namely One Day by David Nicholls – though I may be reading Beside The Sea which while popular is a short book. My course is only going to get more difficult and I need to be reading good books to keep me positive. October was incredibly long and I’ve had a lot to learn, in more ways than one.
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November 2, 2010, 5:52 pm
Sorry Lord of the Rings didn’t work out for you! I have One Day waiting for me as well. Maybe we’ll end up reading it at the same time!
Charlie: Unintentional read-a-long!