I am a keen reader – and I loved that Facebook poll that asks which books you have read from the 100 listed- I don’t remember the exact tally but it was pretty good, perhaps 70%, over a spread of authors from different nations and eras. It contained a lot on my ‘I must read, sometime’ list, including classics like ‘War and Peace’ by Tolstoy, but also on that list is to finish the rest of ‘Uttermost Part of the Earth’ by E.Lucas Bridges, and E.L James’ other two volumes following “50 Shades of Grey”. although everyone’s talking about them, and one of my friends is circulating her copies, I just don’t have time just now for ” 50 Shades Darker” and whatever #3 is, being as I am in the midst of a piecing and quilting storm.
One of my favourite authors is the American, Pat Conroy (“Prince of Tides”, “South of Broad” “Lords of Discipline” and others including one I must read but haven’t yet read, “The Great Santini”) A book of his I listened to recently – “My Reading Life” read by himself and so itself a real treat – outlined the incredible depth and breadth of his lifetime of voracious reading which was started on a firm footing principally by the influence of his mother. Reading aloud, bringing home books from the library, talking about them with her kids…. (I wonder whether I got a pass or fail on that one) He reads at least 200 pages every day, and before commencing his day’s writing he reads a little poetry, (keeps a volume or two on his desk) – and his library totals many 1000’s books… no doubt he lives in an old large Charleston house to accomodate all of it. Today’s e-readers, such as my kindle, accomodate several thousand books, so, that’s OK, I can read 200 pages each day if I put my mind to it, without necessarily needing space for shelving massive quantities of books. The trouble is, I am sucked in so often by (a) the fabric and thread world (b) the digital world. Does it count to your daily tally if you listen to about 200 pages a day? which I am doing at the moment, with my iPod touch nestled in a pocket and playing as I sew, sew, sew… The fascinating book to which I’m currently listening is “Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945” by Tony Judt. Being an early Baby Boomer, it’s actually covers my entire lifetime, really, and explains a lot about things in my earlier life, which being a young Australian, was then very, very, Eurocentric compared to the more multidirectional outlook Australians have today. Although I didn’t then understand why really, being very young, I do remember the frontpage newspaper pictures, (b/w of course) harrowing escape stories and divided family accounts following the sudden erection of the Berlin Wall – and now understand more of why my parents seemed so shocked. And so much more. I had opted out of history at the earliest chance, because the teacher, our principal, Miss Rooney, was so very boring in her presentation of what should have been such an exciting subject. I had no idea what I was missing until well into my university degree. Not saying that I would have wished to study history as a major, but as an adult I’ve become progressively more interested in history. Reading the occasional history-based, fiction or non fiction, is helping fill some of the yawning gaps in my education and understanding.
On my bedside table at the moment is “Explorers Of The Nile” by Tim Jeal – its going to have to pick up a bit if I’m to finish it by wednesday ‘s book club meeting – I think it is very interesting, but I need to find the Dr. Livingstone- Menry Morton Stanley part of the book, read that and then let the rest go- have to hand the book in that day and someone is waiting for it. “Call the Midwife” by Jennifer Worth is apparently the first in a series about a London midwife in the immediate postwar years and ’50’s – I’ll try to get the book club to order the others, it was great – but why oh why are so many authors now putting out series and trilogies (normally I seem to tune in at #2 or #3) What’s wrong with a large engrossing single volume story, like Ken Follett’s books, and James Michener’s….. can’t modern authors handle the one large epic story in one go? Or is it the point that modern readers can’t handle the large story? Is it a brilliant thing from the marketers and actually all about money?
And this just occurred to me – is this the same phenomenon as people making small 1m x 0.75m quilts and referring to these as ‘large’?
