Can an hour be better spent than in a bookshop? I’m the person I wish I could be, while browsing everything I could know.
I keep a careful record of what I read, both fiction and non-fiction.
Each year I have some intentions for what I want to get out of the next 12 months’ reading.
For the past couple of years I’ve been publishing my abridged thoughts on reading that year.
My favourite work of fiction of all time is The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s >1000 pages long. The most common response to this information is “That’s too long, I could never read that”. I don’t follow the logic of a sentiment like that. The book is so good, I wish it were longer.
This is demonstrative of my approach to literature. It opens worlds that can only be experienced on the page. I look for books that I can fall into, escape & wonder.
I’m not a fast reader, and I believe that fiction should be read slowly. What’s the rush? If I could have a time-machine, I’d use it to go back and experience reading great books again for the first time. Suspense and anticipation, all-consuming delight. I regret any time I’ve rushed that experience.
I am looking for books with enough to them that I can & will re-read them, where a second or nth pass will expand rather than diminish the pleasure.
Depth over breadth. Quality over quantity. Get more out.
Fiction is wonder & escape, but it also contains the most important of lessons: empathy. Fiction is a door behind the eyes of others. We can witness their experience, understand how their backgrounds influence them, and relate to the people of the world in a completely different way. Non-fiction can describe and explain other people’s lives, but only art can make you feel it.
I’m slightly suspicious of those that don’t read fiction. I suspect those people are undervaluing empathy. Empathy is not a soft skill. Every act of your rational brain passes through the lens of your world view and background.
Empathy is to our beliefs & opinions what foundations are to sky-scrapers, and what the iris is to sight. Everything is built upon it.
As for what literature I read, I try to find stories that show me something I’ve never taken the time to look at before. However I mostly struggle with many modern writing styles, which can be effectedly colloquial to an inellegant & cringeworthy degree, with type-cast one-dimensional characters introduced with clumsy exposition rather than the gradual discovery.
Consequently, many, though not all, of my favourite books were written pre-1950.
These are a few questions I keep in mind when reading literature. They are mine, and may not make sense for other tastes.
Are the people and their growth consistent and believable, or does their behaviour change to suit the narrative or due to slips in style?
Are the points and insights done artistically, or scrawled in as either an after thought or forced trajectory?
Are plot points earned, or gratuitous?
Is the style to impress, or to impress a point? Does it serve an effect? Is there any style at all?
