Iain’s book-related post Ordeals led me to the following reflections.
I tried very hard to read Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott and couldn’t stick with it. Nor was I fond of the only Brontë books I ever read – Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. One classic I keep meaning to read is Middlemarch by George Eliot. It’s been staring reproachfully at me for 23 years.
Troublesome books aside, I recognize the formless, hungry desire to read everything as soon as it’s brought to mind. Only two days ago I was pining after The Wind in the Willows, which was being talked about on someone’s blog. I’ve read it more than once, but always feel I remember it imperfectly and need one more go to get it absolutely crystal clear. I feel that way about most books I’ve enjoyed.
Around the house are hundreds of books waiting their turn. I have four on the go right now… Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry, The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George (so heavy it makes your wrists ache), Know Your Cat by John Horsford Hickey and Priscilla Beach (dates from 1946) and a fourth book I’m keeping quiet about for now.
I have difficulty figuring out which to go for. I would read them simultaneously if I could, but settle for reading them in different rooms.
The only reason I didn’t say I was reading five books is that I stopped in the middle of Rest Upon the Wind by Gill Twissell. I kept waiting for it to start and couldn’t get interested in any of the characters. Possibly the novel came together further on, but I was exactly halfway through and still not hooked. It has five stars in Amazon so maybe I was just impatient; my experience of the book is the exact opposite of at least one UK reviewer’s.
Regarding something else the reviewers hinted at, I did get the feeling that the two main characters were the same, but I hadn’t (at that stage) spotted any overt suggestion of reincarnation. It could be that everything falls into place at a later point, but the blurred boundaries between the two women was one of the things that made it seem so monotone.
Moving on to reading sources, my main difficulty with libraries is that I never remember to return the books until the deadline. I’ve had to walk to town and back when my plans for the day did not involve going out. That’s a real shortcut to putting me in a foul mood, especially when I’ve not finished reading. I could renew, but usually feel I might as well get rid of them now, as they would only drag me out again at a later date.
Bought books, on the other hand, can be returned to the general reading pool at my leisure. Foul moods neatly sidestepped – till the next thing goes wrong.
As for not cluttering up the house with books I’ve read and enjoyed – that’s something I’m really struggling with. It’s fine to pass the more ordinary paperbacks to charity or to someone else, but I tend to want to keep the ones I liked. Such as Brother Odd by Dean Koontz – it’s sitting in my bookcase, flanked by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.
One way I’ve got round my reluctance is to pass the best books to my sister. I don’t even give her the chance to refuse them – I just give her a bag of books and say “these were very good – that’s why I picked them out.” I feel then that they’re still in the family, being enjoyed by someone else. I know it doesn’t stop there, but I don’t have to think about them any more. Either she reads them or she doesn’t; she keeps them or passes them on. I’ll never know, and I don’t particularly want to.
As for the Odd books by Dean Koontz… the aim is to collect them all and then give them to my sister with the words “these are wonderful, you’re not allowed to not read them.” Gives me the excuse to hang on to them a little longer…
Aw Diddums 
never read a single dean koontz
That’s a good idea…I’m trying to purge our hosue of endless stuff…books are hard for me. I like the idea of giving good ones away.
Of course, the other thing I find it almost impossible to do is not finish a book even if I’m hating it. Trying to break this compulsion too; managed it with one book last year, The Master and Margerita.
‘Dean Koontz’ made me think ‘alien abduction type stories long ago?’, but that didn’t sound like your thing. A quick look at Wikipedia makes me wonder who I’m mixing him up with.
Iain
It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s written a book about alien abduction – the stories I’ve read by him so far never seem to be about similar things. You can trust Dick Francis (for example) to always be writing about horse racing, but Dean Koontz seems to go anywhere he pleases. Brother Odd was quite a spooky book – not at all what I was expecting, as I’d read books by him before, and they were scary rather than spooky.
PS: Brother Odd is apparently the third book of the Odd Thomas series; I shouldn’t have started with that one but it whetted my appetite anyway.
I’ve read and very much enjoyed “The curious incident of the dog at night-time”. I’ve got “Brother Odd” on my list of books to read. I have trouble getting rid of books. I bought some cheapies quite recently and with books I didn’t enjoy it’s very easy to literally throw into the bag for charity. With others it’s not easy at all.
diddums, have you read the Willaim Horwood sequels to Wind in the Wilows?
I’ve been assigned Middlemarch by my former Chaucer professor. Five years after graduation, and it’s still looking at me. Of course, she did “assign” it after graduation. I’m sure it’s a fine book . . .
I’ve not read the William Horwood WitW sequels – are they good? I will have to look out for them.
Maybe that’s why I kept Middlemarch instead of slinging it out along with the Hardy and Brontë books. I’ve a feeling one of my friends said she rather enjoyed it. That’s what I should read now, now that you remind me of it… I’ve just finished an Elizabeth Peters and am looking round for something else. (Middlemarch starts thundering loudly on the bookcase door).