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reading as a lifestyle
Nov. 7th, 2010 05:09 pmI'm deeply interested in the results of the poll in Saturday's entry. (Thank you for filling it out.) Many of the comments touched on reasons or ideas that I didn't include in the poll.
Currently I'm reading a book called Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima that I admit I picked up because I read something that compared the author to Dostoevsky and because my knowledge of serious business Japanese literature is sparse. Honestly though, it feels a little like a formal Japanese Catcher in the Rye and I've never had fond feelings towards that book. I'm not sure what it is that is preventing me from getting invested or interested in the book. Partly I think it is the style and maybe that's a translation issue. Maybe it sings and flows better in Japanese.
If there was a simple super power I could have, it would be a mastery of all languages so I could read everything.
As I mentioned, I've quit very few books. Something that surprised me in the poll results is the number of people who said they were more likely to quit reading a book they didn't enjoy if it was Serious Business Literature. (Those Books With Important Ideas! Books Professors Assign! Though the debate over whether we need such a distinction is for another time.) I'm even less likely to quit reading if it is something that falls onto that pile because I feel like I should figure out why I don't like, or what I'm missing that causes other people to feel it is such an important book. Sometimes I'm secretly worried that I'm not smart enough to get why the book seems to matter or why people find it important.
Catcher in the Rye is one of those books. I loathed it so strongly and was so genuinely puzzled by the appeal that I read it five times during a semester and made it a major part of a paper I wrote comparing it to another novel. I still don't like it, but I understand it more now. At least, I understand why it appeals to certain people and why it received the critical reception it did. But I had to read the damn book five times.
Two notable exceptions to my general habits - I have never made it through any Faulkner ever and I forced myself to read the entirety of the execrable Twilight. Proof perhaps that I care more about vampires than Americana, I suppose. (Though I did stop after the first one and I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.) In the case of Faulkner I found it nearly unreadable with the dialogue and dialect, but not in the way of William S. Burroughs. When I first read Naked Lunch I could only manage fifteen or so pages a day before my brain would begin to hurt and I had to stop. I'm still really not sure why I can't find Faulkner engaging but I've stopped trying.
I'm far more likely to stop reading nonfiction, or fantasy fiction that I don't enjoy. I gave up on Robert Jordan a few years back because I had just stopped being interested even though at times his writing was engaging and cinematic. I stopped reading a book on the history of pineapples because the writing (by a television producer with the BBC) was so deplorable and wretched that it wasn't even worth it to gain a few more exciting bits of trivia. (I love food trivia too.) But I ultimately don't feel the same compulsion to understand why I'm bored or the same compulsion to keep going in search of some elusive literary merit.
At this time, I've read about 75 pages of the Mishima novel and I think I'm just going to put it aside in hopes I can come back to it some other day. Feeling vaguely guilty at my lack of literary fortitude I went and bought an armful of books - two historical novels of vastly different time periods, two memoirs from women of the early 20th century, some classic science fiction short stories and a book of nonfiction about food. Surely one of them will capture my interest.
If you're curious about what I have read recently, I have lists from the past couple years.
2008
2009
so far, 2010
Currently I'm reading a book called Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima that I admit I picked up because I read something that compared the author to Dostoevsky and because my knowledge of serious business Japanese literature is sparse. Honestly though, it feels a little like a formal Japanese Catcher in the Rye and I've never had fond feelings towards that book. I'm not sure what it is that is preventing me from getting invested or interested in the book. Partly I think it is the style and maybe that's a translation issue. Maybe it sings and flows better in Japanese.
If there was a simple super power I could have, it would be a mastery of all languages so I could read everything.
As I mentioned, I've quit very few books. Something that surprised me in the poll results is the number of people who said they were more likely to quit reading a book they didn't enjoy if it was Serious Business Literature. (Those Books With Important Ideas! Books Professors Assign! Though the debate over whether we need such a distinction is for another time.) I'm even less likely to quit reading if it is something that falls onto that pile because I feel like I should figure out why I don't like, or what I'm missing that causes other people to feel it is such an important book. Sometimes I'm secretly worried that I'm not smart enough to get why the book seems to matter or why people find it important.
Catcher in the Rye is one of those books. I loathed it so strongly and was so genuinely puzzled by the appeal that I read it five times during a semester and made it a major part of a paper I wrote comparing it to another novel. I still don't like it, but I understand it more now. At least, I understand why it appeals to certain people and why it received the critical reception it did. But I had to read the damn book five times.
Two notable exceptions to my general habits - I have never made it through any Faulkner ever and I forced myself to read the entirety of the execrable Twilight. Proof perhaps that I care more about vampires than Americana, I suppose. (Though I did stop after the first one and I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.) In the case of Faulkner I found it nearly unreadable with the dialogue and dialect, but not in the way of William S. Burroughs. When I first read Naked Lunch I could only manage fifteen or so pages a day before my brain would begin to hurt and I had to stop. I'm still really not sure why I can't find Faulkner engaging but I've stopped trying.
I'm far more likely to stop reading nonfiction, or fantasy fiction that I don't enjoy. I gave up on Robert Jordan a few years back because I had just stopped being interested even though at times his writing was engaging and cinematic. I stopped reading a book on the history of pineapples because the writing (by a television producer with the BBC) was so deplorable and wretched that it wasn't even worth it to gain a few more exciting bits of trivia. (I love food trivia too.) But I ultimately don't feel the same compulsion to understand why I'm bored or the same compulsion to keep going in search of some elusive literary merit.
At this time, I've read about 75 pages of the Mishima novel and I think I'm just going to put it aside in hopes I can come back to it some other day. Feeling vaguely guilty at my lack of literary fortitude I went and bought an armful of books - two historical novels of vastly different time periods, two memoirs from women of the early 20th century, some classic science fiction short stories and a book of nonfiction about food. Surely one of them will capture my interest.
If you're curious about what I have read recently, I have lists from the past couple years.
2008
2009
so far, 2010