(no subject)

[garran]

Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History is an excellent book; so is Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. I have finished each of these in the past few days, and I am deeply happy. I feel wonderful.

How do people not read?

Comments

[haibane-rachan.livejournal.com]

How do people not read?

Because what you have managed to finish in "the past few days" would take some of us a few weeks or a few months. There just isn't enough time for all of my hobbies and some things have to be sacrificed as a result.

[garran.livejournal.com]

I beg your pardon. When I wrote that, I wasn't thinking of people like yourself and the other Rachel, who only get to read a small handful of books a year; rather, I was trying and mostly failing to find words for a deeper and more vital incomprehension: that there are people who, though literate, don't read at all. My sister is one - as far as I know, she's only read a handful of books in her life, though perhaps my information is out of date. When I was at the Lucas Centre, I overheard two teenagers, only a little younger than me, discussing how neither of them had ever finished a novel. They said it like it was normal.

And... I'm still not sure how to convey the extent to which I can't understand what that must be like. Reading is a unique and an essential joy - it is no longer by any means the only major joy that I have, and indeed I've also occasionally read only one novel in a four or five month timespan, because the act simply didn't rank in my priorities. But the satisfaction of reading a good novel is built centrally into my conception of the universe, and I genuinely have no idea what life might look like without it.

(I should also clarify that when I say that I finished each of these books in the past few days, I mean that I reached the end of Ash on Saturday, then read Bridge of Birds over Sunday and Monday. BoB is a mass-market paperback of less than three hundred pages; Ash is a trade paperback (the taller and wider ones) of more than 1100. It took me a few weeks. ^^;)


-Garran

[haibane-rachan.livejournal.com]

A "mass market paperback" would still take me a week, if I was reading every day. My "give a crap" span is for shit. I rarely spend more than a few hours (or even a couple hours) reading and I read really slow when I'm deeply involved in a novel so.. yeah.. but you've heard this rant before, I'm sure.

I also don't even know what "trade paperback" means, though I've heard it used many, many times.

Additionally, I have never read a book longer than .. 500 pages? Probably not even that long. I have no idea, but the idea of a 1100 page book frightens me. What could stay interesting for that long? That would also take me several months to finish. Hell, Harry Potter.. 4? one of them.. took me several months to finish, due to the way I sporadically read.

[garran.livejournal.com]

I also don't even know what "trade paperback" means, though I've heard it used many, many times.

I can help you there, having learned this pretty recently in the scheme of things myself. A 'trade paperback' is a paperback with the dimensions of a hardcover (thus, 'taller and wider').


-Garran

[masamage.livejournal.com]

I read really slow when I'm deeply involved in a novel

Me, too; especially if it has beautiful prose.

Mainly my problem, though, is, yeah, that I'm working on other stuff too much. I intend to make time for it this month, though.

[nathanbp.livejournal.com]

Ash: A Secret History is awesome ^_^;

[mordath.livejournal.com]

I finished a few lately as well - anything by Sherri Tepper is highly recommended (especially Family Tree, if you'd like to make your brain explode. In a good way), but her first novel, True Game, is really good as well. Less mind-twisty than most of her stuff, and it doesn't read like a first novel at all. And it's actually a trilogy reprinted as one book.

I'm losing coherency here, aren't I? Anyway, Safe-keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn is fantastic if you want a warm-fuzzy sort of book as well - all of her stuff is really, really good. She's one of the only authors where I actually buy her books in hardcover the day they come out.

[garran.livejournal.com]

Wai; thank you. I shall take note. I think the next thing I read will probably be Hyperion, which I bought back when Caduceuskun recommended it.


-Garran

[masamage.livejournal.com]

Not reading == the suck.

*pout*

heart

[(Anonymous)]

I love Iron and Wine.

k.