Reading spree
It was with great purpose that I packed my suitcases when I left Delhi last summer. They were heavy not with food as is customary, but with a collection of books that would have long been gathering dust (had they not been kept inside a closed bookshelf). University life, you see, had not been at all kind to the first “official” pastime I ever had.
Soon after I procured a room in Singapore, I found myself also procuring a membership from the National Library. And if that weren’t enough proclamation of my campaign for renewed prosaic consumption, I also ended up being gifted a lovely Kindle for my birthday (from the even lovelier G).
Thus armed, I embarked on a journey of recovering my voracious appetite for the chapter-chopped chronicle. Here’s how I’ve fared so far:
- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe
- The Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer
- The Secret Crown, Chris Kuzneski
- The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson
- Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, P G Wodehouse
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
- And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
- Crooked House, Agatha Christie
- Dune, Frank Herbert
- Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
- Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, David Kushner
- The Last Lecture, Rany Pauch
It’s not terrible, but still a distant cry from the yours truly of yore who used to finish several books a week (a particularly memorable one-day reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes to mind).
What’s interesting is that the list of books that I began reading but couldn’t keep up with is also nearly as long, which is a telling sign of the changing times (I’ve almost never not finished a book in the past). Some of them are non-fiction ones though – can I pretend that they don’t count?
Oh well. Time for Susan Sontag’s On Photography!
Comments
Ah those wonderful days when one could spend the whole day reading and finishing books! I remember completing Deathly Hallows in one day :D
I've been thinking of tackling the Larsson series...are they good?
I know right - I miss it. And it's kinda sad that it will probably never come back.
They're not bad. Definitely the page-turning kind and well-translated. Over all I'm not a huge fan of that genre but it makes for a good break from heavier books.
Will try it then!
Ooh! Great list! You never mentioned that you have a Kindle O.o
How did you like Mockingbird and Chronicle and Slaughterhouse-Five? I'm currently in the middle of Kafka on the Shore, and Catcher on the Rye is waiting its turn on my bookshelf! And On Photography too, which shall one day be read...
PS. This was a really well written post :)
Thank you! Yes the Kindle news got lost somehow ha.
All three were good, but I enjoyed Catcher in the Rye more than them. Did _not_ enjoy Kafka on the Shore at all.
I thought you'd read On Photography! Weren't you telling me what it's about sometime?
Hmm. I like Kafka so far. Very relaxing style. But I've had too many distractions and making slow progress :(
I think I'd read a chapter or two. Bought it years ago, but I'll probably understand it better now! I've read another of her books, 'Regarding the Pain of Others'.
How was Regarding the Pain? I read the first chapter, seemed interesting.
Let me know what you think once you've completed Kafka :P
It was good, very relevant I'd say.
Just finished...I liked it! I need to process it now but overall impression is positive :) calming.
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