Somehow, as is occasionally the occurrence, I have found myself without a book to read. How this happened is that I was reading a book (Harry Turtledove’s Into the Darkness) which I just couldn’t get into. The book wasn’t horrible, and it had some interesting concepts for a fantasy novel (the basic premise is a world war in a land of magic that parallels WWII Europe). Ultimately my problem with it was that it just jumped around between too many characters which made it hard for me to feel invested. I don’t mind books that have a big cast, but it needs to be presented in such a way that I don’t feel like I am just jumping from person to person.
So I put the book down.
I can’t remember who told me this (possibly several people) but I have heard it said that you should try to commit yourself to at least 100 pages before you put a book down (I got about 145 into Into the Darkness). I think this makes sense in most cases because by 100 pages you should probably have a pretty good idea if you like the book or not. There have been other books that I haven’t even made it through the first chapter and that seems like a very clear sign for me to move on. but point is, give a book a shot, if it doesn’t give you what you are looking for don’t be ashamed to put it down.
But what this comes to is that I am currently without a book to read. I haven’t taken anything out of the library because I don’t really want to bring a book to my parent’s house with me when I head up to Vermont this weekend (well a loan book that is, if it was my own it would be a different story). Also, currently I do not feel like rereading any of the books I have in my house (I often do reread personal favorites but I am not in the mood currently). I have an idea that there are some books in Vermont, either at my parent’s place or my grandmother’s, that I would like to grab. So I am in a current state of patience.
The thing is that I am itchy to read. Fortunately I just got two browsing books from a friends during a White Elephant gift exchange this weekend. Strangely, not necessarily unfortunately, one of the books is an Encyclopedia of Karma Sutra (the whole White Elephant joke thing). What is actually interesting about the Karma Sutra book is that a few years ago I wrote a paper about Eastern Tantric practices which play a very important role in Karma Sutra (beyond that I guess the book just provides a good conversation piece).
I also have a few magazines lying around that I haven’t read all the way through. Further this gives me some time to focus on writing and drawing, two things that I consider on equal enjoyment level with reading. Hoping to find a new book soon though. Will report back when I got one.
Maybe you could read some classics like, “The Scarlet Letter” or Mary Schelley’s “Frankenstein”. They take a bit of language and time to get into, but they are very good. You just need to take time to analyze them.
Ceylan
I have read both before. The first time I read “The Scarlet Letter” I didn’t care for it all too much, but the second time I found myself appreciating it a lot more. “Frankenstein” is probably on my list of top five favorite books. I’ve read it about a half dozen times by now and never get bored with it. A very great book indeed. Was also considering picking up “The Brothers Karamazov” again, just because, even after two readings, I feel like there is a whole lot to take from the book. Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate it.