read more for pleasure

Ha, that thing with listing everything didn’t really work out, takes too much time to remember and write it down here, when I should be working.
However, I am reading more, unfortunately it is time spent on it, when I should be doing other things, i.e. work.
The thing is, I have no balance, either I am not reading at all or I am so gripped that I neglect everything else. I can see how that then annoys M., but he annoys me by, as I see it, begrudging me my enjoyment of books!

I have a book I read at night, usually in bed. I have a book on CD I listen to while puttering around the house. I have a second book on CD I listen to while driving in my van and I have a book on an audio tape that I listen to while driving in my Toyota.

Maybe I’m overdoing this. I’m getting my story lines crossed!

Ooo! This is a great read. I’m not big on horror, but this is a touching book about a man’s grief at his wife’s death and the forces outside him. How he comes to grips with this is both entertaining and instructive. I can’t read a lot of King’s work, but I enjoyed Deloros Clairborn, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and am loving this one.

But in recent years due to this and that have let this pleasure slide. I now have an entire shelf of unread books that beckon (thank you bookmooch.com and amazon.com). I will post here about the best.

Got a desk job with lots of down time, so I’ve started taking a book to work with me to read for pleasure when I’m not answering the phone… I’ve torn through about 10 books in the last month, reading only at work!

well, i stopped in between when i got busy working on some projects, but here’s an update on what i’ve read in the last few months:

-the namesake by jhumpa lahiri
-fall on your knees by anne-marie macdonald
-parts of the following: the meeting place: aboriginal life in toronto ed. heather bobiwash & frances sanderson; the revolution will not be funded: beyond the non-profit industrial comples ed. incite! women of color against violence.

i started reading train to pakistan by khuswant singh and lucy by jamaica kincaid but couldn’t get through them…

currently reading: cinnamon gardens by shyam selvadurai

next on list:

-stealing nasreen by farzana doctor
-upcoming harry potter
-the taqwacores by michael muhammad knight
-either midnight’s children or shame by salman rushdie

-the alchemist, paulo coelho
-ravensong, lee maracle
-monkey beach, eden robinson
-ten little indians, sherman alexie

next on the list: the namesake, jhumpa lahiri

i just finished my MA a couple months ago and am starting my phD in the fall, so in the time in between i’m hoping to get into the habit of reading for pleasure again. hopefully it’ll stick and i can continue doing it even when i’m reading heavy theoretical stuff for class.

Finished my last book yesterday and started The Accidental Tourist. It was recommended to me a long time ago and I never got around to starting it. It’s good.

Two days ago, I started John Grishom’s King of Torts. I’m almost halfway through it. I’ve started carrying it everywhere with me, like I used to do with books when I was a kid.

Newspapers are the enemy!
We are always buying the weekend papers which are clogging up the house and I always feel I can’t throw them till I have read them all, which is never going to happen. And too often I am sitting there reading them when something else would be ultimately more satisfying or I should talk to M., not good.
So I think I will list the books I finish here to see how much I actually read.
Surprisingly I finished one on tuesday night, but that was because I was away with work, so here is number one:

1. Familienleben by Viola Roggenkamp

My mother sent me this and it was good, but I would have liked a neater ending. I have at least another three books she gave me, which are half read or already half forgotten about again and I’d like to finish them. Reading in German either alleviates homesickness or makes it worse, depending on my mood on the day.