Comments on: Holiday Reading

By: 2010/2009: Looking forward/looking back | …blah blog blah…

2010/2009: Looking forward/looking back | …blah blog blah… — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:38:36 +0000

[...] started the year really well, reading a number of books in a relatively short time during our Malaysia holiday. This just proved that the adage “start as you intend to continue” doesn’t mean [...]

By: realityravings

realityravings — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:21:21 +0000

Your holiday sounds so relaxing.
I used to love Gerard Manley Hopkins. Your holiday reading looks sensational and puts me to shame. Please write about the food and which beach places did you went to?

By: injera

injera — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:10:09 +0000

I can see why having books thrust upon you can turn you against the idea of reading them (I’m assuming that the French books your mum dumped on you were actually in French, rather than translations of books written in French). My mother spent years (years!) pushing “The Old Man and the Sea” and I duly resisted. Eventually I did read it – enjoyed it, never told her. As for Tolstoy, I have only ever read Anna Karenina, and that was only because a well-travelled friend’s only advice to me on my first big solo trip was: “take a big book – a stodgy big classic”. It was good advice (although AK is not at all stodgy).

Oh, dear, you must read something frivolous after falling asleep with “Citizens”. LIACC fits the “frivolous” bill perfectly. It’s the type of book that, once you’ve read a few pages, you find yourself reading in whatever approximation of a Mitford accent your imagination produces.

Enjoy the rest of the holidays (preferably with books that don’t encourage sleep – although keep “Citizens” close in case insomnia hits you again this year)!

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:50:46 +0000

Yay for good holidays! Reading is also a good thing. My mum tried to make me read Love in a Cold Climate once — she dumped about five books on my desk that she wanted me to read. One was by Trotsky, three were in French, and the last was Love in a Cold Climate. I never read any of them, though. Perhaps I should. (Well, maybe not the French ones.)

The only book I’ve read these holidays is “Citizens”, for History this year. I’m only a quarter of the way through, because it’s not very exciting. I even managed to fall asleep when reading it once — one minute I’m reading something about “virtuous citizenship”, and next thing I know I’m jolted awake by my cat. The book has, however, made me discover that I hate Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His theories are terrible.

Now that mini-rant is over, perhaps I should force myself to read some more! I hope you’re enjoying your holidays still, even though you’re back from Malaysia.