I was about to write that 'I read anything and everything' but that's probably not true. The short version is that I'm very big on fiction and tend to have 2 or 3 books on the go at once. I've sort of been on a fiction spree since I finished my degree and stopped having to read golden age spanish plays. I still can't quite believe that I'm allowed to read whatever I like and shouldn't be prioritising uni books (and it was a while ago now!) That said, I'm a complete snob - if I read a Philippa Gregory it's half in secret.
Having books is a good feeling and I love having shelves full. I'd have more if I had the space ...And I love 'collecting' them so that I've read *everything* by a particular author.
I'd way rather have a room full of books in any old state than a digital reader device. I'd feel like Penny our of Inspector Gadget using one of those.
One thing I can't stand: bullshit management books.
There's nothing wrong with Philippa Gregory!
ReplyDeleteI know ... I know ...
ReplyDeleteI think it's down to three things:
1) the Hollywood Film adaptation of The Other Boleyn Girl. Wrongwrongwrong, selling out, mass-marketing our history to the yanks, who don't seem to be sure whether it's fact or romantic fiction (I promise I'm a normal rational person, I'm not sure where this is coming from!)
2) the genre link between any historical novel and Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy. It all feels half a step away from Mills & Boon.
3) Try as I might, the ascetic part of me can't shake the feeling that rendering history as fiction is somehow cheating: chewing it up and sweetening it for you. Either read fiction from the period in question, or read a textbook.
But like I say, I do like Philippa Gregory, and am currently tearing my way through the Queen's Fool - last of the Tudor Court novels that I haven't read so trying to make it last!
what's everyone's thought on digital reader devices???
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t read novels on a screen, when I get back from a long day looking at a computer screen the last thing I want is to read a book online – I like holding it in my hand
The best thing about books/newspapers/magazines is that they’re on paper – don’t like the idea of those book reader things… just not right!
Books don't run out of batteries, don't mind if you stuff them in your back pocket, don't mind if you spill drink over them (they go a bit crinkly, but I think that's all part of the charm) and aren't expensive to replace if you leave them on the train. They make any room look and feel wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAnd reading a book is a physical activity. There's a real difference between folding a paper or bending back a slim paperback; propping up a hardback or turning the indiapaper leaves of a small bible (that's not something I do a great deal, it has to be said, but I remember having done it in the past) or listening to the crackle of old paper as you lift and turn the pages of an eighteenth-century Johnson dictionary - and that's something that you have to do standing up. Books bend to your needs.
An electronic reader? Just another piece of junk I'd forget to charge up.
And yes, I am a grumpy old man.
Talking about being a grumpy old man, am I allowed to say that I really like reading Georgette Heyer?