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Read What You Like
January 28, 2008 By Alison Andrews So…I'm just going to go ahead and confess that last
month was a bad month for reading. December is the busiest month of the
year for almost everyone, and between my daughter's birthday and
Christmas parties and church programs and shopping and baking, something
had to give. (Excuses, excuses!) I had even wanted to do a sort of
“countdown to Christmas” with my daughter by reading 24 Christmas
picture books, one each night of December, with Nativity stories mixed
in with the Santa tales. But by the time we got to the library to check
out the big book of Christmas stories I'd seen, a mother who plans ahead
better had already gotten it, and the idea petered out after we'd used
up our own books. I'd thought I could at least be the mother who brings
stories to life for her children, even if I can't decorate gingerbread
houses, but there you go. We do what we can, and try to do better next
time. Maybe next year I can realize my fantasy of reading Dickens to
rapt children around a fire. As for me, my
Goodreads
account tells the tale: I've abandoned three books since the beginning
of December. Other less-than-easy reads I slogged through, but these
were just not worth it to me. The older I get, the less willing I am to
finish a book that I dislike. Maybe it's a sense of not having enough
time before I die to read the books I like, let alone the one I don't.
(I'm in my early thirties; thanks for asking. I'm just a morbid
person.) Anyway, my new motto is that I give a book 50 pages; if it
doesn't have my attention by then, on to the next. Hornby Cleans Up One book that I had no trouble at all finishing is
Nick Hornby's
Housekeeping vs. the Dirt,
which is the second collection of columns that he writes for The
Believer magazine. In the columns, Hornby lists everything he's
bought and read that month (and the two are not always the same), then
tells us what he likes about the books and what they reminded him of,
and just generally gives us a window into the mind of a writer and
intelligent reader. In other words, they are everything I wish I could
do in this space. (You may have noticed a more personal tone in this
review; it's because of Hornby.) Oh, and he's funny. Very, very funny. A point that comes up more than once, both in this
book and the earlier
The Polysyllabic Spree,
resonated with me: Hornby feels that we ought to read books that we
like, that “the classics” are not going to make us morally superior
to anyone, and that books with a plot or 20 decent jokes are more
appealing to the average reader than the most “evocative” literary novel
out there--and that the average readers are right; the cultural snobs
have gotten it wrong. Books can be “good” books and still entertain us,
Hornby says; we should put down the 800-pound biographies and Victorian
poetry if we're grinding through them and just read what we
like. In every genre there are masterpieces, and we'll find them if
we read a lot. Plus, Hornby made me want to read a lot of the books
he discussed. I wish he could be my “friend” on Goodreads, but this will
do. Fun for Dummies?
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure
Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life
was a fun read. It didn't quite live up to its awesome title, but
it was entertaining and perfect for a long car ride since it's written
in short chapters that I could dive into without having to remember what
was happening when I last put it down. Even though Laurie Notaro and I
have virtually nothing in common besides our XX chromosomes (she's a
loudmouthed party girl who chain-smokes and falls off of barstools, and
my idea of a wild weekend is a birthday party full of screaming
five-year-olds), this book made me laugh. And for that, in the middle of
December madness, I was grateful. Although I really don't want to think
about why I am reading so many memoirs whose main characteristic is
self-deprecating humor. After all, my friend Nick Hornby says I don't
have to. I can just enjoy. © 2008, Alison Andrews ---------- Alison Andrews lives near Ft. Worth, Texas, with her husband and two young children. She can “read” Goodnight, Moon without looking at the actual book. She hopes this habit of hers will not ruin her toddler's love of books. |
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