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Showing posts from January 20, 2011

Reading for pleasure

A fellow blogger has been thinking about whether to persevere with reading books that she can't really get into, but feels that she needs a wider variety of reading to be a good writer. http://carol-bevitt.blogspot.com I know what she means.  There seems to be lots of books that I have thought I should read. Where this "should" has come from, I'm not sure. Probably recommendations from educationalists or literary reviewers and such like. Sometimes a friend or colleague has suggested I read a particular book and I have persevered even when the process has turned into a total chore.  1000 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is an example. It has been on my bedside table for 6 years now and I have not managed to get past the first chapter. I ought to move it really as it does taunt me that it's a "classic" that I am unable to complete.  But this is not a good way of choosing reading material.  I know people who say they "don't li