What you readin’ for?
Read this. Trust me.
The past few weeks I’ve been reading books like I was in an extreme reading competition. It’s extreme because I don’t have time or peace to read and so in order to get through a book I have deployed a range of tactics. These tactics often involve some anti-social behaviour, and can lead to people being a little put out.
So in the last 14 days I have read Robert James Waller’s The Bridges Of Madison County, Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-time, Alexander McCall Smith’s Tears of the Giraffe, Peter Kay’s The Sound of Laughter, Jodie Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, and now I am half way through Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
I have enjoyed all of them tremendously, but have in the course of this read-a-thon:
- Done minimal housework
- Only fed my family food that can be cooked with one hand in five minutes (the other hand is holding a book)
- Locked myself in the bathroom to get to the end of a chapter. I am still blaming India for tummy trouble long after it has actually abated.
- Watched no telly (I’ve not seen one second of the Lympics)
- Resented going to work when I could be reading my book
- Stayed up far too late reading my book
- Not answered the phone if I’m at a good bit when it rings
- Woken up and read my book as I get ready for work and school
- Read Charlie and Lola* to Junior Misssy at bedtime with one eye and my book with another
- Been in a bad mood because of something bad that has happened in the book but not in my actual life, and then had to give myself a slap when I’ve realised that I am not the character in the book
This tends to happen about once or twice a year when I come across a raft of good reads. It won’t stop until I read a crap book and then I’ll be done with reading for a good five months or so.
But in lieu of that happening (and because I’ve not got anything lined up for the end of The Road- man, it’s harrowing, I can hardly bear it) can you tell me what you’d recommend I buy or borrow next.
What was the last amazing book you read?
(You can also have a look at my Amazon list to see my own recommendations for the best books I have ever read) I know, I’m starting to sound like Richard and Judy…I’ll stop now.
* I am the self proclaimed best impersonator of Lola on the planet. I could do the voice for telly
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