I can't remember the last time I finished a book.
I've been reading The Grapes Of Wrath for what has to be over a year and I'm still only on page 103. It sits there next to the bed, sometimes it falls under it or down the side of it, but it's always close by. It never gets read because it always loses the mental toss-up which occurs at bedtime between reading or playing bejewelled on my phone.
I bought it when I was going through a bit of a Steinbeck phase. I read Cannery Row and Mice and Men. They were both great, contained fantastic characters, but most importantly I think... they were really quite short. Grapes of Wrath isn't.
I've dipped into other stuff while it has sat there. I've nearly finished a book about Fawlty Towers, but the writing made me angry; I read about 30% of Derren Brown's Tricks of The Mind, but gave up when it made me feel mentally lazy. I've dipped into a few Pratchetts, some 1940s plays, a book on directing, an Artemis Fowl adventure, some Alan Bennett, some Jeremy Clarkson a bit of Charlie Brooker, something called The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, a couple of comic book compilations, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Machiavelli's The Prince and the fantastically named - Bollocks to Alton Towers.
I've not finished any of them. Apart from An Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett which is about 90 pages long.
I don't know why, but I just don't seem able to finish a book these days. The last books I remember truly enjoying were the two Dirk Gently novels by Douglas Adams and The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell. Oh and I really enjoyed a brief journey into the world of Jasper Fford.
Oh... and The Da Vinci Code. I loved the Da Vinci Code.
If anyone can recommend me a good book then please do. Nothing too pretentious or wanky though.
Although if you do have a good book I can't imagine why you'd be reading this.
Away from reading and back to writing... I have ten minutes worth of sketches to write this week. I am planning to try and get all the first drafts done tomorrow and then along with tickling them throughout the week I am going to re-edit my film treatment. In fact I might have a little crack at that now. And then have an early night. Maybe with a book. Maybe I'll crack on with The Grapes of Wrath.
I'll probably play Bejewelled.
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4 comments:
'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' by Michael Chabon is probably the best book I have read. 'Life of Pi' (Yann Martel) was really good too.
I have no idea if you really wanted suggestions, but there they are :-)
Dan
Dan I'm going to order them on Amazon right now. Cheers.
It could just be that your attention span is very short in the evening. I know mine is. If that's the case, here's a couple of suggestions:
There's so many brilliant graphic novels that you could read (Preacher up until about the fifth book, Maus, Jimmy Corrigan...). You could also try subscribing to a comic, they get delivered weekly in small, exciting segments and at least you're still reading.
Short story compilations. Everyone usually enjoys Roald Dahl's. You could also try What I'd Say To The Martians by Jack Handey and one of my all-time favourites: Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman (it sounds terrible if you read the blurb - nuclear physics, meh - but it's amazing)
Oh and World War Z was brill if you're into your zombies.
Pip Pip!
Roland.
Just checked some of those out on Amazon Roland and they look phenomenal. Thanks so much.
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