Thought for today:‘Every reader re-creates a novel – in their own imagination, anyway. It’s only entirely the writer’s when nobody else has read it.’
— Susan Hill
#thoughtfortoday #books #library #reading #writing #holiday #timeoff
It is a bank holiday weekend here in England, four days off work.
I didn’t want a plan, I had a vague sense that I would do some writing, some training development, some gardening and some reading. Yesterday I did some of each.
My approach to the reading is probably going to strike you as odd – I picked eight books I wanted to read, including a graphic novel (comic), some non-fiction and some fiction.
And then I sat down and read ten pages of each book. I enjoyed some of them enough to go back and read ten more. I think I will finish some of them this weekend – maybe four.
I know people who are horrified by this – or think it makes no sense. Judging not curious.
One of the books I am reading, and enjoying, is Susan Hill’s non-fiction work “Howards End is on The Landing” – a book about books and her specific relationships with books. The subtitle is “A year of reading from home”.
I started it maybe 8 years ago, the bookmark is still in it. It was recommended to me by Ginny Rottenburg – who has kept remarkable diaries of every book she has read in her life, she is at least as old as I am. I had read precisely one chapter.
Now I’ve read ten more – they are short.
It is a joy to have the luxury of time, a huge library, and the mindset to do what I want in my own way.
If you love books as much as I do, I recommend this book!
