I love having a good, fluffy book -- either absorbing fiction** or popular history not in my field*** -- to read in bed for half an hour. I'd gotten away from this over the last god-knows-how-many years, when I had first netflix, then hulu to distract me. And I honestly believed that the last thing I wanted to do at the end of the day was read another book.
But you know what? I was wrong.
**Read: nothing that will "improve" me. Booker prize winners and "important new voices in literature" can stay away from my bedside table, thank you.
***Current Example: The Professor and the Madman. Linguistic geekery! Murder and mayhem! No footnotes, and no reason I should care!
7 comments:
popular history not in my field
I recommend William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal in this category. Footnotes, but I don't see why they can't be ignored, and an opening set piece--a royal wedding procession in Old Delhi--that's a knockout.
I am so with you on that Booker thing. But I'll confess I did read the latest (which kind of fits your other criterion).
You know what's best? Historical fiction set in a period that is not my field. It's so wrong, but it's just so right!
@ Laughinginsydney: you know, I was just thinking about that one after I wrote it -- it's been recommended to me more than once, so I may just have to make an exception here.
Today: trip to the bookstore for before my trip!
Just finished Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem, and it was fucking hilarious. Although a potential downside is that there are a vast number of inside jokes and allusions that can only be understood if you've lived in NYC for at least a little while.
Thanks for the suggestion.
You have a great blog, and I'd like to blogroll you.
S
I'm reading Darwin's Sacred Cause right now, a scholarly-ish but also popular history about the relationship between Darwin's scientific theories and the various abolitionist movements in England. I love it (mostly because I don't work on the 19th century!). I'm surprised at myself mostly, because I never read any books except Harry Potter to fall asleep at night; I too like to pretend I don't really want to read, but it turns out that I actually do!
Post a Comment