Stuff I've Been Reading - A Shameless Copy Of Jeremy Gordon

Books bought

None. About 3 or 4 months ago, I made a pact to myself that I would not buy another book until I had read every unread book I own. This was borne out of a combination of ambition and lack of funds. Okay, admittedly, mostly lack of funds. Since, I have read about three of the books I already owned, which I had not read previously (poor effort from me). Somewhere along the line, I also made the decision that e-books were not books (rogue) and so started purchasing those. So, maybe not none.

·       The Underground Storyteller – Alex Day

·       The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying – Marie Kondo

·       Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart – Carrot Quinn

The Underground Storyteller was good. I wished it had been more historical and less anecdotal but I enjoyed it all the same.  Carrot’s book is epic. I felt like I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail despite reading it mostly while on the tube. It made me postively hungry for a nice long walk. It is an authentic and plainly written account of what I can only imagine to be a life-altering experience. The feeling of just wanting to climb a fucking mountain is still deep in my bones.

I wrote a full post on The Life-Changing Magic for a blog called INSPIRE, which you can read here.

Books read

Those mentioned above along with:

·       The Secret History – Donna Tartt

·       Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

·       Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey

·       The Opposite of Loneliness – Marina Keegan

The Secret History is definitely top ten in the best books I’ve ever read, perhaps even top five. This is going to sound whatever but the characters in this were so compelling. The plot could have been entirely different and it would have been just as good as far as I’m concerned. I was that into the characters. Americanah was good. Not amazing. I enjoyed the experience of reading about a culture I knew nothing about from the perspective of someone native to that culture. It felt somehow voyeuristic. I read this straight after The Secret History, which may have marred it slightly since I enjoyed that so much. Daily Rituals is a bit different. It is a non-fiction collection of the daily routines of famous artists. Not dissimilarly to Day’s book, this was more anecdotal than I would have liked. I am weirdly obsessed with daily routines and thought I would fly through this but it would have been better if it had been pared back. Finally, The Opposite of Loneliness. I have explained what this book is to so many people at this point that I’m just going to let you google it. It made waves in the publishing world when it was released and I expected to really enjoy it. The book is split into short stories and personal essays. I found the stories far superior to the essays but ultimately saw the book to be overshadowed by its context. It is also worth noting that Jeremy seriously enjoyed the essay 'Even Artichokes Have Doubts,' though perhaps just for its title. 

Also this poem in the Foyles in Waterloo whilst waiting to take the train home for Thanksgiving, which was written by Don Patterson, one of my university lecturers

Books left unfinished

The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron (I was enjoying this but it has just fallen by the wayside. I fully intend to pick it back up soon! I’m also going to get back in the habit of my Morning Pages soon.)

The Shelter’s of Stone – Jean M. Auel (This is book five in an amazing series called Earth’s Children, which I recommend super highly. However, the books are all quite long and quite repetitive. I’ll get back to it at some point.)

Books recklessly lent

The Essential Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks) to Sam who prefers a rhyming translation

The Secret History and The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes to Gareth who read one while on holiday in Copenhagen and has not made great progress on the other. Unrelatedly, I saw Julian Barnes speak at the University of St Andrews last year and found him to be both likable and interesting. He spoke about being a novelist like it was a regular day job and I was envious.

The Opposite of Loneliness to Nikki who agreed with me that the first two stories were the best

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts to Ellis; I’m never going to get it back, am I?

Ma's note: Also, Americanah to my pa's mate, Geoffie, who is lovely but lives abroad and will probably never get it back to me. 

Books to read next

The World According to Garp – John Irving