I have nothing against Hilary Mantel or Wolf Hall. But the time has come to be more discerning than just reading something because everyone else has read it, it's piled high in Waterstones and I'm mildly curious.
How many books can I read in my whole life? Or, more usefully, my remaining life? Of course, that depends how long is left. Looking at my family's record, I might have another 50 years. If I read a book a week, that's about 2,500 books to go. Some of those books haven't been published yet.
I can probably list many hundreds of books I know I want to read, or re-read. Wolf Hall is long, so I might have to swap out a couple of short James Joyce books and a volume of poetry to give it a slot. Or never re-read the Moomintroll books or Alan Garner. Worth it? I don't know without reading WH, but I'm guessing that, for me, it's not. If I have to choose between Tolstoy and Wolf Hall, Tolstoy will get the gig.
Some things I have to read for work, or to keep up. On the list for work at the moment are re-reading Plato's Timaeus and Critias, CP Snow's Two Cultures, IA Richards' Practical Criticism, maybe a quick refresher on Empsom and Leavis, and finishing (for the first time) Francine Prose's Reading like a Writer. Actually, I wasn't counting the work reading in the book a week, so these don't need to take any of the 2,500 slots. But these books are relevant as I'm (re)reading them in preparation for my new role as Royal Literary Fund Lector (title may change), which starts in September. And that's also why I'm thinking about which books are worth reading.
Lectorships are a new departure for the RLF. All professional writers, the lectors will run reading-aloud groups in the community. Initially, there will be groups in Cambridge, London, Sussex, Somerset, Yorkshire and Glasgow. The idea is to encourage the development of critical reading skills. The groups may target specific groups - elderly people, single parents, dentists, accountants, ex-convicts, people with ginger hair - it can be any kind of group. Or they may be open to anyone. How the group is advertised and made up is left to the discretion of each lector. All lectors have previously been (or currently are) RLF fellows. That means we've all done at least one stint in a university, and this is a chance to work with people outside an education setting.
The model for the sessions is Socratic dialogue, with a good deal borrowed from the tradition of Cambridge practical criticism. Each session (one and a half to two hours long) starts with participants reading aloud the selected text – a short story, a poem, or a piece of non-fiction - and then discussing it: what effect does it have? how does it work? does it work? It means reading slowly, savouring the choice of words, pausing to see how the punctuation works, following the thread of each sentence and unpicking it, learning how writing works at a detailed level. We hope it will help people with their own writing, and enjoy literature more fully. Becoming a critical reader will also mean they are better equipped to read all texts with an eye on how their response is constructed and how they might be being manipulated. A country filled with critical readers would give our political leaders and large corporations a much tougher time.
But that’s not all. It’s likely that many people who come to the groups will already be readers. The groups will – we hope – introduce them to a wider range of literature than they might have found on their own. If someone co
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By: Stroppy Author,
on 5/16/2010
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 9/30/2009
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Frogs, Dianne Hofmeyr, The Jungle Book, Breath, Ecological Intelligence, Ian McCallum, The Frog Diaries Wolf Hall, Running Wild, Beijing Coma, Add a tag
Yesterday I was a green-eyed monster. I saw Michael Morpurgo’s latest novel Running Wild in the bookstores. It’s the story of a boy and an elephant who rush off into the jungle because the elephant senses a tsunami coming. Four years ago (in 2005 to be precise... as I still have all my paperwork) I researched Sea Gipsies and elephants who escaped the tsunami because of their intuitive knowledge… a sort of 6th sense. I discovered these insights while reading Ian McCallum’s book, Ecological Intelligence. Fascinated I broached the idea of a story based on this. But the tsunami had devastated too many people’s lives and it was believed to be too close to the event. Four years later out comes Running Wild! 
In the stakes of frogs versus vampires, it’s a no-brainer as far as popularity goes. Yet geckoes, chameleons and mammoth Madagascan moon moths were great draw-cards with 9 & 10 yr olds in the butterfly tent at the Natural History Museum this summer. And recently at the Saatchi Gallery it was the photograph of the toxic looking Blue Poison Dart frog (dendrobates azureus) that had a ring of children around it. Is this a trend? Will the jungle book return? I’d like to think so.
I love doing what I’m doing. Because what does a primitive ylang ylang distillery look like in the heart of a rainforest? And how will my hero’s tree-house be suspended in the forest canopy by steel cables? Never mind plot problems and jungle-fact problems, I wake up each morning to engineering problems… and its fun. Fun because I love doing what I’m doing.
My frog stories join the dogged drafts of a few maniacs seeking new encounters. And if there’s to be an encounter with the world (and ourselves), then it’s up to us maniacs to do it. The root meaning of the word enthusiasm is enthosiasmos which in Greek translates: to be filled by the gods. I hope you are all filled by the gods this morning!
Book recommendations:
Crime and Punishment - great example of a Russian classic and accessible as early thriller/detective fiction.
Daniel Tammet's Born on a Blue Day - autobiographical insight into an autistic savant's mind. This book humanises, frankly, and is the only book about which I've ever said, "Everyone should read this book."
Great post, Anne.
Thank you, Nicola - I'll look that one out :-)
Dan - thanks :-) Crime and Punishment, great though it is, is too long for a reading-aloud group and I don't want to do excerpts (or not often). This may change... we might do a (short) novel over several weeks.
I should have said - self-contained texts that we can work with in a 2-hour slot. Oh, and preferably not work in translation as we are talking about close reading so I'd rather deal with the author's real words (or the real author's words).
Thank you :-)
Finally! Someone who says exactly what I feel.
Interesting. I have a lot less time for reading left than you do (indeed if I took my parents' lifespan as a guide, only three years) and I'm spending some of it reading 60 titles as a judge for the Booktrust Teenage Prize.
I have a toothsome pile waiting for when I finish, including Wolf Hall. I think if I took your approach, I'd be absolutely paralysed.
My only criterion, apart from when I have a judging or reviewing job is "Do I want to read it?" and I do with WH.
By the way, I'd ditch Francise Prose. I found it disappointing and utterly unmemorable so if you ARE anxiious about not "wasting" reading time, don't bother with it.
It would be a pity to miss Wolf Hall, I think, because it is very good. You could keep it in the car- that's a good place to keep books you never plan to read. I find I always read them sooner or later.
In the car!
I have In the castle of My Skin, which I have never finished
and another about the Ottoman Empire.
I LOVED Wolf Hall, but I also loved even even more a book out this year which is both edifying and revealing and sad and beuatiful, The Long Song, by Andrea Levy.
self-contained literature ... Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.
I've been putting off Wolf Hall--I'm not a great one for 'should-reads' either. Maybe I will come to it one day, maybe I won't. Hmmn--books for the lector. Some books are just not suited to reading aloud--others cry out for it. If you could only tell them to ignore the overlong and quite boring political Coodle and Doodle bits, I'd recommend Bleak House--though maybe leaving them in would be a topic about how much politics doesn't change!
Think a Dickens should be in your list somewhere because his writing has some awful passages as well as the stronger & inspiring parts. Often the televised version is the one that sits in people's minds, not the text.
I absolutely loved Wolf Hall and I'm like Mary. Unless I'm reading for a judging of a prize, then PLEASURE is my only criterion. Do I fancy it? And WH was ace all the way through and I can't wait for part two. However, if you don't fancy it, then give it a miss. No one says you ought to read it. Or they shouldn't! As for a book to read with the group, how about the Great Gatsby? Very short and brilliant I reckon.
Short book to read aloud in a group? How about 'Youth' by Conrad? Always loved it. EVERYTHING goes wrong on this young man's first voyage as mate, and he manages to enjoy it - becasue of his youth...
I liked Wolf Hall, and would read the sequel, but am not sure I would re-read, so will probably borrow from library rather than buy, next time. Re-reading it my yardstick.
Kidnapped. And then Catriona. I love both, for different reasons, and also for the same reason that he was such a fine writer, early and late! And the scene between Davie and Alan Breck, just after they have had the big dust-up and then Alan realises Davie is genuinely ill, always makes me cry - but then in the later novel, the scenes between Catriona and Davie are so sensual and so beautiful - and the perspective so much more mature...And - speaking as a playwright - the dialogue is wonderful!
I buried myself in huge books this winter, for the first time in years. I read Wolf Hall, The Children's Book and Pillars of the Earth. It was wonderful to fall so deeply into a book again as so many books today I read through quite quickly. But it does take a big chunk out of your life. Maybe it'll snow a lot again next winter! My suggestion it to get the audio version and listen to it in the car. All three of these books are worth it.
Thank you for all these wonderful suggestions :-) I shall certainly them up - including the suggestion of keeping Wolf Hall in the car! I have to wait at the level crossing for a few minutes most days, so I can read a page or two then... Audio in the car doesn't work for me, though, Miriam - I only use the car when ferrying daughter around and she insists on listening radio Bint (or, on a good day, R4).
I tend to be resistant to reading books that people tell me I ought to read. This is doubly true when it is my wife who tells me I ought.
I'm not sure why this is, because generally we share very similar tastes; I love what she loves (not always vice versa) but usually, I like her recommendations. But still I resist, perhaps because I resent being steered.
Recently, I had finished a book and picked a new one off the shelf. My wife said, 'I thought you were going to read Wolf Hall next.' I replied, 'Um... it's big and heavy. Won't fit in my bag on the train.' My wife said, 'In that case, you'll never read it.'
When she said this, she looked so sad. Really, she looked very sad. She hadn't done that before. So I went back to the shelf and I got Wolf Hall.
It's not as good as everyone says. It's better.
I think in terms of really delcious meals I can still enjoy, rather than books, Anne, which rather turns me into a glutton! Like Mary given my parents longevity, I've only three years to go! That's terrifying! Loved WH. Now reading HM's memoir -'Giving up the Ghost'.
Your Cambridge reading group NEEDS to read the Moomin books if it hasn't already! Moominland Midwinter, especially.
When working out how many years of reading are left, there's a depressing and niggling worry that the last part of a much looked forward to trilogy might not appear in time ... I think there should be some kind of law that trilogies and series of books should only be published when they've all been written, so that readers don't have to wait years between each, fretfully worrying about when the next part will appear. Especially when you've been left on a cliffhanger. So when CAN we expect Sterkarm 3?