bookstores

[silverflight8]

Can I say, I don't really enjoy bookstores? Oh, I quite like nosing in and looking at what's on display and seeing all the shiny, new, unbent and perfectly formed books and all. They are so perfect! Most of my reading is library so they've often been well-cracked, or modified with plastic and such to make them last a little longer. Plus bookstores always have interesting knick-knacks and general atmosphere - but all it makes me feel is that I should go home and read the books piling up there. I feel, guiltily, that I have so many books on hold at the library and as well as on the to-read-later list on the library website. That I have the real TBR list (on paper), the vague TBR list I keep in my head (which consists of things like "eventually, read all of Shakespeare's plays, Milton, the four Chinese classics, etc" - you know, very ambitious projects).

And what do I do when I get home?! REREAD SOMETHING I LOVE. I am making so little headway!

I'm presently about 30% through A Tale of Two Cities. I've read a lot of British literature and decided (completely ignoring all of the TBR lists previously mentioned) abruptly a few weeks ago I was going to stop avoiding Dickens.

flist, what are you reading?

Comments

[brigdh]

Ha, I also feel guilty about all my books piling up at home, but simultaneously love bookstores. It's a problem.

How are you liking A Tale of Two Cities? I had to read it in high school and hated it, but I might like it better now, since I've enjoyed the Dickens I read more recently.

[silverflight8]

I knowww I love going into them and poking about but I rarely buy anything. For one, it would be really expensive. I used to read over a hundred books a year. Even at like, $5, that's a lot! And most books are not priced at $5 at bookstores.

LOL that's a lot of reading to be assigned at school. Assigning books just starts everyone on a "I hate this book" foot, even people who like reading. I'm OK so far - I'm about 1/3rd of the way through, and it's not really grabbing me much. I find Dickens kinda hard to follow in terms of who he is referring to - like his conversations start losing me (who is saying this to who?) He tends to go off on expository descriptions without actually specifying, or maybe I should stop reading during lunch break where I'm liable to get interrupted every few minutes. I dunno. I have an overall feeling of the sensation of poverty - the grinding, bitter cold kind, which I think is valuable. And I am quite grateful for paved roads and well-sprung cars. Having to whip horses up hills, getting stuck in the mud, poorly sprung carriages, journeys taking days, highwaymen...aghhh.