Down the rabbit hole thanks to Norfolk Library and Information Service
I’ve become very meta at present and many of the books I’ve
been reading have been about reading or books. I think that perhaps my (not so)
inner bookworm is out of control…
First up was Reading the World by Ann Morgan. This book
charts her experiences of spending a year, 2012, in trying to read a book from every
country.
This wasn’t as easy as you’d think as there’s a lot of dispute
about who does appear on such a list – as Morgan found this is an incredibly
fraught issue with many possible answers.
Her next issue was finding books that she could physically read – not very much literature gets translated into English in the grand scheme
of things.
Then there was the issue of finding the books (not
every nation has a proud written word culture) and then getting them to England
for reading.
The book wasn’t so much about the books read for the project
as the process around it, however all of Morgan’s reviews are still available on her blog – along with lists of other books that could have been chosen but
weren’t.
Next was Stig Abell’s Things I learned on the 6.28: a
guide to reading. In 2019 Abell decided to focus the reading he undertook
on his morning commute in an attempt to expand his reading, and looks at genres
in more detail. Each month had a different theme such as Poetry, Shakespeare, American
Fiction, and then Abell mixes his thoughts on the books with his daily diary and
his research in to the author/genre.
As the world changed so much in 2020 this book felt a little
bit like a historical document as I read it but dipping in and out reading a
month at a time I found I really enjoyed this book, and like the best books about
books I have added a fair few new titles to my “I’ll read these one day” list.
The final book in this genre for now is Tom Mole’s The
Secret Life of Books: why they mean more than words. Unlike the other two
books this isn’t about specific titles but is all about what the book as a physical
object means to a person.
The 8 chapters take themes like Book/Life or Book/Self and
then explore what the book brings to each of these areas, a lot of what Mole
says resonates with my thinking on the topic – especially in light of reading
Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own last year. Spread through the book are also
some works of art that feature books and Mole explores what the books have to
say about the paintings which is fascinating and a topic I’d like to read more
about!
Three very different books and ones that have made me think
a lot about my own reading. I love translated fiction and so will definitely be
using Morgan’s books to learn more about literature from other countries, and
Abell’s focused reading was inspiring.
However I can’t see myself dedicating my reading time to
such specific (and limiting) projects. I look at my ‘to read’ pile and think
that I should read all of that before anything new comes along. I am trying to
read more from it but I’d hate not being able to read something new and
exciting that came my way, and it would stop me from taking part in some of the
exciting projects that do cross my path.
Reading is a pleasure and I want to keep it that way, several
times while reading Morgan and Abell I got the feeling that their projects had become
a chore. I want books and reading to stay as personal and pleasurable as
possible – for as Mole says, the book really is a wonderful item.
