I've felt recently that I'm becoming slightly over critical with the books I read. I enjoy them all, it's very rare I actually pick up a book I don't like at all. At first I thought it was just me, either trying to find something to criticise, or just picking the wrong books to read in the first place. The only way to find out was to go back and read my reviews, and try and figure it out. Which is when I think I came upon a surprising conclusion............
I think I read too much fiction published in the last few years!
My reading habits have always tended towards recent fiction, and I've always been happy with it. However, over the last few months the best books I've read have been the older ones, such as The Heart of the Matter, The Woman in Black and The Bookshop. Now there is always the possibility that this could be co-incidence, and I'm perfectly prepared to believe that. But I am going to make a concerted effort to change the ratio of new books to slightly older ones.
The only thing left now is to define (mainly to myself) what I'm classing as recent! I was going to pick a definitive date, but that seems a bit harsh. But the date I'd got in mind was 1976 (year I was born), so I'll go with that as a rough guide. So in brief, hopefully more, but by no means all, of the books I read (for now at least) will have been published before I was born, there or thereabouts.
3 comments:
While I do read my share of "recent" fiction, I try and focus on prize-winners, shortlisted authors, and the odd spectacular review. Maybe that makes me sound pretentious, but more oft' than not, a random book on the shelf proves disappointing.
You're probably aware of it, but there's a 1001 books to read before you die list, and that has some amazing books - 2000s down to pre-1700s.
I am the exact opposite-- I tend to connect with modern writers like Michel Houellebecq and Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk moreso than writers who write more "classic" fiction (I HATED most of the books we studied in school). However, I do believe that there is a much greater chance of finding a well written book if it's older. After all, if it's still around and being read after all these years, that's a good indication that it's a book worth reading!
The Reader
I'm a Bookworm
I read more new fiction last year than I ever have before and although my reading experience wasn't the worse for it, this year I want to return to modern classics, prizewinners and those books left unread on my shelf as well as older ones still.
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