11 Jan 2009, Posted by Cat in News, 6 Comments. Tagged books, reading

books

Like most people I know, my back room is stuffed with books I’ve never gotten around to reading. Just the sight of them daunts me into prolonged inactivity. I’m always reading something, but it takes me forever to attain the achievement of knocking titles off the pile, as, meanwhile, books continue to accumulate.

Last week I developed a cunning plan to help me take control of the situation. Cos in my mind it is a situation that needs resolving. People will be talking about a book they’ve read and I go ooh, I’ve got that, only what’s the point of having a book if you can’t contribute an opinion of any kind, save, perhaps, that the cover art does or doesn’t suck?

The answer is so glaringly simple: read first chapters of them all. A first chapter will give me a taste of what’s inside. I will learn something about the vibe of a book and hopefully be inspired to sneak a bit more time out of my days to get it finished. Or not.

So, currently I’m reading the first chapters of: South by Java Head by Alastair Maclean, Thunder Road by Chris Curry, Tintin and the secret life of literature by Tom McCarthy, Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham, The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood, Starcross by Philip Reeve, Black Man by Richard Morgan, Octavian Nothing by M T Anderson, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow, The Gentleman in the Parlour by W Somorset Maugham, and The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers.

I’m also reading Declare by Tim Powers and Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann, but they are separate to the others because I have committed to finishing them both. I’ve just finished Trujillo by Lucius Shepherd, the first success in my first chapter only reading regime because I liked it so much I kept going straight to the end. Mind you, that guy could make a shopping list read like a thrilling narrative so no surprises there.