Reading Habits
Dec. 12th, 2009 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI read 26 books last year. One a fortnight. By the time we hit New Year's Eve I'll have finished one or two more.
All but three of them were fiction.
The author I read most of was Evelyn Waugh: I read six of his books. The runner up was Agatha Christie; I read four of hers.
The oldest book I read was the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which is 15th century. I read two 19th century novels (one by Balzac, one by Zola); all the rest were less than 100 years old.
Eleven of my authors were men; three were women.
Six were British, five American, two French, one Italian. One (Conrad) was a Pole who wrote in English, one (Littell) an American who writes in French.
I find I am getting less willing to finish books I don't like. Among the books I started and didn't finish were Angela Carter's Wise Children, Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet, something of Raymond Chandler's and Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.
The book that made the biggest impression on me (if I haven't written much about it, it's because I'm still coming to terms with it) was Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones.
I am currently reading Robert Holdstock's Lavondyss.
All but three of them were fiction.
The author I read most of was Evelyn Waugh: I read six of his books. The runner up was Agatha Christie; I read four of hers.
The oldest book I read was the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which is 15th century. I read two 19th century novels (one by Balzac, one by Zola); all the rest were less than 100 years old.
Eleven of my authors were men; three were women.
Six were British, five American, two French, one Italian. One (Conrad) was a Pole who wrote in English, one (Littell) an American who writes in French.
I find I am getting less willing to finish books I don't like. Among the books I started and didn't finish were Angela Carter's Wise Children, Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet, something of Raymond Chandler's and Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.
The book that made the biggest impression on me (if I haven't written much about it, it's because I'm still coming to terms with it) was Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones.
I am currently reading Robert Holdstock's Lavondyss.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 01:00 pm (UTC)I guess these days it comes down to whether I find an author simpatico or not. My time is too short for me to tolerate spending it in the company of people I don't like.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-12 05:38 pm (UTC)