Reading Habits

[poliphilo]

I used to buy fine editions. Then I couldn't afford them any more.  In the last year or so I've realised I no longer need or hanker after  hard copies. All the books in the world are swarming around in the aether- new ones, old ones, very, very rare ones. Hit a few buttons and there they are at your feet- just as if you were shooting grouse.

I still own lots of books. As Virginia Woolf said (I think it was her) "books do furnish a room".

The last book I read (J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys by Andrew Birkin) was an old paperback that was coming apart at the seams. The one I'm reading at the moment (Sentimental Tommy by J.M. Barrie himself) is an e-text. I don't find any qualitative difference between    curling up with a real book and curling up with my e-reader.  After all, it's the words that matter.

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

How did you find J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys? I think that's the Barrie quasi-biography that I have.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz bought it from an on-line bookseller. It related to a course on children's literature she was doing.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I meant to say "what is your opinion of...?", not "where did you get it?"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Silly of me..

I found it very readable. It relies heavily on primary sources- letters, diary entries etc- which are woven cunningly into the narrative.

You're right to call it a "quasi-biography". It focuses on one particular phase of Barrie's life- his relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies family- and leaves much else untouched.