I seem to have a very short attention span for reading at the moment. I can watch Buffy for ten hours straight no problems, but I can’t read a book for ten minutes. I refuse to believe that these two things are connected in any kind of cause and effect way, so don’t even go there.
I’ve been trying to read Anil’s Ghost, but it’s just not happening. So, short fiction it is. The trouble is my small collection of short fiction seems to be dominated by New Zealand collections. And, do be frank, I am so sick of New Zealand literature. Actually, not all of it. I really enjoy Caren Wilton.
I find the library really scary. All those books, thousands of them. How am I ever going to find the good ones? I have no idea where to even begin. So, I’m asking for your help. Please, tell me what I want to read. The short story writers I have enjoyed most recently are Etgar Keret and Jhumpa Lahiri. I’m not sure if that narrows it down any, I can’t think of anything they have in common, other than not being New Zealanders. Although... they are published by two of my favourite publishers, Picador and Flamingo. I often use that as a way of coping with the library – wander along the rows looking out for certain logos. Still, it’s not failsafe. That’s why I’m turning to you. I know you won't let me down.
If you're at all interested in the brit-schlock end of contemporary fiction, the "Speaking with the Angel" anthology edited by Nick Hornby is a good read.
Posted by: furious fran at May 13, 2005 11:01 AMI'm terrible at remembering names and titles, but Ruth D....( who wrote Heat and Dust) has a really thought provoking collection of short stories and the intro is worth reading many times over.
Also for some contemporary Japanese stuff I'd recommend Moneky Brain Sushi, it's a bit uneven but it's definetely not NZld writing.
Oh and at the moment I'm trying not to read: The best of Roald Dahl. Nostalgic, dark, yet somehow refreshing.
I'm re-reading "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves at the moment. Completely unrelated to your current interests, of course, but it is the fantastic work of historical fiction and it's just so much fun: reading about the depravities of Tiberius and Caligula gives one the same morbid pleasure of, say, reading "Inferno" and getting your jollies at all the different infernal punishments.
Posted by: Matt at May 16, 2005 11:32 AMYou could try some young adult fiction - fun and easy to get through. Have you ever read any Francesca Lia Block? Weetzie Bat and her Dangerous Angels books always give me warm fuzzies :)
Posted by: Celeste at May 18, 2005 12:32 PMIf you want a seriously small library to be in, I hear the Lesbian Library is going to reopen in its new home, down the path next to St Andrews on the terrace.
Your writing reminded me of being on the Cornell University campus, in Ithaca New York. The university has more than 25 libraries. Their Asian library is an enormous warehouse. You enter it on one side of the warehouse, as if you entered on the end of a corn row, and you can see all the ends of dozens of high-as-a-ladder, really long and really crowded shelves all at one time. It is the largest collection of printed material from Asia all in one place in the world, including Asia. Having never learned an Asian language, I was floored by how much was there that I could never begin to know. But, it also made me think that much of the world was like that, that I was simply used to the illusion of attainment that a small library offers. And it is all OK - after all, life is about the moment, not regret or anxiety, back or forward.
Something short and not New Zealand....
America's Best Essays (they put one out every year and they are fantistic) specifically the one from 1999. Great stories.
I will be traveling and working a bit in NZ soon, so please tell me what I should be reading?
Posted by: Kala at July 6, 2005 06:44 AM