Recently (and by recently, I mean at least 2 months ago) I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. I love the classics, I really do. There’s nothing better than picking up a book that predates your parents and falling into a world of etiquette, intrigue and odd sense of timelessness. I studied literature in University, it’s my thing, I love getting lost in books and I love the adventure of each and every story.
However.
For some reason the classics have been killing me lately. The Picture of Dorian Gray wasn’t the first, in fact Dracula may have been the catalyst for my sudden declining interest. I can’t read them. I just can’t handle it. The language is driving me nuts, the countless chapters in which nothing eventuates is driving me bonkers and I’m finding the characters void of any really character. When I read a book, I want to cry with a character, I want to be happy with a character, I want to get angry AT a character and want to throw the book across the room. But these feelings have been declining and I haven’t felt my usual self when it comes to literary classics.
In order to remedy this problem, I’m going to read what I like to call Junk Food Novels. I call them JFN’s because they are just like what junk food is to your health. You know junk food is bad for you, you know you’re not going to get any nutritional value from it and yet you can’t help but get a few moments of bliss when your eating it. Which is like JFN’s; I know these books aren’t good for me and I know I’m not going to learn anything ground breaking but I also know that for a few moments, I’m immersed in a whole new world in which I can get angry at the characters.
So here are some of the books I’m going to be reading over the next month (or three), this is also called “That time I didn’t feel like changing my camera settings, so please excuse the horrible quality”:
 | That Part Was True |
| Recipe for Scandal |  |
 | That Loving Feeling - Carole Matthews (Lets be honest, I got this book because it reminds me of a song) |
| The Overnight Socialite |  |
I will review each and every book I read on completion of reading them so stay tuned. I will probably be reading them in this order.
Awesome! I have also tried getting into the classics, and I have been slightly ashamed of my disinterest in reading them. I did the same thing you did and started reading some junk food novels to get me back into the reading groove. I love reading, but sometimes I get busy with other stuff. And when I stop reading books for a while, sometimes it's hard to start with something really complicated. Anyway, I'm reading "Dad is Fat" by the comedian Jim Gaffigan right now, and it's f-ing hilarious. Usually reading anything that makes me laugh will get me out of my reading funk. David Sedaris is my absolute favorite humor writer, but I feel bad putting him in the junk food category. Don't tell anybody, but I'm also a lover of chick-lit every once in a while too ;)
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I tend to find my way back to female authors, it definitely isn't a conscious decision though. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't read a comedic/funny book in quite a while! I did just buy The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I'm ashamed to say I've never read, so once I get through the books above, I'm definitely going to read it!
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