At the beginning of this year I discovered book blogs and a whole world of wonderful reading material opened up before me. Thanks to seeing a recommendation for Taddle Creek I am now subscribing to a great little literary magazine that has immensely saved my sanity of late. For those of you following along, you know I’ve been immersed in a programming course this semester that is taking much precious time away from pleasure reading. I’ve had Brisingr, the third book in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle on the go for nearly a month now, and still have more than a third to read, owing to the fact I’m lucky if I manage to get in a chapter a day between work and studies (major boo!). This has led to the following discovery: If I’m not regularly reading fiction or something for pleasure I get cranky. Very cranky. The not fit to be out in public kind of cranky that is most unattractive.
Desperate to get the monkey off my back I picked up the summer issue of Taddle Creek (that arrived quite a few months ago but has been sitting on top of my bookshelf (where magazines generally go to die…what can I say? I’m a book girl), ever since). Much to my surprise and enjoyment the stories have proved to be not only wonderful reads but extremely well-written also. My favourite so far is David Ross’ A Private Woman. I devoured it before class started yesterday and it was simply lovely to read some really decent fiction for a change. The experience has helped to calm me down – I feel a bit like an addict who’s just taken a hit of some really good shit and I’m very much enjoying the resultant high. Something else I’ve discovered: short stories are great for getting you through the lean times when life’s responsibilities interfere and leave you no time for pleasure reading.
I’m going to start taking a closer look at what has been, for me, a very neglected genre: the short story.
Many blessings,
L J
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