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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Have your reading preferences changed over time? #amreading

29/6/2018

10 Comments

 
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Book groups are great because you get to read stuff you wouldn’t ordinarily choose. But groups are a pain because you feel obliged to read stuff you wouldn’t ordinarily choose. Sometimes it’s a pleasant surprise. Sometimes it confirms your prejudices. But best of all is when it takes you back to a book you thought you knew only to find you’ve completely changed your mind about it.


Almost three decades ago, a Guardian review drew me to the novel, See under Love by Israeli author David Grossman. Although I had a penchant for Holocaust narratives even then, especially those addressing the impact on subsequent generations, I hated it. So when last year it was proposed as our next book group read, I was distinctly unenthusiastic. Although our group is small, and one person missing makes a significant difference, I considered opting out. I’m glad I didn’t.
 
It’s a long book, divided into four sections, of which we read only the first about an unhappy little boy in Jerusalem whose parents are trapped in unprocessed memories of what happened “Over There”. I found it piercingly poignant but also surprisingly funny. It might have been a different novel altogether from the one I read soon after its initial publication in an English translation. Perhaps it was a different reader?
 
I’m roughly twice the age I was on first reading, so of course I’ve changed. I’m probably twice as
happy too, but wouldn’t that swing the balance of my reading preferences away from darkness towards the light? But it’s not so straightforward. I’m fiercely loyal to the darkness that made me but the difference is that it’s more processed. I’ve a stronger sense of what is and isn’t mine.
 
So I might be more comfortable these days with
literary darkness, but I think I’m more open to humour too. I might smugly conclude that I’ve extended my reading range, if there weren’t significant pockets of intolerance too. I’m less likely to plough through books that make readers fight to find their pleasures be it due to the author’s style or the publisher’s choice of print.
 
There might be other changes of which I’m not yet aware. So over to you: have your reading preferences altered over time?

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Follow this link for my other posts on reading habits and preferences. Tap or click the image below for the twelve reviews I’ve posted this month, featuring two historical fictional therapists (the first with a famous philosopher and the other a writer who mines his friend’s life for stories); international perspectives on colonialism and other oppressive regimes (in Soviet Bulgaria and an American women’s prison; in  Kenya and in Burma as the colonisers depart); refugee voices from Bosnia and Shatila; a new couple in an old house; and late-adolescent identity.

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How do these 12 books measure up against the
reading targets I set myself earlier this year? I’ve exceeded my targets regarding independent publishers (67% – 8 books – against a 50% target), female authors (58% – 7 books – against a 50% target), and BME authors (25% – 3 – compared with a target of 25%), but missed out with translations (with 2 – 17% – against a 20% target).
I’ve also picked out one potential favourite of 2018 (Jott by Sam Thompson).
 
Do please share your thoughts.



This week Charli is asking for 99-word stories that are sketches or about sketches. It’s not quite in the spirit of the prompt, but I couldn’t resist sketching the inside of a reader’s mind. (And despite the layout, I have
no pretensions to write poetry.)

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Woman reading

Her province’s a palace, a kitchen, a farm,
the White House, a rocket, a sty.
She’s a thousand years old, she’s black and she’s white,
she’s a phantom long dead or unborn.
She’s shackled and swayed in the bowels of a boat;
she’s blessed with the freedom to roam.
She’s a boxer, a banker, a beggar, a boy;
a cleric, a cleaner, a crow.
Her lip curls or curves, she wrinkles her brow,
she laughs, wipes a tear from her eye.
Her vista refreshed with each turn of the page;
she’s a citizen of everywhere, a reader, she’s me.
 

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
10 Comments
Charli Mills
2/7/2018 06:13:02 am

Yes, I do recognize that my reading preferences have shifted, but I still like a strong narrative with characters that evolve. But I read many different kinds of genres and authors -- much broader than I used to read. I still love Native American and African American authors that have long influenced me -- Sherman Alexie, Toni Morrisan -- plus my favorite genre of nature writing. I suppose I'm still adding to the stew pot. Interesting, though that your second reading with your book club expanded your appreciation of a book you previously didn't connect with. And your flash is brilliant! I recognized its form as a sketch and enjoyed the far-swinging experiences of a reader.

Reply
Annecdotist
3/7/2018 12:55:58 pm

Interesting that you’ve expanded your reading preferences, Charli. There’s so much out there, isn’t there? I think “minority” writers always bring something special. Glad you liked the flash.

Reply
Terry Tyler
3/7/2018 09:11:52 am

Massively! From the blockbusters of the 1980s and 'women's fiction' (ghastly tag) until I was in my 40s.,,,then discovered I preferred male POV stuff more, and started to like historical fiction....and the contemporary stuff became more edgy. Now, I steer away from anything romantic or 'women's drama'-ish, and love to go hundreds of years back in time or read about end of world scenarios. My book blog is mainly history and dystopian!

I've discovered so much through self-pub and Kindle - also a love of good travel memoirs, my third most read genre. Interesting question, Anne!

Reply
Annecdotist
3/7/2018 01:01:16 pm

Thanks for sharing, Terry, and interesting that you’ve come to prefer a male point of view. I’m intrigued as to why that might be. I like to think that female perspectives can be as edgy and adventurous as male, although when I create a character myself I always have some sense of the gender they need to be.
Interesting blend of history and futuristic in your reading preferences too.

Reply
Luccia Gray link
3/7/2018 11:24:50 am

Great flash! A self sketch!
I used to think my reading preferences had changed, because I read different writers nowadays, but I'm reading exactly the same type of novels as I used to read as a young woman.
I used to love; romantic suspense (Daphne du Maurier), Thrillers (Grahame Greene, Frederick Forsyth), Domestic dramas (Margaret Drabble), Crime/Detective fiction (Ruth Rendel), Neo Victorian fiction ( A S Byatt), Comedy (Sue Townsend).
Those are still my preferred genres, I'm just reading other authors nowadays, lots of authors, self published and traditionally published, and my reading habits have changed. I read mostly ebooks and audio books, but my preferred genres are the same.
Thanks for asking and making me think about it!

Reply
Annecdotist
3/7/2018 01:04:27 pm

Thanks for sharing, Lucy. Interesting that you’ve found new authors but within the same genre preferences. A necessity when a particular generation of writers dies off!

Reply
D. Avery link
3/7/2018 03:41:55 pm

Loved the flash, how a reader is a citizen of everywhere. Everything available and accessible through reading. I always read fiction mostly historical fiction growing up. Then went through a long period of non-fiction, history and old agricultural books, mostly. Reading for information. In recent years I have gotten back to reading occasional novels, and short stories. Really I just wait for the right book to find me. There is nothing like letting everything go and reading from cover to cover. Hmm..

Reply
Annecdotist
4/7/2018 03:40:01 pm

Thanks, D. I’m certainly intrigued by your interest in old agricultural books as I think the history of landscape is often neglected in favour of history of politics and war, although I’d probably need to know more about contemporary agriculture to appreciate them. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
D. Avery link
6/7/2018 03:27:39 pm

Agricultural methods are also the story of colonizer and colonized, indigenous v.s. invader. New England's native people were as much done in by the changed economy and ecology of land use as by the overt warring between groups. The dominant methods are rarely best practice and sustainable.

Annecdotist
6/7/2018 05:35:29 pm

Oh yes, that certainly interests me. I think of how farmers in the Third World were made dependent on artificial pesticides and F1 hybrid seeds (if that’s the term for plants that don’t produce true seed you can harvest yourself) losing the knowledge of traditional and more sustainable methods.
I don’t know if it would be relevant in the USA but there’s a novel by Jim Crace called Harvest – I haven’t actually read it but I rate him as an author – about the enclosure acts and the loss of common land.


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