Reading Lately

This past year I started feeling guilty about my lack of literary standards. I have a terrible habit of reading the same books over and over again (I'm looking at you Pride and Prejudice) and when I do find the motivation to select a new book they are usually "fun" reads. I don't think there's anything wrong with that per se, but this past year I've tried to add in some books that I wouldn't normally have chosen in the past. More directly, I've tried picking books which seem to me to be receiving a bit more literary hype rather than Hunger Games style teeny bopper hype.

I read this and this. And gave up half way through this. And tried to read this. And truly, I didn't enjoy any of them. I did actually really like this one though. I don't know. Perhaps I'm just choosing the wrong books. But the main outcome of this little experiment was that I managed to make reading feel like a chore by using my somewhat finite free time to read books I didn't love. In the past I've had a hard time allowing myself to stop books in the middle because it somehow feels like cheating but I've recently decided there are too many good books out there to slog through ones I dislike.

Which brings us to what I am reading lately (and loving) ... The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag. This is the second (third?) book in the utterly charming Flavia de Luce series. I don't think any description I could provide would do these books justice. But you can read more about them here. We read the the first book in the series in book club and it wasn't everyone's favorite, but since I seem to love fun/silly reads it was right up my alley. Also, I love British people so maybe that helps.