Dirty Little Secrets
Posted under Books I love
Oh, haven’t looked at that self-portrait for a while…from Secret 17 of my 30 secrets in 30 days project from last year …”I keep a Grudge Book“. I still do. Just in case anyone was wondering…
How did I ever have the time to do all those self-portraits? How did I ever unearth 30 secrets which were fit to share? Well, I was working less than I do now and the Megaboys were still napping for 2 hours in the afternoon. Sigh, how I miss ‘the nap’, the quiet of the house in the afternoon…a couple of delicious hours all to myself. Happy days.
Dirty Little Secrets…not ‘those’ kinds but literary ones. Do you have any? I don’t, although apparently I’m supposed to. I heard a discussion on Radio 4 recently where Learned Folk revealed which books they haven’t ever read, but ought to have done. I can’t remember who was being interviewed, a woman who was either an author or a literary critic and some Emeritus Professor do-dah. The woman fessed up never having read ‘Sense & Sensibility’ which is a book that, according to her, someone who is considered ‘well read’ should have read. She was clearly mortified at having to admit to it, and was making frantic promises to read it this summer. Why? She’s middle aged. She’s got this far without having the desire or motivation to read it, so why do it out of duty?
The Emeritus Professor had a much healthier view. I cant’ remember what his ‘shameful’ admission was, perhaps he didn’t have one. He made the point that no one can possibly be expected to have read everything and that even attempting to do so deprives us of the sheer JOY of reading for reading’s sake. He buys trashy books at airports to read on the plane, that’s his ‘dirty little secret’ because if the plane goes down he wants his last reading experience to have been an entertaining one, rather than an ‘improving’ one. Good for him! Although he did add that they aren’t the kind of books he would like his colleagues in the Common Room to see him reading. Bah. Literary snobbishness? I hate that. Grudge Book immediately.
I can’t think of any books that I haven’t read that I feel I ‘ought’ to have done. But then I don’t hold myself as being ‘well read’. Instead, I like to think that I ‘read well’ (d’you see what I did there?). I read books which appeal to me, which entertain, enthrall and challenge me. If it doesn’t, I stop reading it. This is a fairly new development, being able to stop reading a book without finishing it. When I was younger I would just plough on but now I just call it a day. Plenty of other books on the pile calling to me. This week I was duped in to finishing a book that was really very dull. ‘The Secret Intensity of Everyday Living’ promised so much, such an intriguing title. I felt sure it was worth pushing on through chapter after chapter of mediocre writing. Surely something was going to happen? But it never did. Pah, I hate that. What a waste of precious reading time!
Whilst I don’t have an ‘I ought to have read’ list, I do have a ‘Books I Hate That Everyone Else Loves’ list. Top of the list is 100 Years of Solitude. I really, really disliked that book and found it tedious and pedestrian. But everyone else raves about it. I haven’t read the Narnia books because I thought The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was stuff and nonsense.
And then there is the ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ list…I used to adore reading Jeffrey Archer, Jilly Cooper and Joanna Trollope. I may even *cough* have read a Maeve Binchy novel in My Youth. None of these could ever count towards being ‘well read’ but who cares? And who’s keeping score anyway?
So, I fessed up to my Dirty Little Secrets in the literary department. Tell me yours. What books have you read that you’re ashamed of, purge your soul right here. And do you feel you ‘ought’ to have read certain books, and why? Have you pretended to have a read a book when you haven’t? Let’s get all our secrets out shall we.
Sits down and hands round the biscuits….xx
