Writing and working in a London book shop
I was at the Jonathan Cape Booker party last night (not the telly one, the booze one), and had a very lovely time. It’s only just occurred to me now, at work, nursing my head and feeling nuts after too much coffee, that I haven’t read even one of the books on the short list. A lady customer pointed out to me that, considering I’m a writer and I work in a bookshop, that’s a bit rubbish. She’s right. When I’m asked by customers in the shop which of the shortlist they should start with, my suggestion so far has been to read the smaller ones and maybe by the time you get around to the bigger ones, they’ll be in paperback. I realise this is not an okay thing to say.
The last Booker book I read was ‘On Chesil Beach’ and I’m worried that’s only because it’s a really small book. Before I even think about new ones, I’ve already got several books lined up, books I’m embarrassed not to have already read: ‘Alamein to Zem Zem’ by Keith Douglas, ‘Tree of Man’ by Patrick White, any of David Mitchell’s books (yes, any), ‘The Year of the Hare’ by Arto Paasilinna, and a heaps more that I’m too embarrassed to admit to – the ones that I have to make the decision whether or not to lie about when they come up in conversation. The problem is it takes me a good 3 weeks to read an averagely sized book, so this little list already takes me well into 2010. If I had to add Wolf Hall to the list, I’d probably need to have a child, just for them to read the second half for me.
Apparently, this guy wrote an interesting book about how to sound like you’re read books you haven’t.
http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25341-2647599,00.html
But I haven’t read it.
I’d like to know the most embarrassing book you’ve never read but
feel like you should have?
I took War and Peace right round the world with me, for a whole year, and it never came out of my backpack.
Not one I haven’t read, but I do not like Dickens. People always look at me as if I have blasphemed…
I am pretty embarrassed that I have never read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ulysses, although a blighter stole my copy, I hope it screwed with their brain. I am also embarrassed that I haven’t actually read your book yet.
Pride and Prejudice. I know it’s a classic but I’ve never made it past the first few chapters. I watched the movie so hopefully I can fluff my way through… (that’s also a very embarrassing thing to admit in itself hahaha)
I once tried to pretend I’d read Don Quixote with a bunch of people who were saying it was their favourite book. I was left saying things like “I just really like the way it’s so long. And questy.”
Would be good to do a series of reviews of classic books by people who haven’t read them, just from what they think they know about the books.
I only read the first third of Lolita because I got bored. I read a book of Conrad short stories but left out Heart of Darkness because it was too long. But I can still talk about it because I’ve seen Apocalypse Now.
Too many to recall. I spent most of my English degree talking about books I hadn’t read (or sometimes heard of).
I do know the most embarrassing book I have read though. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. We were given a massive reading list before the start of university so I picked the biggest, most boring book I could. Sort of like what you’re meant to do when confronted by bullies – smack the biggest one in the face and the rest will run away.
That’s how I ended up on my boys’ holiday to Benidorm, sitting on the balcony and wading through 3,000 pages of a virtuous lady being very slowly corrupted.
Not a good look.