Poetry Forum

I'd be interested to hear how people decide what they are going to read next. Some years ago I realised that I was reading the same kind of books almost all the time. I devised a means to broaden my horizon which has been effective. I won't tell you what it is, it can safely be filed under obsessive-compulsive, the only person I ever told has looked at me funny ever since. So, tell us how you do it and I'll have you sectioned in next to no time.

Let me guess. You walk into a bookshop and start at a shelf chosen at random, probably on some numerical basis.

That's what I do! (Sometimes.)

That's a great way David! I hate maths though so there would be nothing numerical about how I choose a book

I normally have periods where I read five books by the same author, and then move on to a completely different genre, so, maybe something really trashy, maybe by Louise Bagshaw (horrifyingly addictive, but I can't read Dickens all the time ) and then move on to Ian Rankin and Rebus!

I think the best way to do it is to switch genres, that way you don't get stuck on similar or the same writers

Raisin

Well, with K.J.'s kindness I will be jumping into George Orwell's "Essays"--in the meantime, during it's transatlantic flight I will be imitating David and picking up Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus. I have read his "Want the Change" and loved it.

Cheers,
Kim

It's a good question!

I have a to-be-read list which currently stands at about 100 titles and growing. I reckon for every book I read, I add two titles to the list. Books get added as I tool around on the internet, reading reviews and articles, browsing Librarything, which has automated and manual recommendations based on your existing collection, and sometimes directly from a book I'm reading, e.g. recently a narrator described a character as "like someone out of Gil Blas", so I thought "what's that then?" and the next thing I read was Smollett's translation of LeSage's picareqsue masterpiece.

Now and again I find myself being drawn into a second hand bookshop on my lunch hour and coming out with between two and five titles chosen haphazardly.

I read etexts from Project Gutenberg in idle moments at work, and I get a lot of ideas browsing Gutenberg's list.

Some time ago someone posted on PG a link to a "Western canon" which contains a lot of relatively obscure material, and which I dip into now and again.

Then twice a year there's a library booksale where you can pick up god knows what for next to nothing.

I like to have one "old" (pre-1920) and one "new" book on the go at any given time.

Can't wait to hear how you do it, Ray. Gyromancy, perhaps?

n.b. Kim - no transatlantic crossing required for Orwell. He'll be riding boxcars down from Canadia.

Damn! You took air of mystery right out of it!

I picture it lying in a crate, close to Elsa's patent leather pumps and her traveling bag. Rick tilts her chin up. A slight breeze takes one of the papers in a caress and floats it down the tarmac. The missing page of the Orwellian essay...
Oh bother!

Cheers,
Kim