What next?

[ray miller]

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.

[David]

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.)

[Raisin]

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

[juliadebeauvoir]

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

[k-j]

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?

[k-j]

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

[juliadebeauvoir]

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