Sally Beauman
This is what Sally thinks a book club should be reading
"I'd advocate re-reading the kind of classic great novels I've included on my top ten list above -- mainly because re-reading is a richer, more rewarding pastime than reading first time around. Also, books change as readers change: at forty, you will find things in great novels that you missed when you read them in your twenties.
But they have to be read without false reverence, with a truly open mind. I'd also advocate new books, something hot off the press, so you can examine the latest novelistic forays and games -- anything by Haruki Marukami or David Mitchell or Donna Tartt or Zadie Smith or Julian Barnes, clever experimenting writers, who keep you on your toes"
So there we are - some prominent bones of contention are there
posted by Julian at
4:49 pm
2 Comments:
Interesting stuff. Well, she has named two of my favourite writers so I'm not seeing anything to argue with there - Murakami and Mitchell, whose books I await impatiently to appear in paperback...Tartt, you already know I like - and I know you don't, Julian!
I think it is interesting to re-read what you read in your youth - I was a huge Hardy fan as a teen, but haven't re-read any of his works which are on my shelf. I wonder if I will get round to it someday.
10:19 pm
Yes I think she is absolutely right about re-reading. I think one does change a great deal throughout ones life. This is why undergraduate courses are often so unsatisfactory - they look for your reponse to great literature at a very early age when you are scarcely developed as a person
2:29 pm
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