back to the fun stuff for a while

I have a lot of books gathering dust on my “to read” shelf. In the past couple of years I’ve lapsed into a bad habit of half-reading books, and then abandoning them when my time is curtailed by projects.

Now that the immediate pressure is off from college, I’m attempting to mop up some of these languishing novels, and get back into a regular reading habit. Recently my fare has been dry textbooks and academic articles. It’s a joy to immerse myself in fiction again.

I’ve just finished reading Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, which I enjoyed (as you can tell from the review). I did have a couple of issues with Russell’s style, but overall it is a satisfying and thought-provoking novel.

I’m going to try and polish off a number of other half-consumed novels, tuck into some unopened books, and do my best to read more short fiction. I go through periods when I can’t read much fiction, which I compensate for with a burst of saturated reading.

I do have an essay to tackle however, and a small pile of imposing academic tomes to plough through. This time I hope to maintain a more civilised balance between my required research and my recreational reading.