Saturday, March 04, 2006

Reading Books: It's Not A Race

Some time ago I presented a little series about lunch break reading on Myf Warhurst's lunchtime Triple J radio show. It was a short lived little thing but I reckons, stunning radio.

Today I found the notes I wrote, preparing for the episode on reading novels. And here they are, slightly edited with the naughty words taken out.
Reading Books: It's Not A Race
It's okay not to finish a book. Hell, some books are best thrown than read.

I mean, does anyone read EVERY WORD of the weekly trash glossies?

When someone says they spent the morning reading the paper, do you ask whether they read ALL the paper or did they only ready the front and back bits?

No. So why should reading novels be any different?

If you get bored of a book you shouldn't let it take over.

Persisting with a crap book is like book is like bowing down to terrorism.

I read to go to another world, and this one was okay to visit but i really didn't want to move there.

Even movie reviewers leave the theatre early. When I went to the reviewers' screening of one of my fave films, Night On Earth, the late, Ivan Hutchison came and sat right next to me. Me and the Hutch tapping our feet to the same wonderful Tom Waits soundtrack. Heaven, until he walks out.

With over 20 minutes until the end of the movie.

He gave it five stars.

So, if it's okay for Ivan Hutchison to walk out early on Night On Earth, it's got to be fine for you to throw the latest Jonathan Franzen novel out the window if you're not digging it.

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