What I’m Reading – March 2012

I made up this cover collage late the other night and in doing so left off a couple of other titles I’m reading, so I’ll just add those in as we go. As you can probably tell from that first sentence, my reading has been a bit spotty lately. This is surprising as on the days I work I have at least 45 minutes each way on the train to do nothing but stick my nose in a book and it isn’t happening. I get distracted, I like looking out over the backyards of other people, sticky beaking at their gardens and abandoned play equipment and so on.

This run came to an end when I opened Ethan Frome earlier this week, and what seemed like only moments later I was already in the city. This tale of sexual repression and the questioning of personal human freedom (and morals) is quite the page turner. The cover above is different to the one I have and also kind of gives away the whole climax: it’s like a scene would look like with Anna Karenina standing in front of the train. Even better, Ethan Frome is on my 1001 books challenge list, so that gets a strike through.

The 20th Century in Poetry is one of those massive, it-could-kill-you-if-dropped-on-your-head-from-a-height anthologies. The difference with this one in comparison with all the others out there is that it presents the poems in chronological order – not from date of publication, but the period in which they’re set. So at the front, almost at the start, you find a Les Murray poem (‘The Ballad of Jimmy Governor’) next to Rudyard Kipling and Noel Coward. It threw me off at first, I’ll admit, but eventually I left aside any misgivings and just enjoyed the poems.

The Nevil Shute is because I’ve wanted to read more of his work since finishing On The Beach (which I devoted a whole post to), the one about children’s books because I was curious and I’ve got Planet of the Apes here on standy.

I’ll finish by mentioning The Best Australian Stories 2011 and the story which still has me thinking by Karen Hitchcock called ‘Forging Friendship’ which deals with friendships and consumption in this digital age. There’s a line that goes, “I’ll comment on your post though I wouldn’t cross the street to say hello”.

And my heart went, oof.

A bit of that kind of thing goes around, yes.

Edit to add: And here’s the link to that story. I think it’s plucked a nerve in some people.

What are you reading at the moment?