I’ve been in a reading rut for a while. I can pinpoint where it started, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I want out of this rut, but that’s been tough.
I joined Goodreads (which you should really check out, if you haven’t already, go on, Google it) and that has helped a little. I’ve had a hard time staying focused on a book. I’m not connecting to the characters, I’m not escaping into their world. It’s frustrating. All of the things I’ve loved all my life about reading have become elusive, I can’t get there, it’s making me restless in other areas of my life too.
So I’ve been re-reading a lot. I’m going back to my old favorites, the friends that I’ve known for a while, to see if they can help pull me out of this rut. I thought I’d share some of those favorites here.
I love all of Tracy Chevalier’s books and I can’t wait for the next one. (http://www.tchevalier.com/) Girl With a Pearl Earring is probably her most well-known, it’s one of my favorites. But I always go back to The Lady and the Unicorn or Burning Bright or The Virgin Blue.
Her newest (2009), Remarkable Creatures, is really great as well.
I have read Barbara Kingsolver’s (http://www.kingsolver.com/) Prodigal Summer so many times my copy is falling apart. I love the picture she paints of the mountains, and the connection the women in the story have to the land they live on and to the Earth. There are lines from this book that I find myself quoting to myself on Summer evenings.
I’ve read most of Kingsolver’s books, actually. I’ve even read her short stories, which I don’t typically enjoy. I haven’t been able to get into The Lacuna yet, it came into my life in the midst of this rut. I’m really looking forward to it.
A less known author whose work I really like is David Payne (http://www.davidpaynebooks.com/). His Gravesend Light pairs with the above mentioned Kingsolver as another every-summer read for me. I’m a sucker for a book set in North Carolina, what can I say. I also love his characters in this book, although I didn’t enjoy them as much in his other books (Early From the Dance, Ruin Creek). I did really like Back to Wando Passo, which is a different set of characters (and is set in South Carolina, but I won’t hold it against him) it has Payne’s style all over it.
Do you find an author you like and read all you can of their printed works the way I do? Or do you try to share the love?
Pirate's Life 