Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "challenging-books"
Perfect Books To Relax With
What kind of book do you like to relax with? My favourites are fantasy (especially the humorous kind such as Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Discworld stories) and crime (though I am more at the cosy end of the market).
Though right now I am loving Peter Ackroyd’s London, which is a biography of the city. An interesting way of writing up a history and full of fascinating tales.
It’s a fairly big paperback but is an engrossing read so very happy to recommend it. If a writer’s style draws me in, as it does here, it doesn’t matter how big the book is!
They’ve got this reader to the end (which is a challenge for all of us writers to ensure we try and do that with our own writing).
I can’t read in the bath. I’d be worried about dropping a book or Kindle in the water. Neither would come out well.
This is why my main reading is just before I go to sleep. I am so relaxed then. It’s not the time to read a gripping vampire novel though. Mind you, I wasn’t planning on doing this so that’s okay.
For me books have to be entertaining and help me relax. If I want a challenging read, I will carve out time during the day when my brain is better able to cope with said challenging read!
I hope you have plenty of excellent new reads for Christmas and I hope you have a safe and as good a celebration as possible.
If ever there was a year, we all needed books to help us escape, it is in 2020.
Though right now I am loving Peter Ackroyd’s London, which is a biography of the city. An interesting way of writing up a history and full of fascinating tales.
It’s a fairly big paperback but is an engrossing read so very happy to recommend it. If a writer’s style draws me in, as it does here, it doesn’t matter how big the book is!
They’ve got this reader to the end (which is a challenge for all of us writers to ensure we try and do that with our own writing).
I can’t read in the bath. I’d be worried about dropping a book or Kindle in the water. Neither would come out well.
This is why my main reading is just before I go to sleep. I am so relaxed then. It’s not the time to read a gripping vampire novel though. Mind you, I wasn’t planning on doing this so that’s okay.
For me books have to be entertaining and help me relax. If I want a challenging read, I will carve out time during the day when my brain is better able to cope with said challenging read!
I hope you have plenty of excellent new reads for Christmas and I hope you have a safe and as good a celebration as possible.
If ever there was a year, we all needed books to help us escape, it is in 2020.
Soothing Reading
I read for all manner of reasons. I read for entertainment. I read to escape. (And with the news so grim everywhere you look, this is an important one!).
I read books by friends because I want to find out what they’ve come up with and to support them. Given they write outside of my genre of flash fiction, I expand my reading tastes doing this and ensure I get plenty of contemporary reading done too so win-win here.
I read non-fiction to find out things in, hopefully, an entertaining way.
And I read comfort books when life is especially grim.
My go-to here is humour. Who doesn’t need a laugh?
Another advantage to networking with fellow writers is I also get useful ideas to add to my reading list. There is always plenty of room for more books on there.
I see nothing wrong in having reading materials specifically to sooth. There is plenty of room for the challenging books. I find you have to be in the right mindset to appreciate those.
But soothing reading is always welcome. There is never a wrong time for that kind of reading.
I read books by friends because I want to find out what they’ve come up with and to support them. Given they write outside of my genre of flash fiction, I expand my reading tastes doing this and ensure I get plenty of contemporary reading done too so win-win here.
I read non-fiction to find out things in, hopefully, an entertaining way.
And I read comfort books when life is especially grim.
My go-to here is humour. Who doesn’t need a laugh?
Another advantage to networking with fellow writers is I also get useful ideas to add to my reading list. There is always plenty of room for more books on there.
I see nothing wrong in having reading materials specifically to sooth. There is plenty of room for the challenging books. I find you have to be in the right mindset to appreciate those.
But soothing reading is always welcome. There is never a wrong time for that kind of reading.
