Initially NO's Blog: IN - Posts Tagged "insights"
Books with divisions: short stories and poetry
With the exception of dictionaries, I generally like to read a book from front-cover to back. If the book is super interesting, I will have a relook at sections without reading the whole book again. But I don’t tend to dip into various sections of a book, unless I’m just checking it out at the bookstore.
I like to read a book in one or two sittings. Which, even when I have time, is something I can never do with books of short stories. My automatic mind expects the short story to continue onto the next one, characters blur and plots get confused, then I wake up and make that automatic part of me realise that the book isn’t a novel, or a non-fiction text, but separate stories. No matter how good the stories are, if they don’t link, I’m not enthused about having a book of them, I’d rather be holding a magazine that establishes that no article, poem, or story is to be in any way linked. So, I either tend to avoid books of short stories, or accidently buy the book thinking it was a novel and read them over a period of months. This isn’t satisfactory book reading for me though.
Poetry, I find, is different from short stories, it is divided up, often into shorter pieces than short stories, yet I LOVE reading a poet’s collection from cover to back. I enjoy the book best if the flow and placement of poems has been carefully thought about. Yet, I have had numerous chats with people who say they merely dip into poetry books that they don’t ever read them from front to back and that my reading of poetry books from front cover to back is ‘unusual.’
I think poetry books might just be my favourite genre. I find them easy going. I know, in an hour lunch break, say, I can go to the library and read a slim volume of poetry from front to back and gain a huge understanding of that author’s world. I particularly like the sensory that poetry gives more than any other form of writing. It takes me to times and places, that I can never visit, and gives me huge insight into that world. Poetry for me, transports the senses, when it’s good. But poetry I like best also talks about ecology, human nature, social-justice and language. The books are always divided, but, poetry books have flow on from one poem to the next, I feel, and, unlike short stories my mind doesn’t have to think about characters and plots.
I’m not too keen on literary journals with a theme and a whole lot of different poets. I feel, while the journal ties in ideas with a theme, the sense of the ‘book’ (which is isn’t but looks like) jumps about too much into too many different people to be of much importance to me, as a book.
Collaborative writing efforts rarely are up to scratch for me. I’d like to see writers working together dangerously, supporting each other like acrobats, but I’m yet to see it.
If you’re a dipper inner of poetry books, let me know why you don’t read from front cover to back. And if you love a book of short stories, how do you read it in one sitting?
I like to read a book in one or two sittings. Which, even when I have time, is something I can never do with books of short stories. My automatic mind expects the short story to continue onto the next one, characters blur and plots get confused, then I wake up and make that automatic part of me realise that the book isn’t a novel, or a non-fiction text, but separate stories. No matter how good the stories are, if they don’t link, I’m not enthused about having a book of them, I’d rather be holding a magazine that establishes that no article, poem, or story is to be in any way linked. So, I either tend to avoid books of short stories, or accidently buy the book thinking it was a novel and read them over a period of months. This isn’t satisfactory book reading for me though.
Poetry, I find, is different from short stories, it is divided up, often into shorter pieces than short stories, yet I LOVE reading a poet’s collection from cover to back. I enjoy the book best if the flow and placement of poems has been carefully thought about. Yet, I have had numerous chats with people who say they merely dip into poetry books that they don’t ever read them from front to back and that my reading of poetry books from front cover to back is ‘unusual.’
I think poetry books might just be my favourite genre. I find them easy going. I know, in an hour lunch break, say, I can go to the library and read a slim volume of poetry from front to back and gain a huge understanding of that author’s world. I particularly like the sensory that poetry gives more than any other form of writing. It takes me to times and places, that I can never visit, and gives me huge insight into that world. Poetry for me, transports the senses, when it’s good. But poetry I like best also talks about ecology, human nature, social-justice and language. The books are always divided, but, poetry books have flow on from one poem to the next, I feel, and, unlike short stories my mind doesn’t have to think about characters and plots.
I’m not too keen on literary journals with a theme and a whole lot of different poets. I feel, while the journal ties in ideas with a theme, the sense of the ‘book’ (which is isn’t but looks like) jumps about too much into too many different people to be of much importance to me, as a book.
Collaborative writing efforts rarely are up to scratch for me. I’d like to see writers working together dangerously, supporting each other like acrobats, but I’m yet to see it.
If you’re a dipper inner of poetry books, let me know why you don’t read from front cover to back. And if you love a book of short stories, how do you read it in one sitting?
