Yet more questions about reading

For those of you who are either not readers – or just not in a navel-gazing kind of way – I promise there won’t be more than a couple of these a year.

Is there a book you just couldn’t finish?
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. On paper, this book was right up my street… but I just couldn’t get through it, despite trying truly hard to do so. Worse, I even lost my love of reading after each attempt. Maybe I should’ve paid closer attention to the blurb which read: “A Dickensian modern classic” for I have a tricky relationship with Dickens, having only enjoyed a couple of his (short) books.

How many different books did you manage to read at once?
I don’t generally read more than one book at a time, as I tend to become fully engrossed in whatever I am reading. When studying for professional qualifications, I presumed I’d be able to fit in a work of fiction or two amongst the psychology, but discovered it was easier to go cold turkey on the fiction in order to focus completely and utterly. But I’ll admit that when my studies ended (and fortunately I’ve not studied for longer than one year at a time in my mature years), I was ready to fall like the proverbial voracious wolf back onto works of fiction 😉

What’s the longest book you managed to read?
I enjoy a lengthy book, although it mustn’t be self-indulgently so (see the comment about my relationship with Dickens above). When I joined a book club, the first book was This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson. At 768 pages, it was over double the length of usual selections, yet was a brilliant read, much admired and enjoyed by each member of the club – a rare event, repeated only once in all the years we were together. I’ll admit there’s been a fair few long books I’ve come away from saying “that would’ve benefitted from a damn good edit”, but that doesn’t put me off longer books; perhaps it was all that Russian literature I read in school 😉 I believe the longest book I’ve read (and much enjoyed) was A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, which comes in at close to 1500 pages.

Do you prefer to read classics or modern books?
I’ve a preference for modern contemporary literature. Anytime I measure my reading against those best read or classics lists, there’s still many I’ve not read. It used to bother me, but to chuck in a few clichés – life is too short, and there’s too many books and not enough time. Now I focus on selecting books I’ve a reasonable degree of confidence I’ll enjoy. And that policy seems to be working as, last year, there was only one book I felt was a waste of my time.

How many books would you say you own? And how much do you think your book collection is worth today?
The simply answer is too many. I have quite a few bookcases, and still have the odd pile of books here and there looking for a home. I had a big purge a few years back, but am probably due another one – certainly Himself has been sending me suggestions of places to donate/sell books 😉 In terms of their financial worth… regardless what they cost me, they are likely to be worth very little now, as the second hand market is not what you’d call buoyant except in the rarest of circumstances.

What book do you think nobody should die without reading?
Erm… who cares? The only book anyone should read before dying is one they really want to read and feel they would regret not doing so. And that’s an entirely personal choice. When Christopher Hitchens was asked what he regretted when facing death from cancer, his answer was “all the books remaining unread”. So, if that’s how you feel about books – or any book in particular – pick that one, not some random book anyone else nominates.

Which book do you think is the most overrated? And is there a book that is extremely popular but you somehow skipped on reading?
There are a few, the work of the Bronte sisters notable among them – but one pattern I find interesting is that despite being a fan of literary prizes, winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature just didn’t seem to be my type of read for many years. So I started to skip them. My mind has been changed somewhat since Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad won in 2017. But, while I’d buy a Booker winner almost regardless of the blurb, I’d not do the same with a Pulitzer – not yet anyway.

What about you – how would you reply to these questions)?

© Debs Carey, 2025