Mr Wind-up Bird
My job is very happily near where I live, which for the most part is a very enjoyable thing. One slight downside though is a lack of any kind of gap between work and home. Generally I spend half of the evening with my head buzzing around before I can focus on more useful things like relaxation and personality. I’m trying to make a dedicated effort to stop at a cafe and read for 20 minutes or so on the way home, as a way to fight back.
I also realised that I’ve only really read technical books for some time now, and not really been taking in any fiction. I’m back to reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, which is my favourite book. I was chatting to a friend recently who doesn’t quite see the point of reading books that you’ve already read. Personally, I think it’s more like chatting to an old friend.
I think you should publicly ‘out’ this friend immediately.
Reading a favourite book is one of the most grounding things you can do. Whenever I am tired or between books, I love to read Oranges are not the only fruit.
It’s not even the kind of book I really connect with anymore, but I read it so many time when I was younger it puts me in a kind of soft trance. All the words are exactly where they should be, telling me a story I know as well as my own life.
Even now, years after I first read it, it brings me a kind of relaxation and comfort that I could never get from another book.
p.s – on the small chance it was me who said you should only read new books (I don’t remember it, but hey, who knows with my memory) please do not out me.
Comment by Grace, April 19, 2007 @ 2:19 pm