“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde
One of my colleagues blenched at the sight of me reading a book, wondering that I still had energy to read a non-academic book after a rather busy work day. How can I make an ‘educated’ woman like her understand that there is a difference between reading for work and reading for pleasure? And besides, I think I’ll actually die if I don’t get to read something for pleasure!
So, here are a few books I bought in the month of June solely for my own ‘pleasure’ .
June 8, 2011
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl.
Anne of Green Gables. L. M. Montgomery.
Rebecca. Daphne Du Maurier.
A Short History of Nearly Everything. Bill Bryson.
Seasonal Adjustments. Adib Khan.
First up two books I missed out on reading as a kid, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Anne of Green Gables. Looking forward to both, especially to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as I liked the movie version starring Johnny Depp.
Even though I have read Rebecca before, I didn’t have the book in my own collection. This is one book that I just had to have for my own library.
I have heard a lot of good things about Bill Bryson but have never read anything by him. A Short History of Nearly Everything seems like a good place to start.
Finally, after I had finished my browsing and buying, the book store owner gave me a complementary copy of a book called Seasonal Adjustments. Apparently it had won Australia’s NSW State Literary Award in 1994 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 1995. This is not my usual reading material but a free book is a free book.
A Paperback Life 
Some great books there! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Anne of Green Gables were two of my childhood favourites. I’d like to read them again sometime and see if I still enjoy them as an adult.
Thanks! I am sure I’ll enjoy both books but I am saddened by the thought that I might have enjoyed them more or at least in a different way if I had read them as a child. It’s a pity one can’t go back.