Read ALL the books!
Nov. 7th, 2010 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marshtideRight now I'm reading:
Sent i november by Tove Jansson (released in English as Moominvalley in November)
Ett nytt land utanför mitt fönster by Theodor Kallifatides (not translated as far as I know, but the title means "A new land outside my window".)
Theodor Kallifatides immigrated to Sweden from Greece in the 60s and the book of his that I'm reading now is a lot about that, being an immigrant, being a stranger to everyone. It's about identity. It's also really marvelously written.
I keep feeling like I need to read ridiculous numbers of books. Like I have a couple of decades of catching up to do on reading Swedish lit to even be roughly on the same level of understanding as people I talk with, on top of the general sense of Not Having Read Enough which I've been experiencing for ages. In absolute fairness, I want to work both with books and with words, so I really should read as much as I can - but that Must Read Everything sense just isn't helpful. There's too much. I will probably never feel really well-versed in anything. I just have to keep going and accept that I know more than I think and that no-one knows it all.
Sent i november by Tove Jansson (released in English as Moominvalley in November)
Ett nytt land utanför mitt fönster by Theodor Kallifatides (not translated as far as I know, but the title means "A new land outside my window".)
Theodor Kallifatides immigrated to Sweden from Greece in the 60s and the book of his that I'm reading now is a lot about that, being an immigrant, being a stranger to everyone. It's about identity. It's also really marvelously written.
I keep feeling like I need to read ridiculous numbers of books. Like I have a couple of decades of catching up to do on reading Swedish lit to even be roughly on the same level of understanding as people I talk with, on top of the general sense of Not Having Read Enough which I've been experiencing for ages. In absolute fairness, I want to work both with books and with words, so I really should read as much as I can - but that Must Read Everything sense just isn't helpful. There's too much. I will probably never feel really well-versed in anything. I just have to keep going and accept that I know more than I think and that no-one knows it all.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 06:25 pm (UTC)The things you mentioned reminded me of the way I started reading Pratchett. He was including so many references in his books that suddenly I had to read 3 times more to understand his puns and religiously checked the newest entries on the L-space from my school computer. It was a long time ago :)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-07 07:22 pm (UTC)Aaw. :D I think I had that experience with Dorothy Sayers, actually, whose books assume that one has had a fairly thorough education which has taken place at the beginning of the 20th century.