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Lockdown Reading

posted 3 years ago by huwdj (4566)
7 replies | jump to latest

The conventional wisdom is that reading went up during the lockdown periods - mine fell. I can think of a couple of reasons for this but I was wondering what other readers experienced?

[–] GlenEllyn (21526) 3 years ago

I imagine my reading went down at first because my local library was closed for a few months. I was happy when they were able to partially reopen. You weren't allowed in the building but you could request books online and they'd provide curbside pickup.

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

Luckily I had several stacks of books to read due to my semi-compulsive poking around in charity shops - just as well because they'd just repurposed my nearest library anyway. But I got bogged down with a couple of stodgy tomes and I hadn't realised how much I used the commute to work to push through such road blocks. Plus of course there are the endless rabbit holes of YouTube to distract me if I do get a touch of readers block.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14379) 3 years ago

I've been too busy dealing with mom being sick. I managed to slip a few books in, but not as many as I would have liked.

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

Sorry to hear that, I hope things are better now.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14379) 3 years ago

They are, but she still has a ways to go. She has Wernicke's Encephalophathy (and yes, I twisted up my tongue learning how to say that) and she's been recovering for over 8 months. I'm hoping she'll be back to her normal self (or something close to it) by next February, since it usually takes 6 months to a year to recover from. Oh...the joys of long-term Crohn's Disease side-effects.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

My reading went way down as my movie watching went way up. Which is not a bad thing. I've finally been able to watch a lot of older films, classics and otherwise. I have found that part of the pandemic a rewarding experience and much better than the new films coming out in the past several years.

I have been reading but not nearly as much as I normally do. I read Asimov's Foundation trilogy again. Holds up incredibly well.

I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, which was an interesting experience.

I am currently reading Gene Wolfe's excellent Book of the New Sun series for the 4th time. I've never read anything quite like it.

At some point I hope to read more of MacKinlay Kantor's works.

[–] huwdj (4566) 3 years ago

I was thinking of reading the Foundation books again and might even treat myself to some new copies. I read them a long time ago but this new TV series has reminded me how much I enjoyed them.
I read Jane Austen's novels a while back. I'd read a few of the stories over the years but this time I purposefully set myself the task of reading all six together. Once finished I found I liked Persuasion most of all and it seems lots of other do to. I've even got a couple of BBC film versions of that book that I seem to re-watch every year. It's probably the quietest of the books but that works for me.
Been a while since I read anything by Gene Wolfe and I'd not heard of MacKinlay Kantor - I shall have to look him up.