I'm usually reading two or three books at once, in different venues at different times during the day for different reasons, unless I'm into a book like The Goldfinch which takes precedence over everything including eating and sleeping. Now I've added a bodice-ripper to my iPad mini reader (I call her Minnie for short). First I'll explain the bodice-ripper. I took Minnie in to my computer guru, a dear woman whom I love, to show me how to download books from Kobo, an appliance I dislike intensely. (Stick with me long enough and I will have no secrets from you.) When I say show me how, I mean she does it for me. How else am I going to learn anything?But when it came to actually buying and downloading a book, I didn't have any lists on me. In case you hadn't noticed, books are expensive, in whatever form, so there has to be a reason for purchase. As it is I have, of course, too many books and I am aware that they are more precarious than green bananas. So I chose a really inexpensive book to download and that's how Minnie and I got exposed,. It took a few days, but it, the b-r, was lying in wait.
Yesterday turned into an obstacle course, twisting and turning several times and costing more as I went along. I kept improvising Plan B and then Plan C and it turned out all right, tiring, pleasant but expensive and time-consuming. Finally, at bedtime I picked up Minnie for a quick check (weather, mail) and there was b-r. Oops. I started reading it. Oh dear. I'm happy to report that I didn't finish it, did not spend half the night ripping through the bodice-ripper. But, oh dear, I will read it, I think. It's like chewing gum.
See, now there's the difference. That little tease offers a small thrill, a kind of comfort, and a blatant display of verbs and outrageous adverbs. It deserves to be finished. On the other hand, there are some serious, pretentious books that do not deserve the paper they're printed on if indeed they are actually printed on paper. I won't mention the very reputable authors whose books I have put down never to finish.
As I said, oh dear.
I hope today won't be an obstacle course.