I think it all depends on how much the writer "captures you" and how entertaining the lecture itself is.
I couldnt read Homer for more than 20 minutes .
I cant stand Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf longer than an hour.
But I can read Perez-Reverte or non-stop till I fall asleep in my bed, same with many fantasy writers.
I read for like 15 minutes at a time--half an hour max. I have a gaggle of children and it's all I can squeeze in. Still, I can read some big books, and some heavy hitting authors. I try to cycle through and read shorter and less demanding stuff in between. It keeps me from burning out. Different sorts of reads require different amounts of my soul to read.
I think learning to read something bigger and weightier takes some "training"...but at some point you have to just jump. I have found when I am trying something new or something that feels a little out of my depth, it helps me to find a few other people (in real life or online) to read along with me.
I also didn't really read much until I was 15 or 16....and now I think I am pretty well read, at least compared with the "average" person. Just keep reading, and choose great books working through the canon, working through lists of "bests", Pulitzers, National Book Awards, Booker Award winners, Nobel winners....
good afternoon fellow literary purveyors. The key is to think. I am a sociology and psychology student going into third. My humble advice is all I can give and this template has worked simply marvelously 4 me. Read a book for an hour then for the next few hours no matter what your indulging in sex, tv etc think about the topic identifying all perspectives of the texts this is the key to all enlightenment especially the more complexed works like Byron, Joyce, Pope and Shakespeare.
Oh, the girlfriend would love that.Quote:
Originally Posted by eoinh
As we bask in afterglow, she asks, "What were you thinking about, honey?"
"I was pondering the Tolstoyan relationship between "free will" and "necessity" as it applies to War and Peace. How about you?"
"I was thinking about how much I love being with you. You a**hole."
"Well, ah, obviously I was mostly thinking about you, I just, um...."
I read and then fall asleep. The rest of the time (in between working) I try to compose something that might twang a heartstring of somebody on lit-net.
You see I've noticed there are very many well educated folk on this forum and can quote you from Descartes to Shakespeare and add an analysis of the whys and the wherefores about the colour tights they wore for a particular scene to what does two simple words actually mean. but they don't write.
I'm the opposite and I guess we're all made differently. Some know how a car is put together, others just hop into one and drive it.
This might not make sense because I've taken an overdose of a benzodiazipine with a glass of cabernet. There's a forum for that too but those members would know more about wine than me.
Is cabernet the suicide drink of choice out of interest?