Booking Through Thursday: Books about April, the cruellest month...

[fajrdrako]

From April 24, 2008: Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

My answer is inescapably boring. I read what I like. I read what I want to read. I read whatever strikes my fancy twelve months per year, and I've never seen the point of separating boots into seasonal categories.

No, I don't read gardening books, because I don't garden. Sometimes I like to read about flowers - particularly irises and roses - but that too can be any time of year.

The only time I might do seasonal reading is in December, when Christmas story are more appealing.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Hm. In the Christmas season I like grand tales of epic adventure, whether real or fiction. They go well with a snug fire and a plateful of Christmas cookies.

In summer, I like PD James, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, James M. Cain... my favorite mysteries. I curse that they've only produced a finite number of works. (Sherlock Holmes is for winter though.) They're great for reading in the hammock.

Aside from that shift from adventure to mystery, I don't think there's any noticable difference in my reading.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like those authors too, especially Raymond Chandler. And I don't know James M. Cain. Should I take that as a recommendation?

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

James M. Cain wrote Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, The Postman Always Rings Twice... and they're so much sleazier and awful than the movies.

And yes, that's a recommendation.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thank you!

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I don't have any spring books, but I only read H.P Lovecraft in the summer, usually when I'm in Massachuttes.

I especially enjoy reading "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" when I'm at the beach. = )

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Lovecraft in Massachusetts: sounds like a great combination.

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

I live under the shadow of the Arkham Asylum. Heh.

Condos now. Gr.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I live under the shadow of the Arkham Asylum.

Ooh, yes, one of my favourite ficitonal places.

[hedda62.livejournal.com]

Well, I do garden, and I (and most of the gardeners I know) read gardening books in the winter, because in the spring we have no time to read.

In summer I rather like reading books set in the winter or in cold climates. Lowers the air conditioning bills.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

read gardening books in the winter, because in the spring we have no time to read.

That makes perfect sense!

In summer I rather like reading books set in the winter or in cold climates.

So do I - and reading about warm, sunny places in the winter is fun, too.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I read whatever I'm currently interested in -- within the constraints of the time available. If I have more time, I tend to read more complicated or longer books. I also like to vary the type of books I read.

It really doesn't have anything to do with season.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's my pattern too.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Books about April, the cruellest month...

Why is April called the cruellest month?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why is April called the cruellest month?

It's a quote from T.S. Eliot, one of my favourite poets. He begins his poem The Waste Land with the line:

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Given the bleak tone of The Waste Land, I would guess he means that April is cruel because it promises beauty and hope that will never really come to fruition. But I'm by no means an Eliot scholar or any kind of expert - it would be fun to study up on that poem some day.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

How beautiful, I think I've heard or read it before. I don't like April as well, my favourite month is October.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

October is my favourite, too!