Reading Envy Readers discussion

Courtney is back and before we jump into discussion of books we've read and liked recently, we discuss how our reading has changed over time.

Episode link:
http://readingenvy.blogspot.com/2022/...

How has your reading changed over time?

I loved the chat with Courtney. I definitely feel as if my reading has changed in the last few years. I have no problem giving up on a book at any point - I can read two pages and quit or two hundred and stop. No guilt.

I also find that some books just don't speak to me and reading is my joyful place, so I don't want it to feel like work.

As a teacher, I am intrigued by Apple Island. I'm one of the good ones ;)

Me too. At the end I wished it was a call-in show, I felt like I was in such conversation with you guys!

re: reading classics - when I was in my teens and 20's I loved being buried in a classic (and I'd never DNF a book), but now, in comparison, I'm such an impatient reader! I should test myself by re-reading a classic I loved then, like Middlemarch.....but ugh, it's so long and I'm so shallow!

For mid-century women writers, I have to make a pitch for A Fairly Good Time: with Green Water, Green Sky (specifically, 'A Fairly Good Time') by Mavis Gallant. It was published in 1970, so maybe I'm pushing the timeline, but I loved it. I haven't read any more of her books yet, I think she's known more for being a short story writer. But I loved her loveable unreliable narrator in Fairly Good Time.

Nadine in California wrote: "For mid-century women writers, I have to make a pitch for A Fairly Good Time: with Green Water, Green Sky (specifically, 'A Fairly Good Time') by Mavis Gallant. It was published in 1970, so maybe I'm pushing the timeline, but I loved it. I haven't read any more of her books yet, I think she's known more for being a short story writer. But I loved her loveable unreliable narrator in Fairly Good Time. "
Oh thanks, never read this author. I notice that you and Lark read this within two weeks of one another. Coincidence?

I enjoyed this episode, I have been meaning to read The Orchid Thief for some time and just never get to it (yes it is The Library Book author, I am sure I'm not the only one that thought that).

Courtney might like The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World’s Rarest Species by Carlos Magdalena.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Oh thanks, never read this author. I notice that you and Lark read this within two weeks of one another. Coincidence?"

Looks like I read it 2 weeks earlier, so I hope I was an influence on Lark, since she gave it 5 stars too! Although there's always the possibility that I stole it off her TBR list - I'm always rifling through GR friends' to-read shelves :)

Nadine in California wrote: "I'm always rifling through GR friends' to-read shelves :) ..."

So tangent - rifle vs riffle! Saw this today in Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSGWBJJMfN/

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Nadine in California wrote: "I'm always rifling through GR friends' to-read shelves :) ..."

So tangent - rifle vs riffle! Saw this today in Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSGWBJJMfN/"

I've always said 'rifle', but now I'm wondering, have I meant 'riffle' all these years? My brain has now cracked a little ;)

Merriam Webster comes to the rescue of my mental problem!

Rifle, verb:
"to ransack especially with the intent to steal"

riffle:
"to flip cursorily : THUMB"

Turns out my choice of 'rifle' was right - my attitude toward my GR friends' shelves is more theft than thumb :)