Monday, August 21, 2017

Night Reading


I read a ridiculously large amount but not as much as I should. Each item is carefully suited to the moment. Late at night, care must be taken to select a book that, while interesting, won't be so interesting that it will keep me up. Nothing spooky, of course, and that's why my current late night choice of a nonfiction book about a Siberian tiger that not just kills but murders with a vengeance is an exception. [The publisher also printed the damned thing in such small type that there are times when my nose brushes the pages. That puts me all the closer to the tiger.]

Long ago I abandoned the idea that starting a book meant that I'd have to finish it. I'll give a writer three or maybe four chapters and if I'm not hooked it's adios. Some are chucked after a few pages. Stephen King's first volume of The Dark Tower was so bad so early that I was tempted to take it out into the yard and shoot it.

Anyway, back to late night reading. Business books won't work because I'll get too many ideas and will stay up late jotting down notes. Some histories and biographies are fine. Classics are best. Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens are grand choices but the Russian, Spanish, and French novelists will also serve. [Tell a friend, "I was up last night with a Trollope" and your reputation may change.]

If you've found a great late-night author, let me know.

4 comments:

David Trautman said...

MIchael:
Brand Blanshard's Four Reasonable Men, a biographical sketch of Marcus Aurelius, Ernest Renan, John Stuart Mill and Henry Sidgwick
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
The Daily Stoic
Garner on Writing

Anyway, those are some of mine
David Trautman

Michael Wade said...

David,

Great choices. The two I am unfamiliar with are "Four Reasonable Men" and "Garner on Writing."

I will quickly remedy that.

Thanks!

Michael

David Trautman said...

Michael:
Interesting fact I forgot to mention. Blanshard was 92 when FRM was published
David

Michael Wade said...

David,

That is most heartening to those of us who are late bloomers.

Michael