Okay I have Post Office, Ham on Rye & Factotum and I love them to bits. I'm gonna work my way through his novels & short stories too in due course but I also have a gorgeous Black Sparrow edition on 'Burning in Water....'. Now I have had it for a month or more but I still haven't got round to reading it. Partly because I have a lot of books building up that I'm trying to plow my way through, but also because I keep putting it off every time I am about to read it. This isn't because I don't think it'll be any good (It's actually the opposite) I just don't really know how I should approach reading it. Now, that probably sounds really dumb..."du'h, open book. read words, turn page, repeat", but the thing is I am so used to reading prose that I don't know if I should just read it page by page till the end or re-read each page or chop n' change or what.
I know it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, it's just I know there's gonna be some real gems in there and I want to experience the whole book the best way possible but it's a different experience to reading novels/short stories.
Anyway I was wondering how you read poetry collections? Do you mull over each one? or read it like a collection of short stories until the end? or just open a random page?
I probably sound really weird asking this, ah well worth a try.
I know it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, it's just I know there's gonna be some real gems in there and I want to experience the whole book the best way possible but it's a different experience to reading novels/short stories.
Anyway I was wondering how you read poetry collections? Do you mull over each one? or read it like a collection of short stories until the end? or just open a random page?
I probably sound really weird asking this, ah well worth a try.