The Fine Art of Book Avoidance

 

Congratulations to Lisa Pearce, who is this month's book club winner. You've won yourself our top 10 reads from kalahari.com. Enjoy!

I recently received a lovely box of books from my uncle. That box contained a variety of interesting reads, but the one book that really grabbed my attention was an old classic.

This book brought to mind that old running definition that classics are books that many people praise, but few often get around to reading.

Now, as much as I'm all for life being too short to read books that just don't have any appeal, I'm also a big believer in reading a novel outside of one's genre of choice every now and then.

Well... I was a big believer in this until Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace decided to keep popping up whenever I opened that box. Everything about it makes me not want to read it, but I swear, the 1 500 page tome (or something close to that number anyway) just keeps taunting me.

And I don’t even like books about war.

This did get me thinking though…

Often we're reluctant to read certain books, but when we finally do get around to reading that novel (out of sheer exasperation, I might add), we end up enjoying that read in question, far more than we ever thought we would.

I've had quite a few such experiences and found that books such as Never Let Me Go, Daughter of the Forest and The Anniversary Man have actually become huge favourites of mine.

Having said that, I reckon I'm definitely not ready to give up the fight against the tenacious Tolstoy.

What about you?

What books are currently doing their best to get your attention? And which ones have you reluctantly started but ended up loving far more than you thought you would?

Do tell - I'm sure I can't be the only one who experiences this, right?

Here's this month's top 10 reads:

Ashes
The Fear Index
The Best of Me
Sorry
11/22/63
The Litigators
Turtle Walk
Die Vierkant Van Die Wraak
IQ84
Goddess of Spring

Before I go... I wrote an article on Top 10 reasons to date readers. You should go and check it out. I think you'll like it.

Watch out for some fabulous giveaways, author interviews (we've got a Q & A coming up with Kate Furnivall and Lesley Pearse) and of course, more book reviews in next month's newsletter.  Oh, and feel free to send in your own reviews.

We do love featuring your thoughts on books you've loved and loathed.

Who knows? You may just end up winning our top 10 reads.

Until next time.

Happy reading everyone

Yours in book avoidance