The Dusty Bookshelf Challenge – Level: Fail

Along with 95% of the population, I’m struggling to understand how it’s April already and the year has gone so fast. What happened? Did I fall through one of these? Can it stop?

The challenge of finally reading the books I’ve collected over the years is like, a quarter over and I’ve had a very slow start. I blame it squarely on the fact that the books I was reading were not setting my motivation ablaze, and thus has led me to surreptitiously put the unfinished tomes on the op-shop pile and shrug my shoulders in defeat.

Here’s how it’s gone down (and down and down) so far:

Innocent When You dream, Tom Waits: The Selected Interviews

First cab off the rank, and first fail.

It isn’t my book – I think Lunchbox borrowed it from a friend, so I’d never intended to read it anyway. Given it was just a bunch of interviews, they all kind of said the same thing, over and over again – man dresses like a trashbag, sounds like he’s spent all night drinking whiskey and blowing hookers, but creates amazing music.

And repeat.

I made it halfway through.

The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin

I actually was looking forward to this, and as interesting as it is, it really is really just for reference or poking around. If you were to read every word, that’s a lot of hours of your life reading the minutiae and specifics of sub-tropical marine invertebrates, and ain’t nobody got time for that. I’d like to read Origin of the Species, but this one I thumbed through and popped back on the shelf.

Fail two.

True Colours, Adam Gilchrist

I made it through the introduction.

The Hawke Memoirs, Bob Hawke

In the interests of keeping the challenge alive, and given my utter contempt for it so far, I chose the next unread book that was on the shelf next to True Colours. It was Hawkie’s version of events from birth until he stopped being Prime Minister, but when he stopped drinking and started talking about how much he achieved, I zoned out. Tough, but I gave it away. Made it through a quarter.

Red Dragon/The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris

Oh I love these. LOVE. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book as good as Red Dragon. Dare I say I like it better than The Silence of the Lambs, of which I have 30 pages left. Harris does suspense so well, not gaudy or obvious at all. Just drops a bomb and lets it sit there while you get your head around it. SO GOOD. I may break from the Challenge to read Hannibal, the third in the series. It’s on the shelf but not technically part of the 17.

A Passionate Life, Ita Buttrose

I started reading this before I was done with the others as I was taking it to hospital and I didn’t think my current book of skin-suit stories would be soothing reading either before or after surgery. I haven’t made it too far but it seems ok. Harris is a hard act to follow though!

I totally thought I’d be able to report a much better score by April, but there you have it.

Books read: 2/17

*cries*

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