Personal Blogs

I've been having problems finishing books lately, and I'm confused as to why. For example, I recently began reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. It's an interesting book and highly philosophical, but after finishing the first part of the novel, I've now moved on to The Iliad.

Sigh.

Perhaps it's a lack of discipline. Perhaps there's something about the book that's not grasping me. Perhaps I only enjoy the idea of reading something like The Moviegoer but don't actually enjoy reading it.

I'm also indecisive about what I should be writing. I've just had a poetry phase where I've churned out around 40 poems over the past 6 months. But now, suddenly, I want to write a pulp novel. I want to create my own private investigator with a no-nonsense attitude. But I can guarantee within in 3 months I will think, 'No, literary fiction is the way to go instead. Get to it!'

I need to read more pulp literature to be good at writing it, anyway. I think I've only read a handful of stories, with the only one that springs to mind being The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. The Mike Hammer books look good too, so I think I will give them a go after The Iliad. If I can finish it, that is.

For the 2018/19 academic year, I did two thirty-credit modules: English for academic purposes online (L185) and Exploring languages and cultures (L161). Neither were particularly interesting to me. I suppose I chose those two modules instead of the recommended one (which was Voices, texts and material culture) because I thought they might benefit me more – which they did, to a certain degree. But it is literature and creative writing I thrive for. Which is why I'm very excited for my new module: Telling stories: the novel and beyond (A233).

I have already received one of the textbooks, which is titled Realism. I love new textbooks. There are no creases; it has the new-book smell; and every time I touch the textbook, I handle it with care, in fear I'll damage it somehow.

I believe there are about ten novels to read over the course of the module, with five being realist novels and five being fantasy. I have already begun reading one of the realist novels: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It is proving to be a bit of a slog. There is far too much description and exposition for my liking, and far too little action. That said, it is beautifully written in places. But at the moment, I could not care less who wins Bathsheba Everdine's heart.