Day 11 – unreading habit

I like reading. I really do but I have found that in most of my adult life I go through quite long periods of not reading much at all. Well if you discount the books I have read to Miss A over the years. Particularly now with chapter books I only seem to get half of the book as Mr A and I alternate the nightly reading duties.

I was hoping the COVID-19 stay at home measures may have given rise to a reading binge. This has not yet happened.

I have listened to 1 audiobook recently, for book club, that I discussed the other day. Normal People by Sally Rooney.

But I have also just started reading another book. In fact it was the last print book that I bought. Normally I buy books and they sit cluttering up my bedside table and bedhead for months, even years before they  get moved to the bookshelves, still unread, to make way for the next wave of unread books to take their place. I try not to buy books anymore because I know their fate of remaining unread but with this latest book I could not help myself.

I first read about the Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams at work in the Books & Publishing emails I read daily that come into be inbox, only because I look after the subscription, not because I need the content for work. Anyway, after reading the synopsis I immediately added the title as a ‘To-read’ book in my Goodreads account which I often do.  But this book stayed with me for several weeks and then when I saw it at the shops and bought it immediately.

It is fiction but it is based on enough historical facts to peak my interest. I tend to gravitate more towards non-fiction than fiction. The writing is easy to read and so far after only 3 sittings I am nearly a third of the way through. It is set in England towards the end of the 1800s into the 1900s about a girl and her father’s involvement in the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary. The treatment and experiences of women are also a key narrative to the story.

I think I may be going to bed early tonight to continue reading about Esme and her collection of more lost words.