reading recommendations

Quite a few people have made the long journey over to the new guestbook (link to the right) to say hello. What I notice so far is that people have really liked the book recommendations. Except I haven’t done that in a while, and I wanted to say a word about why.

I’m not interested in reviewing books for the sake of reviewing them. If I have something to recommend, or something to say that seems useful, then I write it up. So does this mean I’ve read nothing in the last couple months? I’m always reading, every day, for long periods, but I’m not always reading novels, or if I am, I go through stages of re-reading. I re-read all of Jane Austen every year, and I’ve said before that I’m re-reading the Niccolo series for a discussion group. I suppose I could write a short review called ‘why you should read Pride & Prejudice if you haven’t already’ but really, I know I’m not going to talk anybody into it.

I have actually read three or four new novels in the last six weeks, but I didn’t like any of them enough to recommend them or dislike them so intensely that I feel the need to vent (as I did, you may recall, about The DaVinci Code). I’m hoping this changes soon.