http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2007/12/09/doris-lessing-on-reading/ Sinéad Gleeson's blog Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:27:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2007/12/09/doris-lessing-on-reading/#comment-120458 Edel Coffey Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:37:02 +0000 http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2007/12/09/doris-lessing-on-reading/#comment-120458 I'm so glad you posted this; read her speech over the weekend and was really moved and inspired by it. The stuff she wrote about the boys in the private school in London who will go on to win prizes was really affecting. Well worth reading. Reading is something I worry about. How it seems no one really reads like they used to any more [sweeping generalisation]; how people I know used to read books and now watch TV instead; how I read more books in the few months I was waiting for my telly to get connected than I had read in the previous year;...It sounds simplistic but I think it's becoming easier and easier to not read. I’m so glad you posted this; read her speech over the weekend and was really moved and inspired by it. The stuff she wrote about the boys in the private school in London who will go on to win prizes was really affecting. Well worth reading. Reading is something I worry about. How it seems no one really reads like they used to any more [sweeping generalisation]; how people I know used to read books and now watch TV instead; how I read more books in the few months I was waiting for my telly to get connected than I had read in the previous year;…It sounds simplistic but I think it’s becoming easier and easier to not read.

]]> http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2007/12/09/doris-lessing-on-reading/#comment-120156 Garreth Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:10:50 +0000 http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2007/12/09/doris-lessing-on-reading/#comment-120156 I'm glad she got the Nobel as she has been beavering away at novel writing for a half century or longer. I have read some of her interviews and reminiscences about Central Africa, where she spent an unconventional childhood. One novel I liked was actually set in 1980s bohemian, politically anarchic London - The Good Terrorist. Squatting, drug taking, free love and anti-authority hippiness are all well described. So if you missed out on that sort of thing and come from a complacent hellhole like Blackrock, Foxrock or Terenure this is where to satisfy your curiosity. At the end of the novel you will probably conclude that the people you missed knowing were probably not worth meeting. I’m glad she got the Nobel as she has been beavering away at novel writing for a half century or longer. I have read some of her interviews and reminiscences about Central Africa, where she spent an unconventional childhood. One novel I liked was actually set in 1980s bohemian, politically anarchic London - The Good Terrorist. Squatting, drug taking, free love and anti-authority hippiness are all well described. So if you missed out on that sort of thing and come from a complacent hellhole like Blackrock, Foxrock or Terenure this is where to satisfy your curiosity. At the end of the novel you will probably conclude that the people you missed knowing were probably not worth meeting.

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