My reading choices used to be quite limited. To be honest I was very picky, and still today, I tend to go in periods (as with everything else) of what to read. But when I do pick up a book and flip the first ten pages – I can’t help feeling obligated to finish. Finishing a book that I find really difficult implicitly means jumping a few pages here or there – and it always makes me wonder if I truly can say that I’ve read the book afterwards.
Lately I’ve been trying to break new ground. Easier said than done, perhaps. Up until recently I was very into historical fiction – old mysteries of ancient books/legends – for a while I even snowed in on witch-related stories (much thanks to the wonderful tv-series Charmed). But I’ve also started to read some autobiographies, classical suspence novels and also gone back to my old favourite author Stephen King. But if I said it was easy, it isn’t. It’s hard to find books that really grabs your attention – and when something does, I tend to stick with that author/genre for a few more books.
At the beginning of this year, I entered a book circle in my town, and the reading table is filled with a lot of ”true stories” from africa, middle-east etc. So, I fell onto Benazir Bhuttos’ autobiography ”Daughter of the East” some time ago. It had gotten great reviews and I was hoping it would be as interesting and inspiring as some of the other middle-east/asian books I’ve read. For example, I loved ”Wild Swans” by Jung Chang. I’ve come 20 % into ”Daughter’s of the East” and I’m trying to force myself to pick it up again. I even left it to read ”The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield inbetween, but now it’s even harder to imagine finishing Benazir Bhuttos praised life story.
