Today’s Booking Through Thursday question is suggested by Mae. “I couldn’t sleep a wink, so I just read and read, day and night … it was there I began to divide books into day books and night books,” she went on. “Really, there are books meant for daytime reading and books that can be read only at night.”
- ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, p. 103.
Do you divide your books into day and night reads? How do you decide?
Wow. When I read this, I realized this was one question about reading I had never considered before. I love The Unbearable Lightness of Being, where the quote is from, by the way.While I've never categorized books into day books and night books before, there are certainly books I have read far into the night. There are also books that I put down at night because they are too scary to contemplate alone late at night. They might not be traditionally "scary", but they might prompt me to think about uncomfortable things, things I don't want to think about at night, like our insignificance in the universe--stuff like that.
On the other hand, because it was a page-turner that sucked me in, I read one scary book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, until far into the night, because even though the subject matter wasn't something I want to think about at night, I just couldn't put the book down. So there are definitely those books that transcend day and night, because you just keep reading them, through night and day and night again.
While I can see why people might want to read "safe", comforting sort of books at night, and read books that take them out of their comfort zone during the day, I don't think I am truly one of those people.
What is the difference between your day reading and your night reading?
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3 comments:
I read very productively during the day because I get up so early in the morning. In the evening, my mind is too occupied with getting ready for the next day and cooking dinner that I hardly read. I would pick up the same book I read during the day if it's very gripping.
I finished the millennium trilogy and two of which I read on vacation. The second one I finished in the middle of the night in Hawaii.
The Little Stranger is a stay-up-all-night kind of book.
Matt--I used to be like you, but having kids so limited my reading time, that I only have night-time to really focus on books. So even though I'm tired and often distracted at night, I force myself to read, and usually it ends up being a sweet end to the day :)
Little Miss Nomad--it's on my list!
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