Bored of your book? Stop reading

Nostromo by Joseph ConradIn this month’s Reading List email from Ryan Holiday, he wrote a sentence that I wholeheartedly agree with, but rarely hear people admit to.

I was disappointed in and couldn’t finish Go Set A Watchman

It’s not so much Go Set A Watchman that I’m happy about, more that he’s admitted to not finishing a book.

For a long time, I felt really bad about not being able to complete a book. I remember giving up Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo after about 75 pages, because absolutely nothing had happened and I was bored (I’m a huge fan of Conrad’s other work).
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Ask the questions, even if you may not enjoy the answers

Financial TimesThe confluence of the sale of the FT to Japanese company Nikkei and how it will remain independent, the Government’s sustained attacks on the BBC and Gawker’s decision to pull a story are neatly covered in a piece by The Guardian’s Jane Martinson.

We seem to be at a time when ever more companies/institutions are struggling with a growing desire from the public/its customers to be transparent/independent, but an equal battle to maintain revenue to satisfy owners/shareholders.

On the same day, Kevin Rawlinson from The Guardian (again) reports on the increasing number of football clubs who are banning journalists from press conferences, in favour of an in-house (and clearly biassed) reporter carrying out interviews.
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Why I can’t keep a diary

Joan Didion said it best in her collection of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

At no point have I ever been able successfully to keep a diary; my approach to daily life ranges from the grossly negligent to the merely absent, and on those few occasions when I have tried dutifully to record a day’s events, boredom has so overcome me that the results are mysterious at best …

I’ve tried numerous times over the years to keep a journal or diary and each time failed miserably. Continue reading “Why I can’t keep a diary”