Being in a book group can be good and bad. Sometimes you end up reading books you would never pick up, and end up having a whole new world opened to you. Other times you drag your way through a book simply to say you read it when you meet up with the group. I have been excitedly working through the Goodreads “play book tag” challenges, but this year I seem to have hit the wall. The Trim the Books challenge has selected my random books that I have not loved, and this month’s I will not finish. I just can’t bring myself to read another story about a couple that has lost a child. I just can’t.
So I took a break from read. It is now March 15, and I have only read 8 books so far this year. I am way behind my pace from last year of 1.5 books a week. I may not make the total books challenge I made, but I am reminding myself that the challenge was made by me, for me and there is no reason to make reading into a chore.
So after 2 weeks of no reading at all – not even listening in my car – I have returned to the world of books. I am listening to Pachinko. At about halfway through, I am fascinated with the descriptions of how Koreans were treated by the Japanese, and about how the country was torn in two after the second world war. It helps put what is happening currently between these two factions into context. It also highlights for me just how easy it is for a group to be marginalized and vilified. I am looking forward to finishing this one, and getting a fresh start soon on the next group of titles that will hopefully draw me back into the written word.
The Source 4 Books 