I have to do the Calibri DRM breaking thing eventually, partly because I would really like to be less entangled with Amazon, but I'm dreeeeeeading it and keep putting it off. I think I have around 1600 Kindle books.
Oh trying to make the calibre tool work has gotten very difficult. I paid for a software called epubor. Much easier. Still a pain. Any ebooks released after 1/1/23 are even worse bc you need to download the files one by one in sort of a circuitous way. So annoying. Took me at least two days. Now I break drm the moment I buy a book
But non amazon e-readers and software is so good. And being able to just call up the book on calibre is great for looking up quotes.
“That’s why I always get along with really crusty old literary people: my political commitment to social and economic equality hasn’t been translated into a political commitment to aesthetic relativism.” yes...YES. This is it. Print it on a T-shirt.
Disagree about Cheever tho. He’s always weirder than I remember! And he never stopped developing. Maybe it’s partly that the social world he described is itself so alien to me that I don’t see as much sameness in him, from story to story, as others do.
Harriet is never a bad use of your time! Elizabeth Jenkins also did Tortoise and the Hare which is a completely different topic (marriage and how to steal a man in the way you completely least expect) and very good as well.
Enjoyable post! I copied some paragraphs for my writing notepad, such as
"Lately I’ve gotten more respect for people who actually do work [...] [not just] conversation with their barber [...] a huge mass of intellectual activity.
But that activity is hard! It requires a lot of attention!"
I feel like writing a substack about reading is an unjustifiable investment of energy. The only way I gave myself permission to pause recently was realising it was untenable with the combination of a demanding work project and writing class. To do the third thing I wrote it first thing some weekdays and edited and found pictures 8pm-midnight on a Sunday. (Would anyone understand this was unpaid?)
Reading too can feel like a reckless use of time, I agree! I have the same challenge, too many books in. Then you find something wonderful like the Vietnamese one you mention and, reminded of quality, it becomes easier to let go of your "maybe one day"s...
I work in a bookstore, and we sell a lot of genre fiction, and a lot of stuff that gets filed as “General Fiction” which is where you would find Jodi Picoult, Kathleen Hannah, etc. “Literature” has its own enclave on the other side of the store. (Sometimes customers ask me to define the difference between Literature and General Fiction and I can’t. I try to sidestep the question. It’s a fine line, y’know?)
I know right? Very hard thing to define. I like that there is a literature section! It's weird to have to be looking for Plath and arrive upon Picoult instead
I have to do the Calibri DRM breaking thing eventually, partly because I would really like to be less entangled with Amazon, but I'm dreeeeeeading it and keep putting it off. I think I have around 1600 Kindle books.
Oh trying to make the calibre tool work has gotten very difficult. I paid for a software called epubor. Much easier. Still a pain. Any ebooks released after 1/1/23 are even worse bc you need to download the files one by one in sort of a circuitous way. So annoying. Took me at least two days. Now I break drm the moment I buy a book
But non amazon e-readers and software is so good. And being able to just call up the book on calibre is great for looking up quotes.
“That’s why I always get along with really crusty old literary people: my political commitment to social and economic equality hasn’t been translated into a political commitment to aesthetic relativism.” yes...YES. This is it. Print it on a T-shirt.
Disagree about Cheever tho. He’s always weirder than I remember! And he never stopped developing. Maybe it’s partly that the social world he described is itself so alien to me that I don’t see as much sameness in him, from story to story, as others do.
It's true. He was a bad example. His work is really strange and various. I knew it was bad even as I was making it. Glad my substack keeps me honest!
Harriet is never a bad use of your time! Elizabeth Jenkins also did Tortoise and the Hare which is a completely different topic (marriage and how to steal a man in the way you completely least expect) and very good as well.
Enjoyable post! I copied some paragraphs for my writing notepad, such as
"Lately I’ve gotten more respect for people who actually do work [...] [not just] conversation with their barber [...] a huge mass of intellectual activity.
But that activity is hard! It requires a lot of attention!"
I feel like writing a substack about reading is an unjustifiable investment of energy. The only way I gave myself permission to pause recently was realising it was untenable with the combination of a demanding work project and writing class. To do the third thing I wrote it first thing some weekdays and edited and found pictures 8pm-midnight on a Sunday. (Would anyone understand this was unpaid?)
Reading too can feel like a reckless use of time, I agree! I have the same challenge, too many books in. Then you find something wonderful like the Vietnamese one you mention and, reminded of quality, it becomes easier to let go of your "maybe one day"s...
A great companion piece to your essay!
https://open.substack.com/pub/drugsdontwork/p/when-do-you-give-up-on-a-book?r=ih18i&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I loved this!!!
I work in a bookstore, and we sell a lot of genre fiction, and a lot of stuff that gets filed as “General Fiction” which is where you would find Jodi Picoult, Kathleen Hannah, etc. “Literature” has its own enclave on the other side of the store. (Sometimes customers ask me to define the difference between Literature and General Fiction and I can’t. I try to sidestep the question. It’s a fine line, y’know?)
I know right? Very hard thing to define. I like that there is a literature section! It's weird to have to be looking for Plath and arrive upon Picoult instead