Can You Read Too Much?

I joined Goodreads in October at the suggestion of a friend with whom I've exchanged book recommendations over the years. The week after I joined I had a sinus infection and stayed home from work for three days. Between bouts of watching old Grey's Anatomy episodes I entered a lot of books into my profile on Goodreads.

I read a lot. I know that. I read about 100 books a year. I guess I read quickly and I can get make use of ten minutes here and there to get through books. But now I'm self-conscious about it because many of my friends on Goodreads tell me that I am intimidating them. They ask how I possibly find time to work and write and do all things I purport to do. Until now I didn't think my reading habits were in any way remarkable.

So now I'm considering making a conscious effort to read less. I know it would be good for me to slow down a little and savor works more. I should probably also be more directed in what I read and not be so swayed by what I see featured in each Sunday's New York Times.

I don't know if I can read less. Or at least not without a great deal of effort. And aren't there other things that effort should be directed toward? Not spent on something that's free and has absolutely no grams of fat or carbs and which is pretty much universally considered a "good" thing? Can there be too much of a "good" thing if the thing is reading? I don't know.

Franzen

For years I was certain I had read and enjoyed "The Corrections." So it was with eagerness that I queued up early in the library website line to get "Freedom" as soon as it was released. I read the first 50 pages and couldn't take it. I didn't like any of the characters and while I appreciated Franzen's story-telling abilities and eye to absurd detail, I just didn't want to spent 500+ pages on this project.

About two months ago I was having lunch with a writer friend who talked about how much she loved "The Corrections." I agreed and talked about how I loved that final scene at the house in New Jersey. My friend looked at me strangely. Within a minute of further discussion I learned that I had not in fact read "The Corrections" but some other book which must have come out at around the same time. [I have also learned I never read "Cloud Atlas."]

I decided I had attempted the wrong Franzen as my first foray. In the week after that conversation two more people whose reading critiques I highly prize also went on and on about "The Corrections." All right, already. I got it as a book on CD from the library.

I listened to the first few tracks and it didn't grab me. OK, maybe I needed a bigger stretch of time. Well, I've now done 6 CDs (12 more to go -- that's another 15 hours). I DON'T WANT TO SPEND ANOTHER MINUTE OF MY TIME WITH THIS FAMILY.

Is it elegantly written? Yes. Does Franzen have a amazing eye for detail and dialogue? Yes. It is laugh out loud funny at points? Yes. But I just don't like it. I don't get the thrust of the story and whether I should be most worried about the guy going to Lithuania or the patent owned by the father. Franzen wore me out by so many alley-ways and furbelows in the story that I no longer care about any of the main characters.

So Franzen has now joined my list of writers that includes Philip Roth (see 2009 posting about my attempt to read the Zuckerman novels over the course of one summer). It's very hard for me to admit that I just don't like/just don't get such well-regarded, acclaimed writers and I do feel the nudge of thinking it's a fault in me rather than a question of taste. But for me, life is just too short for a Franzen novel.