they are reading

pandora by jilly cooper

the sort of book she says that makes her feel dirty just by reading it. but she tells me her flatmate has, for reasons she won't share, everything by danielle steel and ,being a compulsive reader, she couldn't leave the house without a book. and this was the result. she makes no excuses. she does reveal however that when she was young she had a speech impediment so her parents made her read out loud every day. so she shares some steel with us. it's not pretty.

it means mischief by kate thompson

what is it about? she can't say. it's the type of thing, she tells me, that's perfect for the night shift. without substance, un-memorable, totally non-taxing. she buys them from charity shops and returns them when she's finished.

he is reading

the oxford handook of acute medicine

he is drawing a diagram of nerve pathways in the brain. it would be easier, he says, if the brain wasn't so complicated. it makes his hurt just by thinking about it and he is sure when he is finished his diagram it will not look like a functional map of the brain, only his deepening confusion.

she is reading

nothing lasts forever by sidney sheldon

its great she says. three women, one investigates a murder, one gets murdered and the other sleeps her way to the top!!!! i should use more exclamation marks to get across the enthusiasm with which she describes her read. she's totally into it and doesn't do that 'you must read it' thing - for her the read is something she totally disappears into. talking to her gets a smile on my face tinged with regret that i don't seem to have that total absorption any more.

i do have another candidate for tonight's reader but the book she's reading is in russian. you should know what it's about she tells me. come on, i protest, i only learned a few words of russian when i was six. she laughs dismissively at this and tells me that she could tell me what she was reading but how would i know it was the truth. those bulgarians! lol

she is reading

songs of the humpback whale by jodi picoult

which she bought along with audrey niffenegger's time traveller's wife for 2 for £7 if tesco while food shopping on the way to work.

she's read picoult before she says and likes them for their lightness but gets frustrated by the 'moralising' and the way the characters 'seem to think far too much about everything'. she reads these books, she says, for light relief and that her shelves at home are occupied only by medical books.

as usual with any of these exercises the questions you ask other people aren't really so much about them as yourself. i'm realising i'm unsure why i read books - that sense of escape i got when i was young seems wholly absent yet at the same time i can still find myself enthusing about something or other.

the last two days readers ask me what i'll be reading on my days off. i dodge the question. i read many things at once. i've already admitted to them that i make assumptions about people based on what they read - how do i escape second guessing myself!

she is reading

twilight by stephanie meyer

so what is it you're reading? oh i can't tell you she says. is it twilight i ask?
her sixteen year old sister recommended it to her. it is true she says that not much happens, that a long time is spent with the main characters looking at each other, but as her sister assured her, once she started she found she can;t put it down. so what's the attraction i ask? oh, she says, it's edward cullen.

really?

oh yes, she says, i tend to skim the bits he's not in

she is reading

say goodbye by lisa gardner

you can't beat a good murder mystery on the night shift she says. she has discovered that this is part of a series but that she's reading it in the wrong order. she tells me she's recently taken to shopping for books in oxfam and recommends it.

(the idea for this taken from people reading
where, hopefully, i'll send this and others. i'm more self conscious about it than i expected!)