To Be Challenged... Or Not to Be?

One of the events I attended at the recent Sydney Writers' Festival has got me thinking about my reading habits and choices. The event was a talk by Australian author Gail Jones and she was speaking about the influences and processes involved in the writing of her most recent book Five Bells which I reviewed here. Jones was a beautiful speaker to listen to - lyrical and passionate (just like her book) and at one point she was speaking about the importance of reading in offering us a challenge - that we should be reading novels and other works that challenge us with their construction their language and their ideas.

I must admit I am not always reaching for the challenging in my reading - after a day full of work where I am emotionally and intellectually drained sometimes I just want to reach for that 'easy' read - something that will allow me to tune out and not have to think too deeply. Having said that I know I do often challenge myself in terms of the content of the books I choose to read - reading in areas I might not necessarily know anything about, or choosing a book that has particularly difficult emotional material to get through. The books I don't often challenge myself with are those that are difficult to grasp in terms of language - I started Dr Zhivago on the weekend and while I am loving the story so far I am struggling with the number of Russian names to get my tongue around and the differences in language and expression. I have found myself resorting to my 'easier' reads now that the work and study week has resumed.

I guess the idea of a challenging read will be different for everyone but I am wondering what reading challenges you - and how have you overcome the challenge to enrich your reading even further? What books have been worth the challenge?

Sydney Writers' Festival - 2011

One of the highlights of my reading year is the annual trip to the Sydney Writers Festival which I went to this past weekend in the glorious Walsh Bay area of Sydney under THAT bridge!
I attended some great events and heard some amazing authors and women (yes, all of the events I went to this year were delivered from the perspective of female authors) speak about their work and the way their lives have impacted their writing and vice-versa.
In one event I heard two writers, Kate Holden and Emma Forrest talk about the memoirs they have written with honesty and gusto. Kate's first memoir, In My Skin, tells the story of the time in her life when she was addicted to heroin and working as a prostitute in Australia. At the risk of placing people into stereotypes - Kate does not come across as your typical past drug user and sex worker - she is articulate, humorous, intelligent and generous in giving of her story to complete strangers. Hearing her speak was a reminder to myself to never place people in boxes - let people tell their stories and do not judge. I have not read her book as yet but it is waiting on my shelf and after hearing Kate speak about her experiences in writing and publishing the book I can't wait. Emma Forrest's recently released memoir Your Voice in My Head is the story of her experiences with severe depression and the psychiatrist she found to work with who helped her through this time in her life and again, although I haven't read her book as yet that will soon be rectified. Attending this session was another great experience in how hearing authors speak about their work (especially such personal books as these) can help a reader to connect with a book in a totally different way.
My favourite, and most inspirational event, of the festival was a session entitled Family Politics where the three speakers were Fatima Bhutto, Ingrid Betancourt and Aminatta Forna.I had heard of all three of the women before attending the event but I had only read the work of Forna having just finished her award winning novel The Memory of Love the day before the festival (review to come soon - enough to say for now that I simply LOVED it). The Memory of Love has recently been named as the winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writer's Prize and it is on the short list for the 2011 Orange Prize - the winner to be announced on the 8th June .
This event was amazing - hearing from three such intelligent and passionate women about the significant and traumatic events that have occured in their lives as well as what drives them to keep going in the fight for freedom in their countries. You can listen to some of the events from the festival here.

Writers' Festival Loot

I promised I would share with you the books I came home with after my trip to the Sydney Writers' Festival a couple of weeks ago so here they are:

From top to bottom the books are:

Things We Didn't See Coming - Steven Amsterdam - This was one of the books I bought after not only loving the sound of the book but being charmed by the author after I listened to him talk about his process of writing and producing the book. It comes with a lot of praise and (I think) a great title!

Outside Of The Dog - Rick Gekoski - I didn't actually get the chance to hear this author speak but I read his bio in the festival program along with the description of the book where it is described as a "bibliomemoir" - one of my favourite genres of books.

The Vagrants - Yiyun Li - My favourite session from the festival was listening to Li talk about her latest book and if she writes as engagingly as she reads and speaks I am sure I am going to love this one.

Sydney Writers' Festival 2010

We have arrived home from our weekend in Sydney which delivered varied weather while we were there but fantastic bookish and friend experiences!

The Sydney Writers' Festival is held in a wonderful location on Sydney Harbour - pretty much underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge - I snapped the photo above as we came out of our last session of the day.

Just being in amongst the atmosphere of the festival is great - I love being in a beautiful physical location where everyone around me is totally absorbed in talking about books - my idea of paradise!! I was also really lucky to be able to catch up with one of my close friends from school for lunch - a definite highlight of the weekend as although we don't get to see each other all that often we have a lot in common - including books and writing.

The highlight of the festival for me was listening to Yiyun Li speak about her new novel, The Vagrants. I had not heard of Li at all before coming to the festival - the main reason that I enjoy going to these sorts of events - I get to discover wonderful authors and books that would otherwise have passed me by. I also think that sometimes it can help to hear an author speak passionately about their work - it enables me to engage more easily with their books.

And of course I did come away with more books to add to my ever growing collection - but I will save sharing these with you until another day...

A Writers' Festival Weekend

My partner and I are heading to Sydney tomorrow for the Sydney Writers' Festival - an event I really look forward to each year.

Some of the events I am planning to see/hear are:

Event 145 - My Brilliant Debut - Authors Kirsten Tranter, Steven Amsterdam and Patrick Allington all speaking about their first publishing deals.

Event 159 - Yiyun Li - I have not read anything by this author as yet but her first novel, The Vagrants, sounds amazing.

Event 173 - No Country For Young Women - The description of this event from the SWF site:

Can a young female writer thrive in our newly retro Mad Men world? Young Australian authors Kirsten Tranter, Emily Maguire and Karen Hitchcock will discuss.

Event 188 - The Big Reading A group of authors including Natasha Solomons and Susan Wyndham read from their work.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend and sharing it with you all when I get back.

The Household Guide to Dying - Debra Adelaide

You may have been noticing that a lot of my reading material (fiction and non-fiction) tends to focus on the areas of death and dying. It is a subject area that I am greatly interested in - both professionally and personally. The Household Guide to Dying By Debra Adelaide was a book I had heard about heading into the Sydney Writer's Festival in May this year and I was fortunate enough to hear the author speak at this event (and get my book signed - a new passion of mine!).

The Household Guide To Dying is the story of Delia Bennet, a 40-something year old woman who is dying, quite quickly, of cancer. Delia is a writer of "household guides"and tips columns and her idea is to write the ultimate guide to the dying process as her last offering to the publishing world. Through the story we hear of Delia's relationships with her two young daughters, Estelle and Daisy, her husband Archie, mother Jean and an intruding neighbour, Mr Lambert. There is also a significant sub-plot to this novel which involves Delia making a trip back to a town she lived in in her younger days to locate something precious to her.

This book was divine - beautifully narrated by Delia who I just adore. A wonderful mixture of sharp, quickwitted, intelligent, reflection - everything I would love to be! The scenes involving quips between Delia and Archie and their girls ring so true. The parts where Delia prepares boxes full of keepsakes and memories for her girls to find after her death - heartbreaking and warming all at the same time.