After finishing Angels & Insects by A.S. Byatt, I read Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford (chilling), and re-read a few Agatha Christie novels.

Then I started a book that has been on many ‘best’ lists.

I’ve disliked certain novels. I’ve read novels that angered me, depressed me…but I’m pretty sure this is one experience that I had yet to encounter.

I made it 28 pages before I decided that Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs was awful enough to throw away… I don’t mean give back, pass along, I mean add it to the pile of banana peels and used tissues. It wasn’t the writing itself that was terrible – it was the content. It is meant to be a series of vignettes; the bits are tied together quite loosely by the character Lee, a drug addict – much of the novel itself was drug-induced, accounting for it’s lack of actual plot. I can’t explain myself very well without getting into details; suffice it to say that there were certain passages that made me feel so awful that I couldn’t continue.

I knew going into the book that it had been at one point on a list of obscene literature; I guess I kind of assumed it would be like a lot of other books on the lists (Ulysses??)

Anyway. It was enough that, though I am against censorship, I didn’t want to own it, or finish reading it myself.

So…I gave up and started reading The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt.

I enjoy her writing style; her words conjure up lovely, dark images of Victorian and Romantic era life. The tales are full of rich details, but the language is surprisingly much simpler than expected.

What are you reading?