Two years ago, at about the time my mother died, the Penguin newsletter carried an article called How to read a book a day for a month and survive.
In that time immediately after a death and in the house where my mother lived, I found that reading a book a day, an untidy list of titles that I mostly found by chance, worked for me. By the time the month had finished, I was almost drunk on the quick succession of unexpected prose. Each day I encountered a different style and point of view. Many short novels are in translation so I was immersed in different cultures and ways of seeing. The short novel seems to allow for experimentation. The brevity of each book sharpened the focus. I decided to do it again the following year.
I became adept at scanning the shelves of libraries and bookshops, new and second-hand, for thin spines. I searched, and found, lists of short novels recommended by other readers. Brevity allows one to be more adventurous – you are only going to be with the writer for a day. I constantly surprised myself. I found myself describing the experience as something like cold water swimming or daily cross country running. There is something muscular and exhilarating about it. I found, also, that I was, more consciously, reading as a writer.
The intensity and focus of this daily reading habit encourages me to notice the workings of novels. The immediate contrasts between one book and the next draws attention to style and technique. The length of the novel intensifies the way the writer tells the story, encourages gaps which make the reader work in satisfying ways, makes words count more intensely so that the experience can be like reading a long poem. I have included non-fiction and poetry in my lists though I have found that I prefer not to read poetry collections in a day. I like to read poetry slowly, to leave space between one poem and another.
I recommend the challenge to you. It makes me feel alive with language and storytelling, with the fizz and unexpectedness of other people’s thinking. It makes me want to write.