Latest News

Kirsty Logan

Hello! I’m Kirsty Logan, a writer of novels and short stories. My latest work is the Audible Original The Sound at the End. My other books are Things We Say In The Dark, The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales.

Latest News

Kirsty Logan

Hello! I’m Kirsty Logan, a writer of novels and short stories. My latest work is the Audible Original The Sound at the End. My other books are Things We Say In The Dark, The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter, and The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales.

Blog

Meanwhile Reads

23rd Mar 2010 in Writing

I blogged at PANK recently about Meanwhile Reads, ie. things to read while doing other things. Here are some more.

Action: Hiding in the bathroom at a family party because there are no more words to explain why you’re still single or why you don’t have a proper job or why you’ve styled your hair in that funny way.

Do Read: If you like your family then read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre for something interesting to start a debate about; if you don’t like your family then read Maggots, Murder and Men by Dr Zakaria Erzinclioglu for tips on how to dispose of the bodies.

Don’t Read: Sartre, Baudelaire, de Sade, or anything else that will cause you to make grandiose statements or stare numbly at the walls. Families hate that.


Action: Sitting at the train station waiting for a train that is always late (except for the days when you sleep in and arrive late to the station – those days, it’s early).

Do Read: Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, or Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, or Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking Around America by Jenny Diski(my personal favourite), or Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood, or… OK, no more train books.

Don’t Read: 1,000-page hardbacks – you’ll regret it when there are no empty seats on the train and you have to hold that sucker in your arms for the whole journey.


Action: Being bored at the salon because you’re getting your hair cut by a student hairdresser, which is cheap but takes two hours because they’re so nervous about making horrible mistake that they cut each hair individually.

Do Read: The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill to transport you to snowier and more fanciful places; anything from Salt‘s poetry collection to get yourself too tangled up in words to care about anything else.

Don’t Read: The History of Lesbian Hair by Mary Dugger – the hairdresser might get confused and give you a mullet.

So, folks: what do you read while doing other things?

One response to “Meanwhile Reads”

  1. aurora ann says:

    I like to read magazines while doing other things…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *