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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?