Note to self: Self, read more fiction!
As I grew up, I always loved reading. I spent my days off in the town library, where all the staff knew me, and if my mother couldn’t find me, she would call them and ask for me. I graduated from the children’s department on the second floor at the age of 12, and started exploring the adult section (ie. all the other books), reading voraciously. At 14 I branched into English literature, I think Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first, then I got three “mega” Robert Ludlum books for Christmas.
Throughout this, I fashioned myself a writer. The Norwegian educational system is heavily biased in favour of creative writing, and we wrote a lot of short stories, some of them not bad. My secondary school Norwegian exam (five hours, one for grammar and four for writing an original story) was published in a local anthology. In high school, we started a poetry club, and published a collection of local youth poetry, professionally printed, 600 copies sold. A fun project. I was swimming in some of the best literature every written, and I always knew I wanted to be an author.
Then I lived in Italy, and gradually learnt enough to begin to read. I think my first book was about the difficulties of teaching English to Italian school children (non-fiction came easier). To me, being able to not only read the literature but also relate to the people, places, histories that we told; because I lived in Italy; was a source of great richness. To this day, some of my favourite authors are Italian. And my absolute favourite: Andrea DeCarlo, Due di due.
Lately however, I have not read much fiction. I read a lot - but usually non-fiction; whether related to my classes, or just for interest. There are so many interesting books out there, and I always want to know more, understand more. I know a lot of people say they read less fiction while they are studying. And if I read fiction, I often do it in other languages, to practice; this summer I read a lot of Spanish (I really liked Isabel Allende), and I also discovered some Chinese novels set in Toronto.
A few days ago I was at E. J. Pratt library, at Victoria college - which I think is by far the prettiest small library in Toronto - writing on my essay about Bangladeshi small and medium enterprise sector. They had a small exhibition of new books, and one named “The task of this translator” by Todd Hasak-Lowy caught my eye. A collection of short stories by a professor of Hebrew in Florida. I borrowed it (never mind that this exam crunch-time, and I should not be “wasting” my time).
And I loved it.
Not only are the stories very good. (Not exceptional. Not the best thing I’ve read in my life. Just very good.) But it also gives me a good feeling to be reading fiction again. Not to learn anything, not to practice a language, just to be swept off my feet into a foreign world.
So thank you Victoria college, and mr. Hasak-Lowy, for bringing a bit of fiction into the exam period.
Stian
