My Rat’s Chance …

1. A book that has been previously abandoned
- this would have to be The Kindly Ones (GULP)!
2. A re-read. Didn’t quite get it/thought there was more/made promise to self to re-read? Time to make good.
- this is Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White … I am sure that I burned my old copy and the danced joyous jig around the flames.
3. A book that has sat on the shelf, like, forever. (Decades.)
4. A book that paralyses one with dread.
- Easy, Ulysses, James Joyce.
5. Investigate a canonical writer hitherto most shamefully overlooked.
- Kurt Vonnegut. Is he cannonical?
6. Seek out a book by an author who has earned ostracism by being so good that any further novel could surely never measure up…?
- This is terribly subjective. I am going to have to go with Lionel Shriver who I have personally ostracised based solely on the awe inspiring and terrifying We Need To Talk About Kevin, which, by the way, after all these years I still feel as though I really need to talk about!!!
7. And the opposite… That author who was supposed to be really good, but didn’t go down too well? Give him/her another go!
- huh hmmm. This will require some thought.
8. Take a chance. Read a book which you would rather not. For instance when the OH says ‘you’ll really like this’ and you’re thinking ‘no, I really won’t…’
- more thinking required …
9. A book from an unfamiliar genre.
- even more thinking needed …
10. Ask a friend (preferably a person of impeccable taste, and definitely not someone who might have an axe to grind) to choose a book that you will, in their opinion, like. (This does not mean ask a dozen people until you get the right answer!)
- ok, friends, help me out here?

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