Books - What are you reading?

@ plurabelle: do you think that normal people can go beyong the 100 page of ulysses? i've tried with no joy... tips

If you're not enjoying it, don't force it. But if there's something you're getting out of it, be it the language, or the feel, or the sense of place, or anything: keep going. It's difficult; its setting is going to be alien to you, as is the language it's written in, and the constant linguistic playfulness can be slow going. Don't feel bad if that stuff puts you off. It's no reflection on you, at all, if it does; lots of people, including me, needed to study it to get it. That said, it is wonderful - and if you're able to get that straight away then keep going. It wasn't written for an academic audience - it was written for everyone.

Not sure I could cut it as a literature academic/teacher. It must be hard, when people ask what you do, and then you become 'the person who knows about literature' - like comedians always get asked to make a joke when they tell people what they do. Or maybe that's a stupid comparison.

Ha! S'no that bad, really. You have, eventually, a pretty small field that you know a shitload about. The other stuff you're allowed to be ignorant about sometimes :-)