How can you create more space for reading in your life, and rediscover the joy of it?
It’s the run-up to publication for Charlotte’s debut novel, Bring the House Down, and the post-publication glow for Alice’s latest book, Hark: How Women Listen, so today we’re talking about some of the weirdness that goes on the brain during the weeks before publishing a book, how we’re dealing (or not) with all of that, and how far away it all feels from the actual writing process.
And speaking of things that aren’t writing, Char has a problem: she’s been finding it unusually difficult to read, often only getting to page nine or ten before abandoning the latest book on her bedside TBR pile. Alice, on the other hand, has been blessed by abundant rains of reading inspiration, and is powering through book after book with joy. Char is after some advice for how to get back to that place.
Is it just a matter of putting away your phone, or is there more to it than that? How does what you read shape what you write? Plus, we find out the surprising book that Alice read while she was giving birth, and the most turgid book that Char has ever read when trapped in a holiday cottage.
What do you do when you find yourself reading less? How do you rediscover the joy of reading?
catch up
Writing motherhood with Helen Jukes
How is being a writer like being a mother? Writing a book and having a baby can be oddly similar experiences: both take a long time and are not exactly pain-free. Alice and Charlotte have even done both at once, and in today’s episode we talk about what it’s like to bring a book
Hark: How Women Listen, with Alice Vincent
What could it mean to listen more deeply? Alice’s extraordinary new book, Hark: How Women Listen, is published this week, and in today’s episode of In Haste, Charlotte couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask her all about how it came into being.
Literature in translation with Lauren Elkin
Have we got over a cultural reluctance to read literature in translation?
Share this post