Friday Memes and a Lonely Postman

It's the end of the Autumn Term and I am sincerely worried about how fast time is moving. I will be sending my own children off to university soon if time keeps accelerating this way! But I am looking forward to having some time off so I can focus on my essays without lectures interrupting me. But onto some memes!

Follow Friday is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee. This week's question was suggested by Liberamans:

Do you have a favourite place to read?

Good question! One of my favourite places to read is in bed! There's nothing better than curling up in bed with a book and not having to move to go to sleep. Last year I didn't have a bedside light so I couldn't actually read in bed without having to move eventually. Now I could just not move between waking up and going to sleep and enjoy my books. If I'm not at home I prefer to read in cafes. Having a cup of coffee or a cup of tea while you're reading is great and I really enjoy taking a break from reading once in a while and do some people-watching. It has actually happened once or twice that something that happened around me mirrored something that happened in the book I was reading, which made me feel like I was in 'Inception'.

Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. This week's question was suggested by Emily over at Follow the Yellow Book Road:

How many books do you read in a week? How many hours do you spend reading a day?

This is actually quite a difficult question because it really depends on my kind of week. I'm not going to include reading I do for university, so no papers or novels for modules, and if I cut those out there's actually not that much time left. I have days where I read a lot because I decide to fill the gap between lectures not with work but with pleasure and then I might even read a whole book in a day. On average I'd say I leisure-read for about two hours a day and in a good week I can finish two or maybe three books. But all of that work is undone if I am stressed and then nothing will get read for two whole weeks!


For Book Beginnings and Friday 56, hosted by Gilion over at Rose City Reader and Freda over at Freda's Voice respectively, I am using The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault which I reviewed on Wednesday. I really enjoyed this book, which my dad gave me last Friday. It's such a nice thing when parents get presents right!


BB:

'Swirling like wateragainst rugged rocks,time goes around and around.

Beech Street, rue des Hêtres, was for the most part lines with maples. Glancing down the road, one saw a double row of four-or five-storey apartment buildings, with outside staircases providing access to the upper floors.' p.1

Thériault combines both prose and haiku in this book and it works together beautifully! What I also really like about the beginning is the attention to the streets, since the main character is a postman it is logical that this is something he'd pay attention to but it's remarkable to notice how many authors seem to forget about what their characters would find interesting.

F56:

'The basic cause of the miracle wasn't particularly important to him, as long as it worked and he could keep writing to Ségolène, as long as he could dream about her playing the flute on the bank of the lazy river, charming snakes as in that painting by Henri Rousseau, then dozing on a bed of greenery while wildflowers wrapped her in live petals and forest animals mounted a jealous guard by her side.' p.56

I love the continuity of the prose, if that makes sense. Thériault just keeps going with the imagery, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the character's imagination. Also, I think the nature imagery is quite interesting, how the woman is related to plants and wild life in this character's mind. Sorry, that was the English student in me coming through.

So, this was my meme-post! It's been a long week, yet it's a shame it's over! So, where do you prefer to read? And how much do you think you read a week?