Donal Ryan saves Kathleen from her discarding weirdness

I’ve marched through March discarding books like there’s no tomorrow. I have had many suggestions to help me out of this unfortunate state but nothing was working, even though I could see that I was being recommended books I’d normally really like.

Why could I no longer settle in to a book? At first I blamed my discovery of and literary crush on George Saunders. What writer could match his genius?

The first book I discarded was Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor. Beautifully crafted and written, so beautiful that I’d go back to read the prose I’d jut heard. I was getting nowhere. I tried re-reading books I’d loved, tried changing genres, decades, centuries. Nothing worked.

Then at last the good news. My March madness was broken. I tried a Donal Ryan again. I’d bought the audiobooks on the day it was released earlier this month, but had lost the plot, which is easy to do when the novel is essentially plotless. Nevertheless I decided to try it again. It worked.

I am back in my world of books.

Here is my 75 book challenge to date post - you can see my George Saunders binge.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/348344#n8060995

I am back in my world of books.

Hooray! That's good news. I'm still struggling to get reading again post-covid.

>2 labfs39: Yes, covid affected so many areas of our lives Are you having a struggle to get immersed in a book or in selecting one, or both of these?

I have one I'm enjoying (Taken Captive), I simply can't stay with it.

>5 labfs39: That’s how I was with Reservoir 13 . I really enjoyed it. Still couldn’t keep going.

Unfortunately after reading over 120 chapters - I was determined to get to the end, not because of wanting to know how it ended, but just to get it over with.

My short review is at
https://www.librarything.com/work/28701251/reviews/235509370