So let's say the amount of time left to you to read books is short. Really short. And while speed reading isn't a problem, attention-span (ooo, nap!) is. What do you do
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First of all, I am really unhappy with the premise of this survey. It bodes ill for your mental state.
Second, though, to answer it ... I would probably immerse myself in old favorites. CS Lewis comes to mind.
I don't know what I would want to be my "last book." Possibly something that made sense of the parts of the Bible that don't, (I'm looking at YOU, Revelations!) without resorting to illinformed literalism or "oh, it was only for the time."
I suspect I'd go with comfort reads, but I might have a splurge on Peter Browns. Probably though, I'd surround myself with walls of books to have my way with.
I'm very sorry to hear this, though this is a reality you have faced with courage and love. The key point here seems to me to be your doziness when reading means so much to you
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By the way, it charms me that you read Nancy Mitford. I hadn't know, but it's so utterly right. I am going to assume that you've followed the whole family, and ask whether you prefer Nancy or Jessica. I am a major Jessica fan.
If I felt good and wanted to think, to prepare myself--literature has always (or seems like always) been my favorite church, but I'd want to reread, not so much new, but Blake, Donne, Herbert, Traherne, Sir Thomas Browne, maybe Milton. Maybe see if I appreciated some books more; recently, I worked with Virgina Woolf for a student and really liked her work, despite finding it boring when I was in grad school--and I recently have a new sympathy for the woebegone searching of Wordsworth and Coleridge--so.
I would probably stop reading some stuff that's central now, especially cultural studies and most lit. crit.
If I weren't feeling well, true crime, stuff about religious cults, wacky conspiracy theory stuff. Not so much rereading, except maybe humor that I know made me laugh out loud.
And if I could avoid it, I would never put a mediocre morsel of food in my mouth ever again, but balance the most sublime foods from organ meats to the lightest pastries, especially on days when I feel crappy anyway.
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Second, though, to answer it ... I would probably immerse myself in old favorites. CS Lewis comes to mind.
I don't know what I would want to be my "last book." Possibly something that made sense of the parts of the Bible that don't, (I'm looking at YOU, Revelations!) without resorting to illinformed literalism or "oh, it was only for the time."
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If I felt good and wanted to think, to prepare myself--literature has always (or seems like always) been my favorite church, but I'd want to reread, not so much new, but Blake, Donne, Herbert, Traherne, Sir Thomas Browne, maybe Milton. Maybe see if I appreciated some books more; recently, I worked with Virgina Woolf for a student and really liked her work, despite finding it boring when I was in grad school--and I recently have a new sympathy for the woebegone searching of Wordsworth and Coleridge--so.
I would probably stop reading some stuff that's central now, especially cultural studies and most lit. crit.
If I weren't feeling well, true crime, stuff about religious cults, wacky conspiracy theory stuff. Not so much rereading, except maybe humor that I know made me laugh out loud.
And if I could avoid it, I would never put a mediocre morsel of food in my mouth ever again, but balance the most sublime foods from organ meats to the lightest pastries, especially on days when I feel crappy anyway.
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