Culture

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Are you ashamed of skipping parts of books? Over recent days, I've been reading Somerset Maugham's Ten Novels and Their Authors in the Vintage edition (a Christmas gift). Before he gets stuck into the lives and masterpieces of 10 great authors (the book began as a commission from Redbook in the early 50s), Maugham gives us an essay on "The Art of Fiction" in which he devotes quite a bit of space to "the useful art of skipping". Skipping, says Maugham, is perfectly fine, because "a sensible person does not read a novel as a task. He reads it as a diversion". Whereupon a chasm seemed to open up between this reader of 2012, and the reader (or writer) of 1952, for whom the novel is to be treated as an entertainment. Modern readers might include "to be pleasing" as one of art's aims, but they would also, I suspect, look for some moral enhancement, some thrill of style, and some cultural uplift, too.

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Some thoughts (not mine) on the impatient writer and reader Today, I read two articles shared by friends on Facebook that describe (and justify) two diametrically different approaches to literature as a source of enjoyment. The first article, posted by Sharon Bakar, justifies the impatient, let's-cut-to-the-chase approach (Robert McCrum, "Are you ashamed of skipping parts of books?", The other, posted by Eric Forbes, defends the leisurely, let's-savour-every-nuance approach (Pico Iyer, "The writing life: the point of the long and winding sentence",

England <div id="blq-no-js-banner"><p>For a better experience on your device, try our <a href=" site</a>.</p></div> Accessibility links BBC navigation England The Business Case for Reading Novels - Anne Kreamer by Anne Kreamer | 4:02 PM January 11, 2012 I’ve been a devoted, even fanatical reader of fiction my whole life, but sometimes I feel like I’m wasting time if I spend an evening immersed in Lee Child’s newest thriller, or re-reading The Great Gatsby. Shouldn’t I be plowing through my in-box? Used cars - Find a used car for sale on Auto Trader To work out how much you can afford to spend, factor in running costs including fuel prices and insurance. If you're struggling to justify paying for a car right away, find out which finance options are available to you so you can buy it as soon as you like – and pay for it over a set period of time. Compare over 300 loan products now | Compare car insurance prices | More on setting your budget Choosing the right car for you is an important decision.

Some of my worst friends are books A number of modern novelists have remarked on the profound oddity – or "madness", as Henry James (among others) once described it – of the way in which a novelist becomes inhabited by persons and voices. Rather than regarding creativity as a benign or even divine form of inspiration, several have gone so far as to label this state of receptivity as a form of mitigated psychosis. Edward Albee calls it "controlled" schizophrenia, while EL Doctorow prefers the qualifier "socially acceptable". I suspect neither of them has much experience of real schizophrenia, of the relentlessness and the terror of being inhabited by voices that are neither summoned nor biddable. But what about the experience of the reader, who is also invaded by voices?

The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too Many Books Not pictured: annoyed roommate “…ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them. So I have erected one of his dwellings, with books as the building stones, before you, and now he is going to disappear inside, as is only fitting.” -Walter Benjamin, “Unpacking My Library”

THE COMPOSITES James Bond, Casino Royal & Moonraker, Ian Fleming “Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless” …As he tied his thin, double-ended, black satin tie, he paused for a moment and examined himself levelly in the mirror. His grey-blue eyes looked calmly back with a hint of ironical inquiry and the short lock of black hair which would never stay in place slowly subsided to form a thick comma above his right eyebrow. With the thin vertical scar down his right cheek the general effect was faintly piratical. Not much of Hoagy Carmichael there, thought Bond, as he filled a flat, light gunmetal box with fifty of the Morland cigarettes with the triple gold band.

Here's What Humbert Humbert Looks Like (as a Police Composite Sketch) - Megan Garber - Technology An artist uses police sketch software to (re?)create some of the best-known characters in literature. Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary. Rochester from Jane Eyre. Is reading on the loo bad for you? The toilet papers ... experts believe the risk of spreading germs to loo-side literature is actually quite small. Photograph: Garry Weaser for the Guardian From the moment Ron Shaoul took it upon himself to investigate the practice of reading on the toilet, scouring medical literature and turning up nothing of note as to its public health consequences, the situation became clear that here, on his hands, was a big job. Shaoul's curiosity was driven by his work as a doctor specialising in paediatric gastroenterology. He mustered some colleagues, drew up a questionnaire and had hundreds of people of all shapes and sizes complete it.