The mercurial mind - ways in which to read poetry

When I first started reading poetry I approached it as I would a novel - thinking I had to read one collection at a time from cover to cover, then I began dipping in and out. Now I read cover to cover but I may well have several collections on the go at any given time. Take today for instance, I read a pamphlet sized collection cover to cover and made notes on it for an endorsement I am writing, but I have also dipped into several other collections I am reading, as well as reading bits of a journal and reading some poems online. This seems to me a very natural way of reading. It is rare that a poetry collection is so riveting that I can't put it down and have to compulsively read it straight through - although it does happen (and is a treat when it does) and some poetry collections take a great deal of concentration and mental processing - in these cases I can only read a few pages at a time before I need to take a break. Using my old mode of poetry reading I would have probably put the book down after those few pages and gone and found something else to do or read a novel. Now, if I choose to, I can move onto reading a different collection.

I seem to have developed this mercurial mind approach to reading in general. I still tend only to read one novel at a time (although I may have several I have started and stopped and might later come back to) but I will also have several poetry collections, a short story collection or two and several non fiction books on the go at any given time. In fact Goodreads tells me that I am currently reading 36 books. I think I developed this way of reading when I was studying - I like it it means I spend more time reading overall and that I read more books - something that feels more urgent as you get older. and feel you might be running out of time.

I don't do massively close readings of every poetry collection I read. I usually give more attention to the books I find more engaging. Collections where I want to come back to particular poems again and again. With these collections I sometimes make notes or post snippets on Twitter so that I can remember them later - and perhaps to entice other readers to seek out the book. If I am not finding a collection engaging or am finding it difficult I don't usually give up. Often I will try reading poems several times or reading them aloud to see if I can make more sense of them or get a feel for them. Sometimes I put the book away on a to read pile so that I can come back to it later - it might simply be that I am not in the right frame of mind for it - after all we bring all our emotional states and baggage to a reading of any book. There are, of course, books I don't love. These tend to be discarded after reading - these could be mediocre writing, but they can also be books that I am simply not ready for yet. I remember reading a few books when I did my degree and hating them - Ted Hughes Crow was one of them - I loathed it - I found the language ugly and heavy and too masculine. However a couple of years later I suddenly had a hankering to read it and this time I loved it - it was all those things of course but now I "got it." I think I simply wasn't ready for it yet the first time I was introduced to it. I think of it as a kind of reading evolution. It's like studying art - most people don't love abstract without first gaining an appreciation of more conventional forms - it's like you work your way up to abstract through studying the history of art so that when you get there you can fully appreciate it. Poetry is the same I think - one starts with the more conventional and works one's way towards an appreciation of the more surreal and experimental.

Books Read in 2014

• Last first...
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• 93 In the Bee Latitudes - ‘Annah Sobelman (poetry)
• 92) The Legend of Colton H. Bryant - Alexandra Fuller (non-fiction)
• 91) Maggie and Me - Damaien Barr (non-fiction)
• 90) The Gypsy and the Poet - David Morley (poetry)
• 89) Every Day is for the Thief - Teju Cole (fiction)
• 88) Notes From the Balcony - Lynn Woollacott (poetry)
• 87) Like Rabbits - Lynne Bryan (fiction)
• 86) Diary Of an Unsmug Married - Polly James (fiction)
• 85) Granta 113: The Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists (fiction - short stories)
• 84) My Sister's Keeper - Bill Benners (fiction)
• 83) The Mathematics of Friedrich Gauss: Family Snapshots - D.W. Wilson (fiction)
• 82) All One Breath - John Burnside (poetry)
• 81) Beneath Stars Long Extinct - Ron Egatz (poetry)
• 80) Small Grass - Jacqueline Gabbitas (poetry)
• 79) Place - Jorie Graham (poetry)
• 78) The Beginner's Goodbye - Anne Tyler (fiction)
• 77) The Waterproof Bible - Andrew Kaufman (fiction)
• 76) Picture Me Gone - Meg Rossoff (fiction)
• 75) And After All This I Saw: Selections from the Work of Julian of Norwich - Edwin Kelly (poetry)
• 74) The Book of Strange New Things - Michel Faber (fiction)
• 73) Irene - Piere Lemaitre (fiction)
• 72) At the Time of Partition - Moniza Alvi (poetry)
• 71) Black Country - Liz Berry (poetry)
• 70) Wreaking - James Scudamore (fiction)
• 69) Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee (fiction)
• 68) Thunderstruck and other Stories - Elizabeth McCracken (fiction - short stories)
• 67) Ballistics - D.W. Wilson (fiction)
• 66) The Dead Lake - Hamid Ismailov (fiction)
• 65) Strange Bodies - Marcel Theroux (fiction)
• 64) When I was Five I Killed Myself - Howard Buten (fiction)
• 63) Fauverie - Pascale Petit (poetry)
• 62) Zoo Father - Pascale Petit (poetry, re-read)
• 61) The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (fiction)
• 60) Snapper - Brian Kimberling (fiction)
• 59) Imagined Sons - Carrie Etter (poetry)
• 58) Under the Skin - Michael Faber (fiction)
• 57) The Lake in the Woods - Tim O'Brien (fiction)
• 56) Moontide - Niall Campbell (poetry)
• 55) Comradely Greetings – Nadya Tolokonnikova (non-fiction)
• 54) This is Yarrow - Tara Bergin (poetry)
• 53) Parallax -Sinead Morrisey (poetry)
• 52) Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (fiction)
• 51) Sins of the Leopard - James Brooks (poetry)
• 50) The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion - Kei Miller (poetry)
• 49) The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson (fiction)
• 48) Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey (fiction)
• 47) Ties that Bind - Catherine Deveney (fiction)
• 46) Hoad and other Stories - Sarah Passingham (fiction, short stories)
• 45) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)
• 44) The Universe Versus Alex Woods - Gavin Extence (fiction)
• 43) Erosion - S.A. Hemmings (fiction)
• 42) Sic Transit Wagon and other stories - Barbara Jenkins (Fiction, short stories)
• 41) The White Lioness - henning Mankell (fiction)
• 40) The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin (fiction)
• 39) Hot Damn - Cat Woodward (poetry)
• 38) Candide - Voltaire (fiction)
• 37) Black Beauty - Anna Sewell (fiction)
• 36) Sleeping Keys - Jean Sprackland (poetry)
• 35) Double Negative - Ivan Vladislavic (non fiction)
• 34) Planet-shaped Horse - Luke Kennard (poetry)
• 33) Bysuss - Jen Hadfield (poetry)
• 32) Division Street - Helen Mort (poetry)
• 31) Tenth of December - George Saunders (fiction - re-read)
• 30) Adventures in Form - edited by Tom Chivers (poetry)
• 29) Bevel - William Letford (poetry, re-read)
• 28) Barcelona - Philip Langeskov (fiction)
• 27) Love Me Do - Lydia Macpherson (poetry)
• 26) Gathering Evidence - Caoilinn Hughes (poetry)
• 25) Perfect -Rachel Joyce (fiction)
• 24) Strange Weather inTokyo - Hiromi Kawakami ( fiction)
• 23) Standard Twin Fantasy - Sam Riviere (poetry)
• 22) Forward Book of Poetry 2014 (poetry)
• 21) Yoga - Tom Warner (poetry)
• 20) Love, Nina, Despatches from Family Life - Nina Stibbe (non fiction)
• 19) Instant-Flex 718 - Heather Phillipson (poetry)
• 18) Enough About You - Notes Towards the New Autobiography - David Shields (non-fiction)
• 17) Ink's Wish - Sarah Law (poetry)
• 16) When the Killing's Done - T.C. Boyle (fiction)
• 15) Violet - Selima Hill (poetry - re-read)
• 14) The Marlowe Papers - Ros Barber (poetry)
• 13) Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro (fiction)
• 12) Truffle Beds - Katherine Pierpoint (poetry)
• 11) The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (fiction)
• 10) Stag's Leap - Sharon Olds (poetry, re-read)
• 9) Splitfish - Kiran Millwood Hargrave (poetry)
• 8) The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer (fiction)
• 7) Conjure - Michael Donaghy (poetry)
• 6) The Paraffin Child - Stephen Blanchard (fiction)
• 5) Her Birth - Rebecca Goss (poetry)
• 4) The Museum of Disappearing Sounds - Zoe Skoulding (poetry)
• 3) Ice - Gillian Clarke (poetry)
• 2) Life: An Exploded Diagram - Mal Peet (fiction)
• 1) Fallen Land - Patrick Flannery (fiction)

Books read in 2011 (last first)

68) Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels ( fiction - re-read)

67) Selected Poetry - Jenny Joseph (poetry)
66) Signs Around a Dead Body - Deryn Rees-Jones (poetry)
65) Vintage Sea - Marion McCready (poetry)
64) The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Seabold (non fiction)
63) Releasing Stone - David Morley (poetry)
62) A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor (non-fiction)
61) Off Road to Everywhere - Philip Gross (poetry)
60) Aged Fourteen My Grandfather Runs Away to Sea - Matt Kirkham (poetry)
59) Another Use of Canvas - Angus Sinclair (poetry)
58) The History of Love - Nicole Krauss (fiction)
57) Ordering the Storm - How to Put Together a Book of Poems - Susan Grimm (ed.) (poetry)
56) Terry Street - Douglas Dunn (poetry)
55) Spacecraft Voyager 1: New and Selected Poems - Alice Oswald (poetry)
54) Four Poets - UEA Creative Writing anthology 2011 (poetry)
53) Break no Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)
52) Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (fiction)
51) Black Cat Bone - John Burnside (poetry)
50) When God was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman (fiction)
49) The Water Table - Philip Gross (poetry, re-read)
48) Deepstep Come Shining - C.D. Wright (poetry)
47) Kennedy's Brain - Henning Mankell (fiction)
46) Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy (poetry)
45) Book of Matches - Simon Armitage (poetry)
44) Full Indian Rope Trick - Colette Bryce (poetry)
43) Unseen - Mari Jungstedt (fiction)
42) The Wasteland and Other Poems - T.S. Eliot (poetry)
41) The Good Angel of Death - Andrey Kurkov (fiction)
40) Slattern - Kate Clanchy (poetry)
39) Something and Nothing - Lynn Woollacott (poetry)
38) Ghost Light - Joseph O'Connor (fiction)
37) Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis - Wendy Cope (poetry, re-read)
36) A Sampler - Partrick Yarker (poetry)
35) Escaping the Cage - Kate Scott (poetry)
34) After the Fire, A Still Small Voice - Evie Wyld (Fiction)
33) The Heel of Bernadette - Colette Bryce (poetry)
32) Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage (poetry - re-read)
31) What the Water gave Me - Pascale Petit (poetry)
30) The Triggering Town, Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing - Richard Hugo (non fiction)
29) Dog Language - Chase Twichell (poetry)
28) Nasty Little Intro #1 - Hannah Jane Walker (poetry)
27) Miming Silence - Bernadette Cremin (poetry)
26) How Not to Get Your Poetry Published - Helena Nelson (non fiction)
25) Corpus - Michael Symmons Roberts (poetry)
24) One Eye'd Leigh - Katherine Kilalea (poetry)
23) Ararat - Louise Gluck (poetry)
22) MUDe - John Redmond (poetry)
21) District and Circle - Seamus Heaney (re-read -poetry)
20) Enchantment - David Morley (poetry)
19) The Suitable Girl - Michelle Mcgrane (poetry)
18) A ha, 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit... - Jordan Ayan (non fiction)
17) The Wild Iris - Louise Gluck (poetry)
16) Electric Shadow - Heidi Williamson (poetry)
15) The Meanest Flower - Mimi Khalvati (poetry)
14) In the Country of Men - Hisham Matar (fiction)
13) Faber New Poets 6 - Annie Katchinska (poetry)
12) Faber New Poets 5 - Joe Dunthorne (poetry)
11) Faber New Poets 7 - Sam Riviere (poetry)
10) Shadow Tag - Louise Erdrich (fiction)
9) The Ghost Orchid - Michael Longley (poetry)
8) Legion - David Harsent (poetry)
7) Rachel Hore - The Memory Garden (fiction)
6) Double Vision - Pat Barker (fiction)
5) Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (fiction)
4) Captain Starlight's Apprentice - Kathryn Heyman (fiction)
3) Rain - Don Paterson (poetry)
2) Look We Have Coming to Dover  - Daljit Nagra (poetry)
1) Things We Didn't see Coming - Steven Amsterdam (fiction)

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