Guilt
Reading the posts on this qotw is filling me with guilt.

It's no good having my shelves full of Byatt, Carver, Lessing, Murakami or even Miller all jostling and waiting for my attention if I don't get around to reading them.

Each day they sit there forlornly staring at me like so many starving children...even the Fitzgerald that I've almost finished is currently lying in my handbag silently weeping because of the lack of attention I show it.

And why?

Bloody B3ta.

Some months back my internet connection went down for a week...a whole week without B3ta, email and the usual junk I like to call 'research'. During that week I managed to return to my erstwhile habit of reading voraciously.

(Just as a complete aside here to give an example of my butterfly brain - years ago someone commented that their son was a voracious reader - well, at least that's what they meant, but they used another word, one that sounds a little like voracious but means something else entirely. I've just spent the last ten minutes trying to remember that word and searching for it on the internet...I still can't find the word...and I've wasted ten minutes).

During that week I read four or five novels - not pulp fiction but contemporary literature, things that made me think and both entertained and exercised my imagination.

I believe it was Stephen King who said that if anyone has any plans to become a writer they should devote themselves to reading for at least four hours a day.

Does the internet count?
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:23, 19 replies)

vivacious?
I'd like to imagine him flaunting his reading habit
( no longer a user, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:30, closed)

Nope
that wasn't it. I'd love to think it was vicious, but it wasn't that either.

Bugger the holes in my memory.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:31, closed)

Vivacious? *edit* bugger, didn't read first reply properly
As for Murakami, Kafka on the Shore is a fantastic read.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:36, closed)

@ Boss
No, not vivacious.

I've had Blind Willows, Sleeping Woman sitting on my To Read shelf for weeks...so many people have recommended Murakami and it was on the reading list for my masters....but I skipped over it to read Austerlizt instead.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:39, closed)

Perhaps
vicarious?
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:43, closed)

Ha!
His mother was the vicarious reader, that's for sure! But it wasn't that word.


I feel like bloody Rumplestiltskin now!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:44, closed)

Word
Was the word "tenacious"?
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:47, closed)

Nope, not tenacious
I'm going to ring a friend of mine who was there. I bet she can't remember either though.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:52, closed)

Varicosely?
He is so transported by the passion of the writing, the veins in his head swell.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Mon 19 May 2008, 12:54, closed)

Voluptuous perhaps?
Do we get a prize for guessing correctly?
(Pavlov's Frog figures no-one really reads sigs anyway, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:01, closed)

vituperous?
vivisectionist? voluminous? vertiginous?
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:04, closed)

Vacuous?
Don't know how it'd fit..

But I like the word
( Thinker, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:10, closed)

loquacious?

( Kroney, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:19, closed)

As I'm mostly on B3ta during work....
The only thing I have stopped reading is Heat magazine.

In the evenings I send salacious messages via B3ta to someone so I have to be on here.


*vociferous*
( girlinthehole, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:22, closed)

I'm guessing
that anyone who spends four hours a day reading isn't going to get any writing done at all. They'd be better off doing four hours' writing. I barely read at al these days, but the thousands of books I read in my youth are still proving sufficient fodder.
(frankspencer, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:25, closed)

Fangoriously?
Virulently? Victoriously? Bodaceously?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 19 May 2008, 14:26, closed)

@chickenlady Re : b3ta
My sentiments exactly. This QOTW has added some books to my reading list (or at least reminded me to buy some books that were already on my reading list), yet it is because of b3ta that I won’t find the time to read them. Bah!

Anyone up for setting up a support-group for b3ta addicts?

PS. Ferociously?

[EDIT: PPS. I hope the Internet counts as well (or at least the QOTW replies)]
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Mon 19 May 2008, 14:37, closed)

Could it be
Various? Varicose? Vermicious? Ferocious?
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Mon 19 May 2008, 14:52, closed)

FEROCIOUS!!!!!!!!!!
WELL DONE PORKYLIPS and MISTASPAKKAMAN!!!

That's what it was!

I remember now...she was so pleased that her son was a ferocious reader! I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing - I kept imagining him roaring at the books.

Thank you!

Here, have some birthday cake as your prize.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 17:54, closed)