Author Website Amazon (UK) Amazon.com Fourth Estate (ebook), 2014
337 Pages
A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir.
Andy Miller had a job he quite liked, a family he loved, and no time at all for reading. Or so he kept telling himself. But, no matter how busy or tired he was, something kept niggling at him. Books. Books he'd always wanted to read. Books he'd said he'd read that he actually hadn't. Books that whispered the promise of escape from the daily grind. And so, with the turn of a page, Andy began a year of reading that was to transform his life completely.
This book is Andy's inspirational and very funny account of his expedition through literature: classic, cult, and everything in between. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita that he happens to find one day in a bookstore, he embarks on a literary odyssey. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, this is a heartfelt, humorous, and honest examination of what it means to be a reader, and a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the book and the power of reading.
My life is nothing special. It is every bit as dreary as yours.
The Year of Reading Dangerously is interesting, insightful and fun. It's the kind of memoir book lover's like myself will love. Miller tackles some big, hard books some of us are afraid of (myself included) and rediscovers his life of books. What's not to enjoy? I liked the diversity of the books Miller reads and how he didn't read the same type of book all year. I'm delighted he read and enjoyed Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel, a book I love. I liked the fact the book wasn't a series of book reviews and included anecdotes about Miller's life, his wife and family and little snippets from his book-loving youth. Beyond Black is the only one of the books I've read. I may tackle a couple of the others at some point using Millar's method of reading 50 pages a day. The Year of Reading Dangerously is a must for any book lover.