Are you reading books differently these days?

‘There's a new quietness descending on the world’

Tom Wright is a playwright and artistic associate at Belvoir theatre company. You might call him a professional reader.
And he’s found these unusual times to be an opportunity to read at a different pace, and with a different degree of insight, compared to three months ago.
“If anything,” he says, “it's actually a time for poetry. It's a time for slow text. It's a time for difficult text. It's a time for text that takes a long time to read.”
And so – as Tom tells our new Book Club – he’s been reading Australian books from the mid-60s, like The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea by Randolph Stow.
The pandemic has reminded him that “actually, in the end, we're still members of communities, neighbourhoods and storylines that are tied in with land”.
Next month, the Book Club is talking more about Australian fiction, and the book that’s been selected for us to read together is Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus.
If you want to share your thoughts on it, join the conversation on the ABC Radio National Facebook page, or send an email to The Bookshelf.
Until next time,
Rosie Ryan, Digital Editor

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