Thursday 1 January 2009

Just who is Tony, and what exactly is his Reading List?

Welcome to Tony's Reading List, a place where I pretend to know a lot more about literature than I actually do!

Tony?  That's me, a forty-something Englishman who has somehow ended up living in Melbourne with a wonderful wife and two cheeky daughters.  Don't ask how that happened as I'm not too sure myself...

The Reading List?  It does exist, in Excel form, and it's getting longer by the day.  The list was started on the first day of my blog, and it now contains hundreds of titles, culled from the never-ending pile of books we call literature.

What do I read?  A lot...  Over the past few years, my preferences have subtly shifted towards fiction in translation, and for the past two years, I've had a strike rate of over 90% in favour of books originally written in languages other than English.  While my major areas have been German-language literature and Japanese literature, 2014 saw a new focus with my self-education in Korean literature.  Let's see what the coming year will bring ;)

What else do I do?  That's not enough?  Well, I teach English as a second language, currently to migrants and budding university students, and try to keep up my own language skills in French and German (although I'm now focusing on Korean, too).  I used to play football too, but those days are long gone :(

Why do I do this?  If anyone finds out, please let me know...