What are you reading? I hope that’s not too personal a question although I’m not asking you what you are wearing. That would be creepy.

I’m interested in what people are reading or if they are even reading at all. Or are you all just watching Netflix? Or listening to podcasts and audio books?

Someone recently told me they had read a book and then they corrected themselves and said they had actually listened to it as an audio book.

“That’s cheating,” I said. “And it’s not reading.” I mean it. Reading is a particular sort of activity and I don’t think anyone can claim to have read a book if all they have done is listen to it. Because basically that’s just getting someone else to read it for you.

Reading is important. Yes, we watch Netflix too and often that delays my reading until it’s too late. I only manage 10 or 12 pages when it’s later in the evening and then I nod off.

I find reading for an hour after dinner is the best way around this. Or during the day, on the weekends at least. I read books in hard copy and have never read an eBook. But I still consider eBooks reading at least.

So, what am I reading? Well, I’m trying to read stuff that I have never read and reread classics. For example, I have recently read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, his Paris book, which would be good to read around now for obvious reasons.

I have also read The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. It’s crazy but brilliant. Last week I finished Paul Theroux’s book of short stories The Consul’s File – or I should say I read it again. This is his homage to W. Somerset Maugham. It is set in Malaysia and is about an American consul’s stint in a regional city there. I decided to read it again because it is so good and such a pleasure.

Then I decided to read something that I felt I should read but have never actually read before …Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre, the king of existentialism.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a laugh but it is very good. What’s it about? A young writer facing the utter futility of everything. What fun.

Anyway, I have now been there and done that but it was hard going at times so I decided to give myself a leave pass after it and I bought myself a copy of Stephen King’s new book of short stories, You Like it Darker. It’s very good and King may not be the apex of literary stylistics but he is a fantastic storyteller and I look forward to coming back to it each evening. It’s a treat.

So, I guess my approach is … carrot and stick. After Stephen King I will probably read some of the things on the book pile in the bedroom – a novel by the French poet Blaise Cendrars and then I have a few others on the list including a book of short stories by Franz Kafka, a book of essays by Somerset Maugham, A Brief History of Paris by Cecil Jenkins and The Shortest History of China by Linda Jaivin followed by The Quiet American by Graham Greene, which I will re-read.

Then I will probably need some light relief so I might just read something by , say H. Rider Haggard or Jack Higgins or even Alistair MacLean. Who’s with me?