A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one. #WorldBookDay
— George RR Martin (@GeorgeRRMartin_) April 23, 2015
With regards to the quote above, if one were of a sardonic frame of mind one might point out that at the rate at which Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin kills off his characters a thousand lives might be an understatement. Nevertheless the basic premise stands. Reading allows anyone the chance to "inhabit" a great many people and characters.
This is never more true than when you're reading a book of short stories. Though you may become attached to a character, the next protagonist is probably only a few page turns away. Sometimes this is a relief. Sometimes it leaves you wanting more.
Recently I've found myself reading books that work with the theme of many lives but in very different ways.
Deleted scenes for lovers by Tracey Slaughter. I think her surname is appropriate because she killed parts of my soul with this book (in a good way). Her short stories are set in New Zealand, but a rather grimy, rundown one. The stories, with exception of the last one which is a novella, are short and sometimes brutal vignettes from the lives of damaged and lost people. You'll want to set aside time between each one. This is not a book to rush through. The writing is incisive and brilliant and made me feel a lot of things, some of them against my will.
Meet cute is rather anodyne by comparison. It's a collection of young adult short stories, all by different writers and all featuring the "how they met" story of two characters. As with any collection like this some authors and characters resonate more than others, and while the bulk of the stories have a contemporary romance kind of vibe there are a couple of sci-fi/fantasy genre tales too. Most, though not all, of the stories are about straight couples - one of the unexpected joys of the book is that you don't know when you're introduced to the main character whether their story will be a boy-meets-girl or a girl-meets-girl one - I found it was fun to try and guess in the first page or so.
He rau mahara: To remember the journey of our Ngāi Tahu soldiers: From the pā to the battlefields of the Great War is completely different again - a nonfiction title produced by Ngāi Tahu's whakapapa unit about the iwi's First World War soldiers. It's a beautifully put together book, filled with photographs of soldiers with names you might recognise - Nortons, Pōhios and Skerretts. Nearly two thirds of the book is dedicated to a profile of every Ngāi Tahu soldier who took part in the Great War, with the first part of the book featuring a sample of stories of soldiers, war, and their families. A gorgeous and poignant memorial to South Island soldiers and their whānau, and the lives they lived.
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