This pile of books won't t strike you as a big fucking deal.
(You'll notice there's some stuff to do on there, too. Can't sit around reading my whole life away like that guy from Twilight Zone).
As of today, I'm at about 90 books I'd like to read before I die. It's a list I find neither too overwhelming nor too inflexible. There's room to grow, veer, revisit, reconfigure. The listings aren't in much order after the first 11 items. I suspect I'll get to Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle (34) which I found in a neighbor's giveaway box last week, long before I get to Anna Karenina (13), which I started to read about four years ago and keep meaning to finish. Often, I listed books in order of where I found them in the house, or whether they had just occurred to me, or whether another book I do have reminded me of a book I want to have.
Anyway. The point is to begin. I'll take suggestions for the rest of my life.
Nothing more than a little housecleaning, you'd say. That's partly right.
Of course, the housecleaning it represents has taken place repeatedly, and futilely, for 20 years in some cases. I harbor fantasies that I will actually read every book in my house one day. To that end, I move them around from room to room in pile after pile, always seeking the elusive thing that will make it true.
If you do the math, you know that we can only read a few thousand books in our lifetime. Really. Carl Sagan says so.
At most, in the best of health and with all the effort I can bring to it, I will read maybe 800 more books before I hit my Last Renewal Date. A more conservative and macabre estimate I made puts me at about 300.
So, I can't afford to fuck around anymore.
I made a list.
(You'll notice there's some stuff to do on there, too. Can't sit around reading my whole life away like that guy from Twilight Zone).
As of today, I'm at about 90 books I'd like to read before I die. It's a list I find neither too overwhelming nor too inflexible. There's room to grow, veer, revisit, reconfigure. The listings aren't in much order after the first 11 items. I suspect I'll get to Orhan Pamuk's The White Castle (34) which I found in a neighbor's giveaway box last week, long before I get to Anna Karenina (13), which I started to read about four years ago and keep meaning to finish. Often, I listed books in order of where I found them in the house, or whether they had just occurred to me, or whether another book I do have reminded me of a book I want to have.
Anyway. The point is to begin. I'll take suggestions for the rest of my life.
I've often envied that guy from The Twilight Zone (minus the end of the world part). You should join GoodReads to prioritize them. It helps me to remember which one I picked as the most important next one to read, for whatever reason I had at that moment in time. Then again, it takes time to build your list on there - time you could spend reading. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI concur with the Goodreads suggestion. It is also fun to see what other friends are reading, or saying about a book. I don't go anywhere without something to read. Have fun with your stacks!
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