I'm 153 books from Book Shelf Zero after finishing up The Confessions of Nat Turner and Flashman and the Mountain of Light. I managed to slip in another of the library ebooks, Old Man's War, between those two print books. 153 is the fewest books I've had left to read in my quest to read all my owned books. It's a satisfying place. I'm so satisfied with reaching 153 that I am not struggling with a desire to run out and buy another book. I know what I want to buy when I'm ready to pull the trigger, The Use of Weapons (book 3 of the Culture series), but I would rather see my to read number at 153 (or lower) than have it bounce back up to 154.
I secretly hoped that this desire to see my to be read number shrink would help me resist the constant temptation to buy a new book. My book buying habit is so strong I wasn't sure that a goal with such a long time horizon would be enough to counter the quick hit that comes with a nice book purchase. It's taken a couple of years, but I think I'm finally there. I have no desire to repeat the book buying binge that I indulged in at the end of 2016. I would feel like all the discipline I enforced on myself over the last several months would be a total waste if I just raced out and loaded up on a bunch of stuff.
The type of books that I've been reading is definitely playing a part in tamping down the book buying cravings. A House for Mr. Biswas, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and that Flashman book are all novels that I have owned for a long time. If I have owned these books for a long time, I have wanted to read them for a long time. It's nice to have actually taken the time to read these books that, while very satisfying, are not exactly thrilling page turners. The sense of mass that I felt when contemplating the number of books that I had on my shelves waiting to be read has slowly receded as I have steadily made my way through my tremendous reading backlog. I have no desire to revisit that cramped and claustrophobic space.
The completion of Flashman and the Mountain of Light (the last of the Flashman books that I own, the last two in the series have been sitting in my Amazon items saved for later for years) left me looking for the next thing to read. I had started a book on my phone, a book that I own, but I wasn't really feeling the desire to pursue that one in earnest. I looked over my shelves and spotted Roth's American Pastoral. That felt like the right thing to read. I was surprised at how quickly this book hooked me and at the pleasure I took in reading it. There is no challenge to keep reading this one. I have given up time to play Breathe of the Wild (a game that still has me engaged while playing it for over a year (although I am getting close to the point of just wanting to beat Ganon and get on to something else)) to keep reading Roth's amazing prose. My progress is slower than I would like as my reading time has been hindered by family activities, but there is no question that I will keep going with this one until I reach the end.
I just happened to pick up this book a couple of days after Roth had died. I didn't know he had died. Somebody following my Goodreads entries would have seen me start reading it and could have assumed that hearing the news of his death had prodded me to start reading what some consider his best book, but there was no conscious connection between his death an me sliding the book off the shelf. I don't know why I avoid Roth's books. I've read a couple of them and have found them highly engaging. I remember reading Portnoy's Complaint in my post-college apartment, but I really have very little recollection of the book (I may have to do a very rare reread). I have Sabbath's Theater on my shelf waiting to be read. That one also has some very high praise. I don't think I will roll right into that one after finishing American Pastoral, but it's become a much more intriguing read than it was a couple of weeks ago.
The pursuit continues, one page at a time...
