I took my own advice and expanded the time scale of my Book Shelf Zero retrospective. My starting number was 194. After finishing Use of Weapons (a book I bought and quickly read), my current number is 152. My to be read pile has been reduced by 42 books. That's significant progress. I keep a pie chart on the spreadsheet where I track my reading related activities (the spreadsheet has grown far beyond anything I imagined when I started keeping track of these things at the end of 2015). I'm 17.4% of the way to Book Shelf Zero. I'm 4.5 miles into the marathon.
I still have a long way to go. An unstated but very much consciously acknowledged aspect of this blog is delving into what it takes to stick with a project that will take years to complete. While I'm not sure how many people out there are interested in my reading habits, people are typically interested in how to stick to their long term plans. My last post about patience is part of that story. The thrill of accomplishment will never fuel an objective that takes years and years to complete. Something deeper and more meaningful must be present to maintain progress.
My deeper purpose, at least at this point, is getting to the books that have been sitting on my shelf for years. I've hit a few of them this year. A House for Mr. Biswas and The Confessions of Nat Turner are the exact type of books that I had in mind when I set out on this quixotic quest to empty my shelves of books that I haven't read. My recent frustration with the lack of progress is related to my decision to read those books nearly back to back. They both took a long time to read. (Simultaneously reading ebooks from the library was just as big a part of the time to read as the nature of the books.) The commitment required to pick them up and stick with them is what has prevented me from reading them in the first place. My books read list will not expand very quickly when I'm taking on these more intimidating reads. This is just part of the process that I need to anticipate and accept.
I was thinking about the new runner who maps out a training plan for whatever target race they have set for themselves (runDisney events seem to be a popular choice for this type of runner but that could just be because I occasionally take a look at runDisney Instagram posts) while I was running early in the morning last week. The challenge feels like something very much within their ability to overcome when you're looking at a calendar of planned runs. The runs will be hard but manageable. Then you get out there and start running. It's hot, it hurts, and nothing about it is very much fun. All those well laid plans could start to crumble when faced with the battering ram of reality. Big challenges like marathons and reading all of something (a series, an author, some list) are about learning to manage reality's brutality. There will be times when progress is easy and fun, and there will be way too many occasions when progress requires overcoming pain and discomfort beyond imagination.
I'm entering a fun stage in the quest of Book Shelf Zero (I'm also poised to start training for my second marathon, I'm not anticipating very much fun in that process). The already mentioned Use of Weapons is part of that fun progress. This was the best Culture book yet. It only makes me more excited to read the rest of the series (I've already ordered the fifth book, it was very cheap on Amazon while book 4 was a bit harder to obtain). I decided to read A High Wind in Jamaica now that I've finished Use of Weapons. It's another Modern Library Top 100 book. Unlike the other book from that list that I've read this year, Mr. Biswas, A High Wind in Jamaica reads very quickly. It reminds me of Deliverance in the way that it deals with very complex themes but is tense and well plotted. The third of High Wind that I've read was an effortless experience. I expect that I will have it wrapped up by the end of the week.
The only thing that I see getting in my way of quickly finishing High Wind is Flowers for Algernon (well, the Fourth of July holiday could slow me down as well). This is my latest borrowed from the library read. It definitely demands attention. I'm staying disciplined with getting in a bit of physical owned book reading before switching to something borrowed. I can also see myself getting through this one by the end of the week.
A big part of my 42 books read were a bunch of shorter and less challenging books that I owned but hadn't read. I thought I had exhausted my stash of these easy wins, but I remembered one that I have yet to get to while I was shopping for that hard to obtain fourth Culture book. In addition to being harder to purchase than book 5, it is a short story collection. These collections just don't satisfy like a novel. Well, thinking about short stories reminded me of a book I bought with some birthday gift cards several years ago. It's a book called Memory Wall. It sounded good when I bought it (and it sounded good when I just read its description in Goodreads), but I just don't get excited to read short stories. I'm likely picking that up next. I'm eager to push my to be read number under 150. A short book like this will help make that happen.
Once I'm under 150, it may be time to take on one of my really big reading challenges. I have two big challenging lists. There is The List and Everests. These are big, long, challenging books. They will require a serious commitment of time and attention. Now that I think about it, maybe I should save one of these until after my vacation...
