I've always written the bulk of my posts while at work. All I needed was an afternoon free of meetings and other obligations to make a few comments on my progress to Book Shelf Zero. My job has changed a bit and those free times have all but disappeared. Updates on my reading progress have all but disappeared too. That doesn't mean that I'm not making progress of course. I managed to finish my second owned book of the year, Look to Windward (another book from Iain M. Banks Culture series) earlier this week. Another excellent entry in an excellent series. That brings me back down to 147 books owned, equaling the lowest to be read number that I have managed to achieve in my quest. It was the seventh book that I've read this year.
Look to Windward has the distinction of being the 100th book of the NPR Sci Fi/Fantasy list that I have completed. Only 215 to go!
Ebooks from the library continue to dominate my reading time. I've been reading Tobacco Road for the last few days. It's a Modern Library Top 100 book. The books in that list seem to fall into two categories. Highly readable short novels that get read with no real effort, and difficult for a variety of reason books that take a focused and concentrated effort to complete. Tobacco Road is of the first group (Deliverance immediately comes to mind as another member of that group). It's a very short book. I'm more than a third of the way through it with nothing more than a few random reading moments given to it. It has a distinct rhythm and it treats the poverty stricken family at the core of the book with near indifference. It has none of the schmaltzy glorification that was so obnoxious in The Grapes of Wrath (which is very much one of the takes forever books). The time and conditions depicted are so far removed from my experience that I can't say if the book captures a moment of the American South or it stands as a commentary on the bias of a writer looking down on the unfortunate from a position of privilege. I look forward to getting through the rest of this quick read (hopefully this weekend).
The question of which of my owned books to read next stands waiting for me to bring some kind of resolution. I was planning on reading A Bend in the River, but with Tobacco Road going, I'm not sure I want to get started on another ML Top 100 book. I'll look over my shelves tonight to see what strikes my fancy.
One final note. I'm feeling good about below 147 before I buy another book. I have another Culture book on my shelf so I can continue to pursue this excellent series without making a purchase. I also just don't feel like buying anything. The library satisfies the acquisition urge and making progress towards the big Zero feels good. Hell, I still have the gift card I bought at B&N over Christmas to get the free $10 in my wallet! 140, here I come!
Friday, February 22, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Writers abound and Dickens bores
I'm flirting with trying to read 52 books again this year. Zipping through Early Work and Immigrant, Montana, library books that I borrowed after seeing the titles on the NYT Notable 100 list, has me sitting at two books for the year. A brief thought about contemporary literature. Is every protagonist a writer? All of the books that I've recently read that were written in the last couple of years have writers as the main characters. This recurring theme is getting tiresome. I'm a week away from finishing Martin Chuzzlewit, and I should make it through my next library ebook, A Spell for Chameleon, before heading to Disney World next week. That would bring me to 4 books read 4 weeks into the year. We'll see if I can maintain this pace for another month or so before I commit to the big 52 number again (or 53 just to set a new high score).
I must finish Martin Chuzzlewit before I head to Disney World. The fat book I was reading the last time I was in Disney World, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has somehow woven it's way into my vacation experience (I also have unreasonably vivid memories of the book I read on our first trip back in 2015, it was In the Red Circle or something like that. It was a SEAL memoir.). Memories of the resort are interwoven with associations from the book. It's a weird memory alloy. I really don't want to associate Martin Chuzzlewit with Disney. (I'm not exactly thrilled with the overlap of JS &MN with the magic of Disney either.) This is easily the most boring Dickens book I have read. I'm well past the point when the story really gets going. Sure Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend started slow, but once all the threads starting coming together the book was a pleasure to read. I can vividly remember reading several of the late chapters of Bleak House on one of the lab computers in graduate school. I couldn't get enough! Not so with Chuzzlewit. The characters are all so moralizing and flat. The cracks made at the United States are trite (maybe they were edgier or more interesting 175 years ago), and the frequent coincidences characteristic of a Dickens novel are predictable and boring. At this point I'm pretty much reading to finish the book. I kind of want t know what happens, but I'm not all that eager to get there.
I am eager to finish the book and head to the magic of Disney. I'm eager for a three day weekend, but I'm dreading the cold.
I must finish Martin Chuzzlewit before I head to Disney World. The fat book I was reading the last time I was in Disney World, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has somehow woven it's way into my vacation experience (I also have unreasonably vivid memories of the book I read on our first trip back in 2015, it was In the Red Circle or something like that. It was a SEAL memoir.). Memories of the resort are interwoven with associations from the book. It's a weird memory alloy. I really don't want to associate Martin Chuzzlewit with Disney. (I'm not exactly thrilled with the overlap of JS &MN with the magic of Disney either.) This is easily the most boring Dickens book I have read. I'm well past the point when the story really gets going. Sure Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend started slow, but once all the threads starting coming together the book was a pleasure to read. I can vividly remember reading several of the late chapters of Bleak House on one of the lab computers in graduate school. I couldn't get enough! Not so with Chuzzlewit. The characters are all so moralizing and flat. The cracks made at the United States are trite (maybe they were edgier or more interesting 175 years ago), and the frequent coincidences characteristic of a Dickens novel are predictable and boring. At this point I'm pretty much reading to finish the book. I kind of want t know what happens, but I'm not all that eager to get there.
I am eager to finish the book and head to the magic of Disney. I'm eager for a three day weekend, but I'm dreading the cold.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Isn't this supposed to be fun?
That didn't last long. It was nice to be at 147 for a few days, but I'm already back up to 149 after buying two Culture books, Look to Windward Surface Detail, over the last week or so. This leaves me with a net gain of 10 books for 2018. That's not great, but it's also not horrible. I'm not likely to finish Martin Chuzzlewit (or any other book I own) before the end of the year so that's where I will end up for 2018, at least when it comes to making progress towards Book Shelf Zero.
I will finish at least one more book before the end of the year. I'm close to finishing Skyward, a new book by Brandon Sanderson. It's a library ebook that I'm reading on my Kindle. I did a quick finish of Asymmetry, another library book, to load it onto the Kindle a day before my loan expired. I almost bailed on it, but I read just enough in the give it one more try session that I got sucked into the story. It's not anything fantastic, but it's fun and I want to find out what happens. He acknowledges that this was just a fun side project for him around the massive Stormlight Archives titles so I wasn't expecting anything mind-blowing going in. I convinced my son to get the first book in one of his other YA series so this may be a space that I explore more fully in the coming year.
Asymmetry is the only book that I've finished since wrapping up Hydrogen Sonata. Another book from the 21st Century Canon, another library book. It was a decent enough book, but it just tried too hard. It was full of the serious literary intent that makes too many contemporary books flaccid and unappealing. The first and third sections were very good, but the middle section, a novella later revealed to be written by a character in the first section, was cliche and boring. I'm sure this won't be the last time I feel this way about a book from that list. It was short and I didn't buy it so it's not like it was a huge lose (and a good chunk of the book was worth reading).
I'm getting a bit fatigued by this whole Book Shelf Zero endeavor. It's been a fun challenge, but I'm feeling like I am betraying my reading by making it a means to an end rather than the act of reading being the point of reading a book. My reading has been about crossing a title off of some list rather than being about the pleasure of an entertaining story or the appreciation of a beautiful passage. I set up these little tasks around so many aspects of my life. My Epic Quest spreadsheet that started as a bit of a lark to get me to do ab exercises and get to the gym to lift weights is an uncomfortably central aspect of my life.
I track all of my reading in the Epic Quest spreadsheet. I note my completed books in Goodreads too, but the spreadsheet is where all meaningful activities are recorded. It's where I tracked my marathon training and how many miles I've run, meters I've rowed, how many days I've been to the gym, did ab work, and recorded 10,000 steps. I'm about to finish my third year of recording all of this stuff. All of these activities earn me points. This has been my best points year by far. This approach is effective, but it's not very rewarding. I'm in a race against myself. It gets old after a couple years.
Book Shelf Zero has been effective in it's primary task of making me closely consider every book purchase. I've been close to buying the rest of the Culture series just to have them on hand. There were some good options in today's Daily Deals (the Grant bio and the new Murikami book were very tempting), but I couldn't give up on the idea of Book Shelf Zero. The few dollars that I would save by buying the books on sale weren't worth pushing my to be read number back up above 150. I have a vague recollection of stating that I would be comfortable with about 10 books of progress a year. I would hate to undermine that progress, even if it is making reading feel like a secondary task, than just throw up my hands and splurge on a few books.
If the library had all of the Culture books available as ebooks my progress would have been several books better. Of the 10 books I bought this year, 6 of them are Culture books. The discovery of the ease of getting ebooks from the library was a huge drag on Book Shelf Zero (but a boon to making it through those lists of worthy books on which to spend my valuable reading time). Of the 43 books I have read this year, 23 of them were library books. Of the 20 owned books that I read this year, 6 of them were books that I bought this year. So I read 14 books this year that I owned at the beginning of the year, and most of those I read in the first half of the year.
So I'm chiding myself for reading a series that I really enjoy because I have had to purchase many of the books and lamenting easy, free access to a huge library of books because I have been able to read all kinds of interesting and entertaining books on my phone or Kindle rather than laboring through the books I already own. This is exactly why I'm feeling fatigued by this whole Book Shelf Zero thing. I've had a great reading year, but I have spent much more time reading new stuff rather than plodding through more of Martin Chuzzlewit (an enjoyable read but not as fun as Skyward or something else I picked up from the library). Lighten up and live a little for crying out loud. Stop taking yourself and your silly little challenges so damn seriously!
I will finish at least one more book before the end of the year. I'm close to finishing Skyward, a new book by Brandon Sanderson. It's a library ebook that I'm reading on my Kindle. I did a quick finish of Asymmetry, another library book, to load it onto the Kindle a day before my loan expired. I almost bailed on it, but I read just enough in the give it one more try session that I got sucked into the story. It's not anything fantastic, but it's fun and I want to find out what happens. He acknowledges that this was just a fun side project for him around the massive Stormlight Archives titles so I wasn't expecting anything mind-blowing going in. I convinced my son to get the first book in one of his other YA series so this may be a space that I explore more fully in the coming year.
Asymmetry is the only book that I've finished since wrapping up Hydrogen Sonata. Another book from the 21st Century Canon, another library book. It was a decent enough book, but it just tried too hard. It was full of the serious literary intent that makes too many contemporary books flaccid and unappealing. The first and third sections were very good, but the middle section, a novella later revealed to be written by a character in the first section, was cliche and boring. I'm sure this won't be the last time I feel this way about a book from that list. It was short and I didn't buy it so it's not like it was a huge lose (and a good chunk of the book was worth reading).
I'm getting a bit fatigued by this whole Book Shelf Zero endeavor. It's been a fun challenge, but I'm feeling like I am betraying my reading by making it a means to an end rather than the act of reading being the point of reading a book. My reading has been about crossing a title off of some list rather than being about the pleasure of an entertaining story or the appreciation of a beautiful passage. I set up these little tasks around so many aspects of my life. My Epic Quest spreadsheet that started as a bit of a lark to get me to do ab exercises and get to the gym to lift weights is an uncomfortably central aspect of my life.
I track all of my reading in the Epic Quest spreadsheet. I note my completed books in Goodreads too, but the spreadsheet is where all meaningful activities are recorded. It's where I tracked my marathon training and how many miles I've run, meters I've rowed, how many days I've been to the gym, did ab work, and recorded 10,000 steps. I'm about to finish my third year of recording all of this stuff. All of these activities earn me points. This has been my best points year by far. This approach is effective, but it's not very rewarding. I'm in a race against myself. It gets old after a couple years.
Book Shelf Zero has been effective in it's primary task of making me closely consider every book purchase. I've been close to buying the rest of the Culture series just to have them on hand. There were some good options in today's Daily Deals (the Grant bio and the new Murikami book were very tempting), but I couldn't give up on the idea of Book Shelf Zero. The few dollars that I would save by buying the books on sale weren't worth pushing my to be read number back up above 150. I have a vague recollection of stating that I would be comfortable with about 10 books of progress a year. I would hate to undermine that progress, even if it is making reading feel like a secondary task, than just throw up my hands and splurge on a few books.
If the library had all of the Culture books available as ebooks my progress would have been several books better. Of the 10 books I bought this year, 6 of them are Culture books. The discovery of the ease of getting ebooks from the library was a huge drag on Book Shelf Zero (but a boon to making it through those lists of worthy books on which to spend my valuable reading time). Of the 43 books I have read this year, 23 of them were library books. Of the 20 owned books that I read this year, 6 of them were books that I bought this year. So I read 14 books this year that I owned at the beginning of the year, and most of those I read in the first half of the year.
So I'm chiding myself for reading a series that I really enjoy because I have had to purchase many of the books and lamenting easy, free access to a huge library of books because I have been able to read all kinds of interesting and entertaining books on my phone or Kindle rather than laboring through the books I already own. This is exactly why I'm feeling fatigued by this whole Book Shelf Zero thing. I've had a great reading year, but I have spent much more time reading new stuff rather than plodding through more of Martin Chuzzlewit (an enjoyable read but not as fun as Skyward or something else I picked up from the library). Lighten up and live a little for crying out loud. Stop taking yourself and your silly little challenges so damn seriously!
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Finally 147!!!!
After months of having my to be read number bouncing back and forth between 148 and 149, I have finally pushed it down to 147. The Hydrogen Sonata, the Culture book I let my wife talk me into buying when it was a Kindle Daily Deal, got the honor of being the book that gave me my first bit of progress towards Book Shelf Zero in several months. I always go into those Iain Banks books thinking they will be quick reads only to have them go on for weeks and weeks. I thought I would make it through Excession on vacation (I had a week) and failed (despite all the extra reading time I picked up at the beach thanks to crappy weather). The latest Culture book was also something I thought would go quickly only to have it take weeks to read.
The Hydrogen Sonata is the tenth Culture book. This one fits the formula pretty well. A central conflict is set up, the Minds gather to discuss, a human is pulled in, and the event unfold to a neat conclusion. It was a fun read despite repeating a formula very similar to Excession (which is actually referenced, kind of unusual in a series where each book's story is largely independent of what happened in the other books). I'm eager to move on to another Culture book, but I have to finish another of my owned books before I will buy one of the four Culture novels I still need to read. I want to push my to be read number lower still before I make another book purchase.
That next book will be Martin Chuzzlewit. I set this latest attempt to read another Dickens book aside while I read The H Sonata. I have read 20 pages or so in the few days since finishing the Culture novel. It's a bit of a drag at this point, but I'm still really early in the novel (yes, even a quarter of a way through the book I'm still in the early stages by Dickens standards). I know that it will pick up and read quickly once all the scenarios are in place. I just hope I can get there before the year ends. I still have a long way to go in the novel. I expect to have a pretty slow week at work. I have the ebook version of the novel in my work phone. I may use time just sitting at my desk to read a bit. A hundred or so pages read at work would make a big difference in finishing this one by the end of the year. (Thinking about reading a Dickens book at work reminds me of reading the climax of Bleak House on a computer while I was in grad school.)
Asymmetry will be a drag on finishing my Dickens book for this year. This is a much more engaging novel. It's also short and easy to read. The dialogue is so natural and the story moves despite much in the way of detail. The politics are predictably annoying, but the writing is worth overlooking the predictable liberal worldview of the central characters. This is a book I will definitely finish before the end of the year. I'm currently at 42 books read in 2018. I would like to hit 45. We'll see if that happens.
The Hydrogen Sonata is the tenth Culture book. This one fits the formula pretty well. A central conflict is set up, the Minds gather to discuss, a human is pulled in, and the event unfold to a neat conclusion. It was a fun read despite repeating a formula very similar to Excession (which is actually referenced, kind of unusual in a series where each book's story is largely independent of what happened in the other books). I'm eager to move on to another Culture book, but I have to finish another of my owned books before I will buy one of the four Culture novels I still need to read. I want to push my to be read number lower still before I make another book purchase.
That next book will be Martin Chuzzlewit. I set this latest attempt to read another Dickens book aside while I read The H Sonata. I have read 20 pages or so in the few days since finishing the Culture novel. It's a bit of a drag at this point, but I'm still really early in the novel (yes, even a quarter of a way through the book I'm still in the early stages by Dickens standards). I know that it will pick up and read quickly once all the scenarios are in place. I just hope I can get there before the year ends. I still have a long way to go in the novel. I expect to have a pretty slow week at work. I have the ebook version of the novel in my work phone. I may use time just sitting at my desk to read a bit. A hundred or so pages read at work would make a big difference in finishing this one by the end of the year. (Thinking about reading a Dickens book at work reminds me of reading the climax of Bleak House on a computer while I was in grad school.)
Asymmetry will be a drag on finishing my Dickens book for this year. This is a much more engaging novel. It's also short and easy to read. The dialogue is so natural and the story moves despite much in the way of detail. The politics are predictably annoying, but the writing is worth overlooking the predictable liberal worldview of the central characters. This is a book I will definitely finish before the end of the year. I'm currently at 42 books read in 2018. I would like to hit 45. We'll see if that happens.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Some progress but life has a bad habit of getting in the way
The library ebooks are too easy to pull into my Kindle library. I can just pile them in there and add new ebooks to the piles of physical books that already taunt me with their many unread pages. Putting holds on these ebooks makes the situation even more complicated. I can't predict when one of them will become available. They just pop into my library totally indifferent to my current reading priorities. Do I read the interesting book I just borrowed with no wait or should I focus on the book I had to wait weeks to finally download?
I've been facing this dilemma all too often over the last few weeks. The Kindle Fire hack, where I can keep reading the book after my loan period expires as long as I don't go back to the home screen, allowed me to finish reading The Lost Colony (book 3 of The Old Man's War series) over the weekend. The delay in reading that was caused by the time I spent reading a book about parenting that I bought after reading some columns by the author online. I finished that book on Monday. Those two books bring my books read up to 39 for the year.
With both of those books finished I faced the rare instance of having no books in progress. After reading a few pages of some book I was able to check out without waiting in line, I started reading that book I mentioned about sleep. I heard an interview with the author on the Joe Rogan podcast. It was fascinating. I looked at the book in the store but wasn't compelled enough to take the step of actually buying it. I only recently thought to see if I the library had the electronic version. The wait wasn't too long, but other books were also becoming available as I was wrapping up The Lost Colony. The unpredictable aspect of when I will get a book that I have on hold makes figuring out what to read that much harder. I had to choose between Why we Sleep and the second book of the Outline trilogy. I have more time with Outline book so I went ahead and started reading the book about sleep.
My reading has taken a back seat to other parts of my life over the last couple of weeks. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon on October 28 (I jotted down some thoughts about that experience and how to do it better but I can't decide if I want to post it here or on my other, mostly neglected, blog). I spent most of the next week focusing on recovering from the marathon. Bedtime took a priority over reading. The marathon was why I had to rely on the Kindle hack. I was focused on the marathon rather than reading in the week leading up to and after my very long run. This week's unusual event was the watch party for a local Congressional candidate. My daughter really wanted to see if her Girl Scout troop leader was going to win. I was very leery about the whole thing, but it was important to her so I decided to do what I could to make it happen. It was mostly successful, the candidate won but we left well before the race was called in her favor, but that late night has impacted me all week. I was falling asleep early last night so I had no chance to read (I'm not going to force myself to stay up to read a book that highlights the need for us to get adequate sleep, especially when I get up early the next day to run). Most of these big life events are behind me so I should be able to get back to more reading in the next couple of weeks.
I have yet to read a page, but I am going to take on Dickens again when I get time to return to a physical book. I have decided to go with Martin Chuzzlewit. It is shorter than Little Dorritt and feels slightly more intriguing. My commitment to this reading choice was reinforced when I was looking over some posts from that neglected blog earlier today. That other blog was started as a way for me to track progress on my New Year's Resolutions. One of those resolutions was to read all of the big Dickens novels. I made that goal in 2010. It's almost 9 years later and I'm still far from realizing it. Realizing Book Shelf Zero will require reading most of those big novels so making progress on one of these goals gets me closer to the other. I've talked myself out of these books for long enough. It's time to take on another one. I hope it's a fairly fast read. I've been sitting at 148 owned books to read for months!
I've been facing this dilemma all too often over the last few weeks. The Kindle Fire hack, where I can keep reading the book after my loan period expires as long as I don't go back to the home screen, allowed me to finish reading The Lost Colony (book 3 of The Old Man's War series) over the weekend. The delay in reading that was caused by the time I spent reading a book about parenting that I bought after reading some columns by the author online. I finished that book on Monday. Those two books bring my books read up to 39 for the year.
With both of those books finished I faced the rare instance of having no books in progress. After reading a few pages of some book I was able to check out without waiting in line, I started reading that book I mentioned about sleep. I heard an interview with the author on the Joe Rogan podcast. It was fascinating. I looked at the book in the store but wasn't compelled enough to take the step of actually buying it. I only recently thought to see if I the library had the electronic version. The wait wasn't too long, but other books were also becoming available as I was wrapping up The Lost Colony. The unpredictable aspect of when I will get a book that I have on hold makes figuring out what to read that much harder. I had to choose between Why we Sleep and the second book of the Outline trilogy. I have more time with Outline book so I went ahead and started reading the book about sleep.
My reading has taken a back seat to other parts of my life over the last couple of weeks. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon on October 28 (I jotted down some thoughts about that experience and how to do it better but I can't decide if I want to post it here or on my other, mostly neglected, blog). I spent most of the next week focusing on recovering from the marathon. Bedtime took a priority over reading. The marathon was why I had to rely on the Kindle hack. I was focused on the marathon rather than reading in the week leading up to and after my very long run. This week's unusual event was the watch party for a local Congressional candidate. My daughter really wanted to see if her Girl Scout troop leader was going to win. I was very leery about the whole thing, but it was important to her so I decided to do what I could to make it happen. It was mostly successful, the candidate won but we left well before the race was called in her favor, but that late night has impacted me all week. I was falling asleep early last night so I had no chance to read (I'm not going to force myself to stay up to read a book that highlights the need for us to get adequate sleep, especially when I get up early the next day to run). Most of these big life events are behind me so I should be able to get back to more reading in the next couple of weeks.
I have yet to read a page, but I am going to take on Dickens again when I get time to return to a physical book. I have decided to go with Martin Chuzzlewit. It is shorter than Little Dorritt and feels slightly more intriguing. My commitment to this reading choice was reinforced when I was looking over some posts from that neglected blog earlier today. That other blog was started as a way for me to track progress on my New Year's Resolutions. One of those resolutions was to read all of the big Dickens novels. I made that goal in 2010. It's almost 9 years later and I'm still far from realizing it. Realizing Book Shelf Zero will require reading most of those big novels so making progress on one of these goals gets me closer to the other. I've talked myself out of these books for long enough. It's time to take on another one. I hope it's a fairly fast read. I've been sitting at 148 owned books to read for months!
Monday, November 5, 2018
Back to 148...and time to find something new to read
I finished Inversions earlier in the week. It's the fifth book that I've read of the Culture series. The reviews complain that this book wasn't really a part of that series as there are no massive star ships or sentient drones. Those things are part of the story, we just don't see them. We get to experience the Culture from the outside. It's a very clever way to add depth and significance to a sprawling space opera.
I was reading a library ebook while wrapping up Inversions, but my loan period ended before I could finish it.That doesn't mean that I wasn't able to finish the book, Outline by Rachel Cusk, though. I have an old Kindle Fire that has been sitting in a kitchen drawer for years. I've gone back to it after getting a crack in the screen of my phone. I was able to keep reading my expired book on this device right up until this morning when I finished the book. Assuming this wasn't a one time fluke event, this could be a very handy hack for taking some of the pressure off of my library reads. Getting these books from the 21st Century canon via the library has been a great way to expand my reading breadth without buying a bunch of books. I just skimmed the surface of Outline. That book was deep while being well written and a pleasure to read. It's the first of a trilogy. I will make an effort to go deeper on the next two volumes (I already have a hold on book 2).
That additional time could be handy as I start reading the next book in the Old Man's War series. My wait for book 3 wasn't as long as my wait for book 2, but that doesn't mean I want to let my loan period end without finishing the book. These are pretty quick reads so I don't feel like I will have too much pressure to get it done before my loan period ends, but knowing I can go a couple of days over will be helpful if my reading motivation wanes around running my second marathon ever, the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, this weekend.
While my next ebook selection is clear, I'm a bit up in the air about which print book to read next. My first thought was to pick up one of my long neglected Dickens books. Every year I say I'm going to read another of his major works, but they just never seem to rise to the top of my reading pile. Committing to a Dickens book is not a trivial matter. The books are thick and usually start slow. They get very rollicking by the end, but getting to that point can be a bit of a drag. Overcoming this kind of inertia is exactly the point of Book Shelf Zero so perhaps now is the perfect time to make a move on one of these monsters. Martin Chuzzlewit was a big part of The Eyre Affair so I was thinking of reading that one next. Dombey and Son is just so damn long (I made it about half way through that one before bailing on it several years ago) and my previous attempts at Oliver Twist have never gotten very far. Little Dorritt is also an option, but I really have nothing compelling me to read about people in a debtor's prison. Maybe I'll just go with the shorter of Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorritt.
I was reading a library ebook while wrapping up Inversions, but my loan period ended before I could finish it.That doesn't mean that I wasn't able to finish the book, Outline by Rachel Cusk, though. I have an old Kindle Fire that has been sitting in a kitchen drawer for years. I've gone back to it after getting a crack in the screen of my phone. I was able to keep reading my expired book on this device right up until this morning when I finished the book. Assuming this wasn't a one time fluke event, this could be a very handy hack for taking some of the pressure off of my library reads. Getting these books from the 21st Century canon via the library has been a great way to expand my reading breadth without buying a bunch of books. I just skimmed the surface of Outline. That book was deep while being well written and a pleasure to read. It's the first of a trilogy. I will make an effort to go deeper on the next two volumes (I already have a hold on book 2).
That additional time could be handy as I start reading the next book in the Old Man's War series. My wait for book 3 wasn't as long as my wait for book 2, but that doesn't mean I want to let my loan period end without finishing the book. These are pretty quick reads so I don't feel like I will have too much pressure to get it done before my loan period ends, but knowing I can go a couple of days over will be helpful if my reading motivation wanes around running my second marathon ever, the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, this weekend.
While my next ebook selection is clear, I'm a bit up in the air about which print book to read next. My first thought was to pick up one of my long neglected Dickens books. Every year I say I'm going to read another of his major works, but they just never seem to rise to the top of my reading pile. Committing to a Dickens book is not a trivial matter. The books are thick and usually start slow. They get very rollicking by the end, but getting to that point can be a bit of a drag. Overcoming this kind of inertia is exactly the point of Book Shelf Zero so perhaps now is the perfect time to make a move on one of these monsters. Martin Chuzzlewit was a big part of The Eyre Affair so I was thinking of reading that one next. Dombey and Son is just so damn long (I made it about half way through that one before bailing on it several years ago) and my previous attempts at Oliver Twist have never gotten very far. Little Dorritt is also an option, but I really have nothing compelling me to read about people in a debtor's prison. Maybe I'll just go with the shorter of Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorritt.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Collections
I have added The Horse's Mouth to my collection of completed books. I have moved it from the to be read pile, a place of angst and vexation, to the glory of the read list. Let me gesture to the six hundred and some long list of books that I have read. My virtual book shelf bursts with all kinds of interesting reads. I'm oh so cultured and refined! The Collector also recently joined the read list. It has a nice cameo appearance in an episode of Criminal Minds. That's where I first heard of it. I read another book by the author, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and found that appealing enough. I put a hold on the ebook at the library and waited for my turn to access the file. That time came right as I was finishing up Never Let Me Go. I only had a few days to get through The Collector. I wasn't sure I was going to get the entire book read, but I made a push on the last day of my loan period and made it to the end.
The captive in The Collector, holds the collector (as a general class of consumers of what creatives like her produce) in very low esteem. They fail to adequately feel the power of Art. Possession dominates the experience of the sublime. I couldn't help seeing myself in that characterization. I find myself more interested in the acquisition of a book, replacing the act of reading a book with a deeper appreciate and experience of a novel. The obsessive recording of my reading activities should hold little appeal if I was truly interested in expanding my living experience through books rather than adorning myself with the proxy of a deeper aesthetic experience by listing the titles of all the highly acclaimed books that I have looked at page by page, word by word.
I'm over dramatizing the depravity of my reading experience. I experience far more of the books that I read than anything that I ever record here or anywhere else. The experience of all my books is captured in me. Not every book is captured in an equal degree, but they all leave their mark and add a few more lines of code to the software that is my lived experience. Reading books is no flaunting of wealth or claiming access to some exclusive cultural capital. My lists are just a way to capture a largely ephemeral experience. They also show how my world and experiences have shaped me into the largely conventional person that is just trying to live his life.
I come to the crux of what I really wanted to write a few minutes before I told myself I would go to bed. At least I made it this far. I live in an acquisitive era. Accumulation has been elevated to the highest of virtues. Physical object, varied experiences, or a moment captured in the pixels of a phone are all equally valid ways to acquire meaningful things. The experience has been elevated above the object, but acquisitiveness remains at the core of our meaning making. We turn our back on family and important relationships to pursue degrees and career paths that have attained irrationally high levels of cultural value. Excessive material comfort trumps the psychological riches of deep and meaningful relationships. We seek to find our place in the world by surrounding ourselves with the paraphernalia of opulence rather than nurturing the relationships that bring richness and depth to our experience. Luxury is a sorry remedy for loneliness. The two friends who get to spend a two hour plane ride deep in conversation are having an experience much more profound than the few drinks the business traveler in first class tosses back while writing emails about a project that he wouldn't care about a lick if he wasn't getting paid to take some many flights around the country that the airline rewards him with access to the acquisition of one of the wide seats at the front of the plane.
I'm sometimes not sure if I'm collecting reward points with my reading or spending my time conversing with a friend. It really depends on the book. The Horse's Mouth was a project read. The Collector was hurried due to circumstances, but it was more than just reading the book to say I read it. That's the way I need to look at this project. Every book comes to me in its own way with its own impact. I'll deal with some real dreck, but I will also read books that will impact me long after they are added to the read list (which currently stands at 627 books; 149 owned books waiting to be read (that number will be dropping to 148 soon).
The captive in The Collector, holds the collector (as a general class of consumers of what creatives like her produce) in very low esteem. They fail to adequately feel the power of Art. Possession dominates the experience of the sublime. I couldn't help seeing myself in that characterization. I find myself more interested in the acquisition of a book, replacing the act of reading a book with a deeper appreciate and experience of a novel. The obsessive recording of my reading activities should hold little appeal if I was truly interested in expanding my living experience through books rather than adorning myself with the proxy of a deeper aesthetic experience by listing the titles of all the highly acclaimed books that I have looked at page by page, word by word.
I'm over dramatizing the depravity of my reading experience. I experience far more of the books that I read than anything that I ever record here or anywhere else. The experience of all my books is captured in me. Not every book is captured in an equal degree, but they all leave their mark and add a few more lines of code to the software that is my lived experience. Reading books is no flaunting of wealth or claiming access to some exclusive cultural capital. My lists are just a way to capture a largely ephemeral experience. They also show how my world and experiences have shaped me into the largely conventional person that is just trying to live his life.
I come to the crux of what I really wanted to write a few minutes before I told myself I would go to bed. At least I made it this far. I live in an acquisitive era. Accumulation has been elevated to the highest of virtues. Physical object, varied experiences, or a moment captured in the pixels of a phone are all equally valid ways to acquire meaningful things. The experience has been elevated above the object, but acquisitiveness remains at the core of our meaning making. We turn our back on family and important relationships to pursue degrees and career paths that have attained irrationally high levels of cultural value. Excessive material comfort trumps the psychological riches of deep and meaningful relationships. We seek to find our place in the world by surrounding ourselves with the paraphernalia of opulence rather than nurturing the relationships that bring richness and depth to our experience. Luxury is a sorry remedy for loneliness. The two friends who get to spend a two hour plane ride deep in conversation are having an experience much more profound than the few drinks the business traveler in first class tosses back while writing emails about a project that he wouldn't care about a lick if he wasn't getting paid to take some many flights around the country that the airline rewards him with access to the acquisition of one of the wide seats at the front of the plane.
I'm sometimes not sure if I'm collecting reward points with my reading or spending my time conversing with a friend. It really depends on the book. The Horse's Mouth was a project read. The Collector was hurried due to circumstances, but it was more than just reading the book to say I read it. That's the way I need to look at this project. Every book comes to me in its own way with its own impact. I'll deal with some real dreck, but I will also read books that will impact me long after they are added to the read list (which currently stands at 627 books; 149 owned books waiting to be read (that number will be dropping to 148 soon).
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