My Reading List
In 1994 I set a goal to read 1,000 books in 40 years. This excludes children's books or instruction manuals or travel guides or Penthouse Forum letter collections, which quite truthfully was an omission that will hurt my chances of success.
Since that time I've maintained a list, first on paper and then transferred to Excel, of all of the books I have read. By the end of this year I should be at 325 books to stay on pace; I'm currently at 293. I'll have to kick it into a higher gear at some point to catch up, but I'm scheduling some time in my mid-50s to do so. I'm a big believer in setting goals; this one gives me the most leeway and time to procrastinate of all of them.
I don't spend discretionary income on many things, leaving that task predominantly to my wife and children. However, I'm a sucker for books. My home office is lined with six bookshelves, and the shelves are slowly running out of space. My book collection will never rival that of my good friend Steve, whose house does not have an inner wall in any room aside from the bathroom or kitchen devoid of bookshelves. The point is, though, that I love purchasing books. I'd much rather own a book than borrow one or check one out of the library. There's a part of me that wants possession in the event I decide to re-read a particular book, or so I can have them available for my children to read as they grow older. Plus, I just like the way they look piled up on my shelves.
My book purchasing frequency outpaces my book reading frequency, however, so many of the volumes on my shelves have yet to be read. I just purchased another book today, which is one of at least 20 that I have to decide between as to which I am going to read next. Currently I'm about halfway through Tom Drury's The End of Vandalism, which is thoroughly enjoyable but which I'm progressing through slowly given that I seem to only have the hour between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. available for free time these days, and instead I'm spending much of that time goofing around on the internet (posting on this blog, for one thing).
One problem I have is that I tend to get as interested in thinking about the next book I'm going to read as I do about the book I'm currently reading. It has to be some sort of illness, but it feels immensely pleasurable to read the last page of a book and immediately begin running through the list of contenders for Next Book (I actually think of it like that, in bold and capitalized). The difficulty currently for me is that I have so many books that are vying for the title of Next Book. That's why I've decided to list the viable contestants in this post, as a sort of guide for me in the hopes it may help me prioritize my reading list. It doesn't help me to realize that with a substantial list, at my reading pace that basically ties me up for the better part of a year. And yet I know without hesitation that I will be purchasing more books before year's end. No one ever knows what to get me for a gift, and I don't know either, so I always ask for a gift certificate to Amazon or B&N or Borders.
So, knowing that this list is in no sort of priority order (having listed them based on the order in which I notice them on the shelves), and that many will be replaced by others to be named later, and that some may never be read for that matter, and that I need to wrap this sentence up before drowning in commas, here is my current list of books I'm anxious to "get to reading":
1. A Confederacy of Dunces - Toole
2. Parasite Rex - Zimmer
3. Hare Brain Tortoise Mind - Claxton
4. J R - Gaddis
5. Magic Street - Card
6. I Am Charlotte Simmons - Wolfe
7. The Firm of the Future - Dunn and Baker
8. Encouraging the Heart - Kouzes and Posner
9. Managing the Professional Service Firm - Maister
10. Clients for Life - Sheth and Sobel
11. Uncoventional Success - A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment - Swensen
12. The Agressive Conservative Investor - Whitman and Shubik
13. Rule #1 - Town
14. The Mind of Bill James - Gray
15. Baseball Between the Numbers - Baseball Prospectus
16. New Shanghai - Yatsko
17. A People's History of the United States - Zinn
18. Revolutionary Wealth - Toffler and Toffler
19. Fast Food Nation - Schlosser
20. The Wisdom of Crowds - Surowiecki
21. Empires of the Word - Ostler
22. Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz - Burger and Starbird
23. The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten - Baggini
24. NY Public Library's Books of the Century - Diefendorf
25. Boards That Deliver - Charan
26. China: The Balance Sheet - Center for Strategic and International Studies
27. Freedom Just Around the Corner - Mcdougall
28. Magician - Feist
Well, shit.
That's more than a year's worth of books right there. And it doesn't count all of the other books I haven't yet read that are on my shelves. Or Guns, Germs and Steel which I have 100 pages yet to read (and have had to read for about six weeks). Or the books on my Amazon wishlist. Or the few periodicals I subscribe to. Or the newspaper. Or current reading for my profession. Or. Or. Or. I should be a miner, extracting all this or.
Any suggestions on what to read next? What to ignore? If not, I'll just pick a Next Book that suits my mood at the time. One thing I sure as hell ain't reading: this post for typos.
Since that time I've maintained a list, first on paper and then transferred to Excel, of all of the books I have read. By the end of this year I should be at 325 books to stay on pace; I'm currently at 293. I'll have to kick it into a higher gear at some point to catch up, but I'm scheduling some time in my mid-50s to do so. I'm a big believer in setting goals; this one gives me the most leeway and time to procrastinate of all of them.
I don't spend discretionary income on many things, leaving that task predominantly to my wife and children. However, I'm a sucker for books. My home office is lined with six bookshelves, and the shelves are slowly running out of space. My book collection will never rival that of my good friend Steve, whose house does not have an inner wall in any room aside from the bathroom or kitchen devoid of bookshelves. The point is, though, that I love purchasing books. I'd much rather own a book than borrow one or check one out of the library. There's a part of me that wants possession in the event I decide to re-read a particular book, or so I can have them available for my children to read as they grow older. Plus, I just like the way they look piled up on my shelves.
My book purchasing frequency outpaces my book reading frequency, however, so many of the volumes on my shelves have yet to be read. I just purchased another book today, which is one of at least 20 that I have to decide between as to which I am going to read next. Currently I'm about halfway through Tom Drury's The End of Vandalism, which is thoroughly enjoyable but which I'm progressing through slowly given that I seem to only have the hour between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. available for free time these days, and instead I'm spending much of that time goofing around on the internet (posting on this blog, for one thing).
One problem I have is that I tend to get as interested in thinking about the next book I'm going to read as I do about the book I'm currently reading. It has to be some sort of illness, but it feels immensely pleasurable to read the last page of a book and immediately begin running through the list of contenders for Next Book (I actually think of it like that, in bold and capitalized). The difficulty currently for me is that I have so many books that are vying for the title of Next Book. That's why I've decided to list the viable contestants in this post, as a sort of guide for me in the hopes it may help me prioritize my reading list. It doesn't help me to realize that with a substantial list, at my reading pace that basically ties me up for the better part of a year. And yet I know without hesitation that I will be purchasing more books before year's end. No one ever knows what to get me for a gift, and I don't know either, so I always ask for a gift certificate to Amazon or B&N or Borders.
So, knowing that this list is in no sort of priority order (having listed them based on the order in which I notice them on the shelves), and that many will be replaced by others to be named later, and that some may never be read for that matter, and that I need to wrap this sentence up before drowning in commas, here is my current list of books I'm anxious to "get to reading":
1. A Confederacy of Dunces - Toole
2. Parasite Rex - Zimmer
3. Hare Brain Tortoise Mind - Claxton
4. J R - Gaddis
5. Magic Street - Card
6. I Am Charlotte Simmons - Wolfe
7. The Firm of the Future - Dunn and Baker
8. Encouraging the Heart - Kouzes and Posner
9. Managing the Professional Service Firm - Maister
10. Clients for Life - Sheth and Sobel
11. Uncoventional Success - A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment - Swensen
12. The Agressive Conservative Investor - Whitman and Shubik
13. Rule #1 - Town
14. The Mind of Bill James - Gray
15. Baseball Between the Numbers - Baseball Prospectus
16. New Shanghai - Yatsko
17. A People's History of the United States - Zinn
18. Revolutionary Wealth - Toffler and Toffler
19. Fast Food Nation - Schlosser
20. The Wisdom of Crowds - Surowiecki
21. Empires of the Word - Ostler
22. Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz - Burger and Starbird
23. The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten - Baggini
24. NY Public Library's Books of the Century - Diefendorf
25. Boards That Deliver - Charan
26. China: The Balance Sheet - Center for Strategic and International Studies
27. Freedom Just Around the Corner - Mcdougall
28. Magician - Feist
Well, shit.
That's more than a year's worth of books right there. And it doesn't count all of the other books I haven't yet read that are on my shelves. Or Guns, Germs and Steel which I have 100 pages yet to read (and have had to read for about six weeks). Or the books on my Amazon wishlist. Or the few periodicals I subscribe to. Or the newspaper. Or current reading for my profession. Or. Or. Or. I should be a miner, extracting all this or.
Any suggestions on what to read next? What to ignore? If not, I'll just pick a Next Book that suits my mood at the time. One thing I sure as hell ain't reading: this post for typos.
posted by Dagrims @ 10:52 PM
6 Comments:
At 1:51 PM, July 19, 2006,
Merge Divide said…
I have to say I'm extremely glad your project inspired me to undergo the same process. While in the interest of discretion I will refrain from noting my current progress to said goal, I will say that it's been a tremendously grounding project. In my twenties, I was constantly being asked where I wanted to be in five years... with this project I always had an answer to cut through my confusion. As far as the specific books you mentioned...
I found "Confederacy of Dunces" insipid and boring... but of course humor is a very personal thing.
"Parasite Rex" was amazing, and left an indelible mark on my thinking. Don't read it when you are sick or planning a wilderness excursion.
"Guns, Germs and Steel" gave me a superstructure for hanging an understanding of the development of human ghistory. It's redundant in places, but completely enlightening.
Zinn's "A People's History" was a completely unique take on our nation's legacy,and will certainly challenge your conception of "The American Way"
"Hare Brain- Tortoise Mind" and "Fast Food Nation" are on my shelf, waiting to be read.
And I have heard good things about "The Wisdom of Crowds" from people I respect very much.
At 6:55 AM, July 20, 2006,
Dagrims said…
Thanks for the comments. It's likely the redundancy of Guns, Germs and Steel that is making it tedious to finish. I absolutely hate not finishing a book, however. For the same reason, I almost never shut off a movie before the end. I want to be able to judge the work as a whole, and I'm usually hopeful that there will be some redeeming feature that made the experience worth at least something.
At 6:58 PM, July 22, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Interesting that except for the fact that you actually made a list of books yet to read, I could have written virtually the same thing about books and reading. I cannot throw a book away (even if I don't like it) and like you I like to own my books. I do, however, have a pile of 5 books I just brought home from the library.
We have a Barnes & Noble member card that we use online and in the store, and I've purchased books online AND in the store on the same day on more than one occasion. Then there is the box of books we bought at our local Library book sale. We both believe you just cannot have too many books.
Your list of books looks interesting, and I have a good handful of titles I could add to that list. I don't have a list simply because making the list requires more energy than I want to spend on such a list. Suffice it to say that if you, D. and I put our lists and collections together most of mine wouldn't appear on yours or his. Some of my favorite authors are Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Jack Canfield and you don't have one of their books on your list (that's not a criticism, I promise). I also have a lot of purely entertaining books on my mythical list, such as books by Mercedes Lackey, and Terry Pratchett; these books are a new genre for me added to my penchant for mysteries. Oh, don't forget "The Jester" by Ken Follett (that's for your list, I've already read it.) Actually, another one for your list is the Bible, and not purely for the sake of religion or spirituality. I'm on my second reading, and have chosen a different version than the one I read last year. That actually was a goal of mine, and to tell the truth I never really thought I'd reach that goal.
I think it's important for every parent to pass a love of the written word, in all formats, to their children. I think people should be exposed to all manner and styles of writing.
I know you and Fred share a love of many of the same scifi authors. He's also a big Bill Bryson fan.
I listen to books on tape and CDs in the car. Sometimes I'm surprised I manage to accomplish anything else in addition to reading. I'm pleased that you and D. both share a passion for reading, and I'm glad to have played a part in that.
At 12:23 AM, July 23, 2006,
Robert Mang said…
I'd love to amass a huge collection of books but I am mostly content to check them out from the library. I had one going for awhile but got away from it. I need to get back into reading, but medicine I take keeps me from being able to concentrate enough to read. Such a crime with the time I've had off from school.
I am ashamed to say I don't recognize any of the books on your list. I have read some of Guns, Germs and Steel but that was for school and I also found it redundant.
At 8:48 PM, August 01, 2006,
Anonymous said…
I'm sitting at my desk, staring at a wall of about 150 books, many yet to be read. However, as I don't feel like getting up and looking at them at the moment, coupled with noticing that no one has posted here in some time, I feel instead compelled to ask..."So, what have you decided to read next?" I was going to type "You show me yours and I'll show you mine", but ummm....no.
At 3:09 PM, August 09, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Penguin Classics Complete Collection, huh?????? Didn't think I'd look, did you?
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