Kind of in keeping with a theme I developed yesterday--the amount of work that's burying me at this particular time--I look around me and see something else, another task (or maybe that should be tasks) in my life that I will never come near to completing. Reading just the books I have on hand that I want to read. I work from a study; I'm surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. No, I've not counted them. My best estimate is something like 1,300 volumes, give or take. Now, admittedly, a number of these volumes are reference works: quote books, various dictionaries and thesauri, specialized encyclopedias (military/world/US history; supreme court cases, etc.), writing and usage books, guides (science, physics). Then there reference works within the specialties: baseball encyclopedias, record books, guides, etc. and in chess there are game collections, tournament books, opening/ending/middle game guides. Several Bibles and various theological works--I've read quite a few of these, but not all.
This leaves a huge number of books that are just book books. Books that I have acquired over the course of a long and lengthening lifetime. Which were acquired for either one of two reasons: 1) I needed them for research; or 2) I intended to read them. Books in the first of these categories, necessary for research, are pretty much unobtrusive as far as my conscience is concerned. I got them for research, I see reminders of projects long since or recently finished, remember using the books and being happy I had them here in my library.
And as I scan the shelves I see quite a number of books in the second of these categories, the ones I got to actually read, that I actually have read. But depressingly, quite a few more in the second category that sit accusingly on these shelves reminding me of how fickle I can be when it comes to my reading tastes, much less my reading commitments. Take poetry collections . . . some of these Billy Collins, Stephen Dunn, Stephen Dobyns, Bob Hicok, others I have read whole and entire. Quite a few other collections, I've read a few or several poems. Others, hell, I've never even opened them. And there are a depressing number of books in all subjects that join James Schuyler Collected Poems in the category never even looked at.
It makes me sad to see how many there are in this category, nestled sometimes up against a book I read, but sometimes abutting several more that are likewise unread.
I'll talk some more about this tomorrow. This going on longer than I thought it would.
5 comments:
I know the last thing you really need right now is to add another book to your list of future reads, but if you've not yet read Dan Barry's newest you should check it out. It's about baseball AND it's about history, two of your favorite things. Plus, it's very well written. His writing style reminded me of Rick Bragg's style, only instead of his content focusing upon small Southern town lives, it's about small yankee town lives.
Good luck with all of your editing endeavors. I think that'd be an interesting job. I've always had this thing about noticing typos & etc. in most of the things I ever read. I would love to try working as a proofreader one day. I think I'd excel at that if it were my job.
Oh, the book is "Bottom of the 33rd"...almost forgot to include that..
Well, if it's fiction, it's going to be way down on the list. I read about 95 percent non-fiction, if not more. But I do appreciate the recommendation. Even my list of fiction must-read stuff is forbiddingly long. I know for a stone fact that I'll never make a decent dent in it.
It's non-fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_baseball_game
@passerby: Why, thank you. This is indeed right up my alley.
@passerby: Why, thank you. This is indeed right up my alley.
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