The to-be-read pile(s)

By michele on March 24, 2010 | Add a Comment

Lately, I've been scanning my books into LibraryThing, a website where you can keep track of your personal library.  This is a very time-consuming project when you have 11 bookcases and books stuffed into your closet, tucked into the bedside nightstand, piled on top of the dining room table, and, well, you get the picture. I've even been tempted to use my dog's crate for shelf space (kidding, I think!).  When you own as many books as I do, it becomes difficult to remember what you already have bought, and so I'm hoping with my new system in place that once I'm finally finished scanning what I currently have, it will be easier to figure things out.  

One of the things I've noticed while working on this project is just how many books I haven't read yet.  One of the many perks of being a bookseller is getting Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) of books before they are published, and so I usually am focused on reading new and upcoming books.  As a result, sometimes there are books that I've been meaning to get to but haven't had time for yet. Doesn't everyone have this problem, though? There are so many books published every single year that it's impossible to keep up!

Earlier this year I announced on Twitter that I wanted to read some more classics in 2010.  Tolstoy and Proust are among my top choices, but I also have a copy of Ulysses, along with a book of annotations, and a book of critical essays on Joyce, and really, RiverRun was named after the first line of Finnegan's Wake, so shouldn't I read some more Joyce? And what about all of the books from the twentieth century that I haven't read yet, like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and John Fowle's The Magus? 

I used to let myself get overwhelmed by the thought that I will never finish all the books I want to read in my lifetime.  Now, I just see my endless to-be-read piles as a promise; I will never run out of books to read, and that's a glorious thing.  

What books have you been meaning to get to for ages and want to read sometime soon?