I read a lot. And I have a LOT of books. Since I got my Kindle, the number of physical books in my house has dropped, since I don’t buy actual books anymore, preferring to buy ebooks instead, because 1) instant gratification, 2) no one will have to deal with them in the future when I’m gone, and 3) my bookshelves are full.
Every year, the AIC hosts a “media” “sale”…quotes around those because it used to be more “media”, meaning that we allowed books, DVDs, CDs, games, puzzles, etc. But more and more it’s just books, and just English books at that. And it’s no longer allowed to be called a “sale” because in order to be a non-profit, we are not allowed to sell things. So instead, we ask for a donation. Anyway, before the media sale each year, I have typically gone through my books and purged a couple of bags or so. And throughout the year, as I read books, I would drop them in the media sale bag in my closet if I thought the book I had just finished wasn’t one I would read again. I’m a major re-reader, so that was always a serious judgement call.
I have also kept a library list in Excel of all my books, which now includes the books I purchase on Kindle. But when I remove books from my shelves, I then remove them from the Excel, which means I don’t have a record anymore of ever having owned them. I could have moved them to a different worksheet, but I didn’t think of that until I’d already had the Excel for years, and now I just can’t be bothered.
In addition to that, I’ve ALSO kept track of all the books I have read. From 2003 to 2013 on my website, and since then on Goodreads. OCD much?
My reading varies pretty widely. I read fiction and non-fiction. I read biographies and autobiographies. By far, the biggest genre I read in is science fiction and fantasy, as well as historical fiction, but I’m also pretty picky…a real book snob. And while I have read many of the books considered “classics”, there is a huge amount of them that I haven’t gotten around to, and probably never will.
Today, I started reading a book that I’d had on my wish list for awhile: The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask. It’s FASCINATING. Funny, thought-provoking, well-written, interesting, and very engaging. I’m not even halfway through it, and I would already put it in the top of my non-fiction reading list and recommend it to anyone.
To get into that list, a book can’t just be GOOD. It has to be all the things I listed above and more: preferably funny, thought-provoking, well-written, interesting, moving, and engaging. It’s also the best way for learning things once you are done with school, that I’ve found. That list includes these as well, for anyone interested, in random order:
- The Library Book by Susan Orleans
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating by Barbara Kingsolver
- America the Anxious by Ruth Whippman
- Why Peacocks? by Sean Flynn
- Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen
- The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
- A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter
- Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield
- The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal
- How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children’s Books by Joan Bodger
- Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher
- Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jenning
- West With the Night by Beryl Markham
- Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
- A Field Guide To Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life In The Present Tense by Christina Rosalie
- The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth
- The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen
- anything written by Mary Roach
- anything written by Malcolm Gladwell
- anything written by Bill Bryson
- anything by Diane Ackerman
- anything written by Caitlin Doughty
- anything written by James Herriot
I’m sure I’ve forgotten plenty, but these are all great books. Now I’m going back to the excellent one I’m in the middle of.
Mood: literary
Music: Ava Max—Sweet but Psycho