A little different slant from yesterday's post. This morning I was reading a post by Ekaterina Sedia, guest-blogging for Jeff VanderMeer over at Ecstatic Days. For the last couple of days, Sedia has written about three overlooked books and their authors: Mockingbird by Sean Stewart, The Mount by Carol Emshwiller and The Traitor by Michael Cisco.
I own (but have not read) the first two books and have had the Cisco book on my Amazon "Wish List" for months. I now have an overwhelming desire to immediately pick up one (or all) of these books and start reading.
I know, I'm the marketing department's dream come true.
I also know I have the problem of seeing a book I want to read, thinking to myself, "Gee, it's here, the price is reasonable, I want to read this eventually...what the heck - I'll take it!" Thus my home is overtaken by books.
But when do I actually get around to reading it/them? When I'm reminded of a post like Sedia's?
I've tried (I really have) to look at a book I'd really like to read and ask myself the following questions:
(1) Is the library going to get this book? If so,
(1.1) Do I want to wait for it to arrive or wait for all the holds to go down? (as in Edgar Sawtelle) Or just buy the blasted thing? (again, as in Edgar Sawtelle, which was probably a stupid move, since I still haven't finished it.)
(1.2) Are they going to get it on audio? If so,
(1.3) By the time I get the audiobook, are the discs going to be so scratched up it'll be unlistenable? (What do these patrons use the CDs for, anyway, coasters for sandpaper table surfaces?)
(2) Am I ever going to see this book for sale again? When I was running my on-line bookstore, I was in used bookstores and thrift stores nearly every day. I'd frequently find books I knew I couldn't sell for much, but still wanted to read, books I thought I might never see again. So I bought them.
(3) Am I just getting caught up in the moment? This is really dangerous when you go to an author signing. Or maybe EVERYONE'S talking about this book and you've just GOT to read it RIGHT NOW!
But I still end up with shelves of books that I haven't read. (Plus, like an idiot, I've signed up to get ARCs from LibraryThing and Amazon, so the hits just keep on coming.)
So how do you decide what to read next? Does it depend on the mood you're in? Or what everyone's talking about? How do you balance fiction and non-fiction? Young Adult vs. adult fiction?
5 comments:
I have made an effort to read all of the books I own but haven't read. The problem is that my reading mood is capricious. You know, sometimes you just don't wanna read Ted Chiang. Or Martha Grimes. Or that biography of Richard III you got at a library sale. This year I am 10 for 102 reading from my unread pile. I'll add another this weekend to the read side of the equation, but I'm at the point where I need to start at the beginning of the alphabet and read them one at a time until they're all read or all discarded.
Especially since I moved to Bellingham, I've been acquiring books like a madman. There's a local used bookstore that puts out all the books it thinks it won't sell in boxes on the sidewalk for free.
I'm making a somewhat token effort to first read books I've had in my pile longer. But not a very strong effort. I've got books I've had over 10 years that I haven't gotten to yet.
Other than occasionally thinking "I've had that one for a while, maybe I should read it" I mostly go by whatever strikes my fancy at the moment. Usually I do like to follow heavier, slower reads with lighter, quicker reads.
For now, my ever increasing stack of unread books doesn't bother me. Perhaps it will later.
I have the same problem with DVDs. Buy it now because then I'll have it? Put it in my Netflix queue? Hope that they'll be a Netflix queue in fifteen years?
I have stacks of DVDs still sealed. (grin) But I have them! (double-grin)
Dr. Phil
I'll be in Washington D. C. from Aug 23rd - Aug 28th. So if you still want to meet up for lunch it should be sometime in between those days.
We should exchange cell phone #s. Email me at: Drkshadow03@aol.com so we can do that (don't want to post it publicly on a blog because then Trent will never stop sending me dirty pictures of himself).
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