Over the past month – from my birthday and up to and including Christmas – I have received so many books that I am a bit overwhelmed and feel kind of … well … like I have ADD or something. I read two pages from one new book, two pages of another – I can’t sit down and focus. TOOOOO MANY BOOKS!!!
I haven’t actually FINISHED a book in a month. Which is rare for me. Well – no, that’s not true: I just finished Vol. 5 of LM Montgomery’s journals yesterday. So at least I finished something.
When I looked at all the new books stacked up yesterday – waiting for me to shelve them in the proper shelf (that may sound like a simple task but it actually can be rather complex. First of all, I have to decide the genre of the book – and often that is not so easy. I want to have books that are easy to retrieve – but I also want the organization of them to make some sort of sense, in a dramaturgical way. Also, with my small apartment and my glut of books – there is the almost constant re-shuffling that must occur. Finding room for new books is a huge challenge). Okay, so anyway – I looked at the stack of my new books – and first of all felt a bolt of pleasure and excitement. I literally can’t wait to read each and every one. Second of all I felt despair and anxiety – because which one should I read first??? And third of all, I felt like laughing because the titles – stacked up together – doesn’t seem like they should all belong to the same person. You know how Amazon sort of suggests titles that you might like, based on prior purchases? They kind of don’t know what to do with me! Eclectic readers, in general, are not well served by that Amazon functionality.
Here are the books … argh – SO EXCITED!!
Great photos, awesome quotes – and I love, too, how in the introduction McPherson basically says: “This is a biography written by a huge fan. This should be considered more like fan’s notes than anything else.” I love that. I actually would like to write a biography of Cary Grant in that mode. Uhm … I think I already have??
Thanks, Pat!!! I read some interview with McCourt where he talked about his years as a teacher of English at a rough school on Staten Island. You can imagine. He walked into the situation only to find complete and utter chaos. Tough kids, barely enough school supplies, discipline problems, yadda yadda. So McCourt looks at the curriculum and looks at the copies of books that the school actually has to hand out to the students. You know, they’re supposed to read Middlemarch and stuff like that. McCourt decided – George Eliot? Staten Island? This won’t work. And he decided instead to read Shakespeare’s plays with the class. You can imagine the pissed-off goombah response from the students: “We don’t know shit about him, Mr. McCourt … we can’t read this shit!” But McCourt persisted – and instead of just reading the plays – he would make copies of the scenes and have the students act them out. Which, of course, changed the entire classroom dynamic. The students got SO into it. Some of them even memorized their lines. They understood Romeo and Juliet most of all (of course. Most teenagers do.) “Yeah, man, poor Romeo … he just wants to be wid his girl, y’know?” The kid assigned to play Mercutio apparently was just amazing – he had been a total troublemaker – uncontrollable – but he clicked into Mercutio – the wild Mercutio. McCourt still remembered the death scene – with this kid spontaneously doing the death scene, throwing himself into it 110% – Tough kid from Staten Island. Incredible.
So anyway. Cut to 15 years later. The school is having a reunion. McCourt, who no longer teaches there, is invited. He goes. He enters the room where the reunion is taking place, and suddenly – all of his former students – now fully grown adults – all come racing over to him, shouting out all of their Shakespeare lines from the mini-plays they had done 15 years before – – running at him, saying the lines that they had memorized 10 years before, the words still imprinted in their minds.
And I remember what Frank said. He said, “Jesus! I thought to myself – this is the most important moment of my life!”
Jean gave this to me. She raves about it. I’m very excited.
also from Jean. Another rave! I haven’t been reading much fiction these days – so I’m very excited about these two books.
by Robert Kaplan – Kaplan, one of my writing gods, one of my philosophical gods. I’ve been reading his books as they come out for years now – since Balkan Ghosts. Just got his latest. This is the one I picked up this morning to read. I just read the Yemen prologue, and now I’m in the Colombian chapter. I don’t know what it is about his stuff that I find so compelling – it’s the writing, for sure, he’s a wonderful writer, but it’s also the people he introduces me to – but mostly: He helps me to get up a tiny bit higher on that ladder, so I can a bit more perspective on the world and how things work. Yes – he’s biased. We all are. And he writes from his bias. But he at least is asking the big questions. He doesn’t just assume he has the answer. He goes out to find things out. He also doesn’t take a party line. He’s too smart for that. He actually is interested in trying to figure out how things actually WORK (his book The Empire Wilderness is one of the best examples of this, I think.) I don’t read his stuff and cringe at the right-wing tone, or cringe at the left-wing tone – both of which strike me as extremely unintelligent, not to mention excruciatingly boring. I feel like he’s independent. Rebecca West is his idol. It’s easy to see why. He attempts to follow in her footsteps, acknowledging upfront that nobody can. But that’s the kind of writer he wants to be. Anyway – really excited for this one. I will also be able to add to my “country index card” project substantially!! There were a bunch of factoids about Yemen in ancient times that I did not know! Very important that I jot all that down on my “Yemen” index card. You never know when it might come in handy.
Anything that has to do with the American Revolution is okay by me.
This one will obviously go on my “Iran Shelf”. Very excited – it’s a travelogue – and frankly, even though I must have 20 other books on Iran – in my opinion, one can never have enough.
This is the kind of book I can read comfortably a little bit at a time. It’s okay to pick it up and put it down again. Some books need to be read straight through – this one can be dipped into.
One of the big gaps in my American Revolutionary biography section is Sam Adams. I’ve got the whole Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington thing covered. But Sam Adams is crucial – so I have to think reader “ricki” for sending me this BEAUTIFUL book. Sam Adams was such a rabble-rouser. He was THE rabble-rouser. It’s wonderful to have this book in my collection now.
Emily sent me this one. You know. We’re partners in crime in our disdain for all things cult-ish. I tore through this one in 2 days. Fascinating. Written by an ex-Moonie who is now one of the country’s top deprogrammer – he writes not only about his own experiences getting sucked in – but what exactly the proponents of mind control are. He researches brainwashing techniques through the centuries – people’s experiences in POW camps – people who have defected from one-party-state countries – and also ex-cult members. It’s a FASCINATING book about, really, how the mind works.
The book everyone is talking about right now:
I’m 3 chapters in now. I know at least 5 people who are also reading this book at this very moment in time. I had heard about it – of course – and she wrote one of my favorite essays ever written, a high-water-mark in essays as far as I’m concerned: it’s called “Goodbye to All That” – so I’ve always been a Didion fan. And the second Year of Magical Thinking came out, you could start to feel the shock waves reverberating. Everyone was talking about it. I had friends call me up randomly and demand that I read it. So now I finally am. It’s one of the most extraordinary books about grief I think I’ve ever read. And I’ve read a ton. Didion’s a real idol. It is a painful book to read – almost too painful – but that’s the whole point. She’s unbelievable.
So. None of these books have anything in common except that they are all now owned by ME. I have got to do some serious re-arranging to make room for them all!
I got the Buster Keaton book, too….
It was one of only two books I got, the other being a Johnny Cash biography. Two is a low number, but I requested a Christmas of no books, owing to that I’ve got mounds and mounds that I haven’t read.
Still, those who knew me substituted the books with gift cards to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.
So, there’s no shortage of reading material.
You got the Keaton book?? Awesome! Looks like it will be a quick but juicy read. I will definitely have to have a big ol’ Keaton film-fest as I read the book.
I know what you mean about the pile-up of books!!
Sheila,
A belated Merry Christmas to you. Sounds like you had a great one. Too many books, huh? I’ve got the same thing going on, but it ain’t a bad burden to have. I’ll get to them all eventually, I hope.
It’s funny, I actually wanted to get you Imperial Grunts. I was so disappointed that it wasn’t there, I didn’t get you anything. Now if I had seen a DVD player on your wish list, I would have gotten you that. Or maybe even a DVD recorder. Just thinking about space savings, you know. DVD’s are slim and you could copy your VHS tapes to DVD and have more room for books so that all of your book pushers from the blogosphere and elsewhere can continue to feed your addiction. Just thinking about your health ma’am, don’t want you to go through a horrible withdrawal in the future.
Well, Merry Christmas again, Happy New Year and all that stuff.
Jay –
The book addiction must be fed, it is true.
How easy is it to transfer video to DVD?? If I buy a joint VCR/DVD player – can I do it that way?? I have so many video tapes that are irreplacable. Yes, I realize I am now living in 1984 but I can’t help it!
I meant to tell you I finished the book you sent me called America’s Secret War – I finished it a while back. It was yet another one of those books that made me feel like I could see just a little bit farther … a bit higher up on the ladder …
I read ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ one right after the other. I loved them both, but especially the latter.
Nope, Sheila you need a DVD Recorder (which are becoming cheaper and cheaper, should be under 250 bucks now). Even then it depends how old your VCR tapes are. Modern videos,like DVDs, come with a anti-recording technology that prevent you from transfering them (even some older ones may have this; The Sure Thing was the first video I remember renting which had a primitive anti-recording techonology that was soon dropped). Of course, if these are recordings YOU made from TV or from another VCR, you can transfer those to DVD.
By the way, it turns out that videos don’t last as long as I thought… Many movies I recorded in the late 80s (VCR to VCR using frickin’ SLP to save on costs, could get three movies on one time) are practically unwatchable now.
Between my birthday and Christmas, I got a TON of books, too. Enough to last a year, and I still have about two years worth unread right now. Pejman and I used to have this pact that we wouldn’t buy any new books until we finished the ones we had. That sacred accord lasted about a day before we both cracked. We’re just incurable book junkies.
Sheila, since you’ve read a lot about Iran, can you recommend a good general history of the place? I asked Pejman, since his parents emigrated from there, and he said he’s really only read the very specific books on the country.
Hey Jay!! neener neener…
I almost got that book for myself in spite of the no-reality kick I’ve been in for the last 30 years. I mean geez it’s only been 15 years or so that I’ve let myself read fantasy and not just SF. Except for “Lord of the Rings”. I think I found that in my mid to early teens. Before Harvard Lampoon’s “Bored of the Rings” for certain. :)
“Reality is just a crutch for those who can’t deal with fantasy”
Emily – most of the books I have are travelogues/political books. Robert Kaplan’s book Ends of the Earth has a huge section on Iran – I learned a lot from it. He travels all over the country – you get a very good overview of the place. Politically, poetically, culturally – it’s not just a political book – you really get a sense of the place and its people.
Ryzsard Kapuscinski’s book Shah of Shahs details the downfall of the last Shah and the return of Khomeini. Terrific book.
I’ll look at my library when I get home and see if any other titles jump out at me as particularly good.
Thanks, red!
JFH – most of the stuff I would want to transfer would be stuff I taped off the television. LIke you said – many of the stuff is nearing unwatchability now – and a lot of it is stuff that cannot be replaced. Every episode of 30something, for example. Judge me not! I loved that show – and so far- it is not out on DVD yet, and it is also not in re-runs. So I’m in a race with time!!
dude, i am so right there with you. i’ve got like half a dozen books i’ve been reading all year plus whatever other half dozen i’m reading at the moment that i’ll probably finish…i blame the internet for shortening my attention span.
Hey — I’m reading “Life of Pi” right now! I just started it the other day — loving it. Shall we read it together? ;-)
God, Sheila. I know what you mean. Ever since you first wrote about the origin of “Toooo many books” I’ve been saying that in my head.
I have so many books stacked around my house waiting to be read that it’s overwhelming and I end up not reading anything.
Then, to make matters worse, I am a librarian and am surrounded by books both at work and at home and I often run across books that I MUST have or I read about a book that I MUST read and then I order it and add another book to my list of “Too many books”.
I don’t know what to do. Now, I’m rambling. HELP!
tracey – Pretty much everyone I’ve met who have read Life of Pi says the same thing – that they are loving it. I am excited – but sadly, I cannot promise that I will begin it right away – so you must go forth on your journey alone. I will catch up eventually!
DeAnna – I just found myself nodding reading your comment. It gets overwhelming. There are times when paralysis sets in. Even despair, along the lines of: “I will never live long enough to give me enough time to read as many books as I want!!!”
I can only imagine how working in a library exacerbates this problem!!
No, of COURSE, Sheila. I knew that. You have TOO MANY BOOKS! Happy reading!
A [belated] Merry Christmas, Sheila.
Too many books here too.. and, after Christmas, enough credit at Amazon to buy twice as many again.
Just gotta decide which ones to add to the list.
Hey, What Did YOU Read During Your Holiday?
I read two books during my time off. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and My Friend Leonard by James Frey Lately, I’ve not been reading like I normally do. I will get a book, read a few…