Happy Ada Lovelace Day! I feel just terrible that the science by women project I was so excited about doing this year has yet to get off the ground. Nicholas Carr talks about the distractions of technology in The Shallows, but let me tell you about the real distraction: books.
Yes, that’s right, more than the internet, more than television, more than brushing Dickens’ black cat fur off the legs of my tan pants, books are the biggest distraction. If my TBR list weren’t a mile long and my mountain of unread books didn’t require a sherpa to help me reach the summit, if publishers would stop publishing new books, if I would stop reading book reviews and blogs, and if all of you would stop telling me about good books, then maybe, just maybe I would manage to not be so very distracted.
But the year isn’t over yet, right? I still have a chance to get going on the project and nobody can stop me from continuing the project next year.
Now if only I could get rid of other distractions too like this article at the Guardian about Franz Kafka’s archive. His papers have been tied up in court for years (and if that isn’t irony then I don’t know what is), and an Israeli judge finally ruled that the papers belong at the Israeli National Library. The library said that they will make available the thousands and thousands of pages, including Kafka’s notebooks, online for free. It will be awhile before that happens, but how awesome is that? I’ve read The Trial and The Metamorphosis in the last two years and liked them very much. This news makes me want to read The Castle. See how books are such a horrible distraction?
And then there is a fun little essay, A Short Defense of Literary Excess in which Ben Masters disparages the spare and the drab and praises the embellished. He sticks to 20th century authors – Saul Bellow, Virginia Woolf, Christina Stead (I have to read her one of these days!), Angela Carter, David Foster Wallace, and Nabokov. Fine authors all. But when I think of literary excess I think of the Victorians and I think of Dickens and suddenly while reading the article I had an intense desire to plunge into David Copperfield. Distraction!
And now Litlove is twisting my arm to read either Howard’s End or A Room With a View. I think I might go with Room With a View. I am almost done with Anna K and that seems like it might be a nice way to switch things up a bit.
Do you see with all these distractions how I haven’t managed my science books? There are more distractions on the horizon too since I am in the hold queue on a couple of library books and my turn will come up when I am least prepared for them. Anyone know where I can get some book blinders? Or maybe Google makes goggles that filter out books from my line of vision? I need these badly because I just saw online that Hilary Mantel won the Booker and I’ve not read her yet and bought the paperback of Wolf Hall last spring and find myself thinking, hmm, I’ve got a two-week vacation at the end of December, wouldn’t it be so much fun to get lost in that behemoth?
Distractions!
LOL. I so hear you on this. I toyed earlier in the year with the idea of committing myself to adding no more books to my TBR list for the rest of the year. Not just not buying books, because I’m pretty good about that, but stopping the flood of new possibilities entirely!
Teresa, I’ve been really good in the last couple of years in slowing down the number of books I buy but as a consequence I borrow a lot more books from the library so the flood hasn’t stopped, just been diverted into another channel. Not adding books to your TBR list? That’s hard core, makes me twitchy just thinking about it!
Once, about a decade ago, I worked out roughly how many books I might get to read before I died (given I lived healthily and able to read to say 90, being hopeful). I was horrified – or worse – devastated. I try not to think of it anymore. I just try to enjoy what I read and not worry about what else I want to read. Easier said than done!
whisperinggums, I try to not think about that because it is so depressing. Instead, I’ve decided that by the time I reach 90 I’ll be able to have body regeneration with my own stem cells which means I can, in theory, live forever and have at reading all the books I want to. Barring that, I am going to find a magic lamp with a genie in it to grant me three wishes. I could happen!
Stefanie! hope you will find a magic lamb to fulfill your wishes…and also i wish that you may read all the books you want to read:-)
James, thanks!
Now that’s positive thinking … I like it!
I feel your pain!
Lynn, a kindred spirit you are!
Heh! But never fear, A Room With A View is a teeny little trifle of a book which you will whip through in no time and it will brighten your days and repay your trouble! I also want to read Wolf Hall, so wave at me when you start it and I will read along with you.
Distractions – our friends/enemies the pesky book gnomes that are just impossible to subdue! I hope you enjoy EM Forster, I was sometimes enraged by but did enjoy Howard’s End. I see Hilary Mantel won Booker Prize, I must admit to owning a copy of Wolf Hall but have never really felt keen on reading it. I liked her rather disturbing novel of modern English life (dark side of) – Beyond Black.
Women In Science – I seem to remember a newspaper report recently suggesting that the website of Dictionary Of National Biography are to make a special effort to record great British women scientists over next few years.
It is the Royal Society Of London who are doing the project rather than the DNB – it really does look like a project that you would be interested in following.
Women In Science workshop Royal Society/Wikipedia is held on the 19th this month so google this to find out more.
Ian, oh yes, book gnomes embody the term “frenemy.” I suspect I will like Forster, I’ve been wanting to read him for ages and I have enjoyed all the films of his books. Glad to hear I am not the only one with a copy of Wolf Hall hanging about unread! I’ve heard Beyond Black is really good and want to read that one too. And thanks for the info about the Royal Society of London and the Women in Science wikipedia workshop. Very cool! I hope it makes a visible difference.
Litlove, a teen little trifle? Those are the most dangerous! Have you ever seen the Monty Python skit with the man gorging himself in a restaurant and then the waiter asks him at the end if he would like a tiny breath mint? It’s that mint that sends him over the edge! I will let you know when I start Wolf Hall so you can be sucked into it too!
We all understand! I’ve been cleaning my library, taking all the books off the shelves, caressing them with the vacuum cleaner, and, of course, dipping in and out of them. I want to read them all – NOW!
My newest problem is that I’ve been stopping by the central branch of the library when I have the car to go grocery shopping. They have a much better selection than my tiny local branch, so I can browse (and bring home) books to my heart’s content. This must stop, though, because I’m on a mission to read and get rid of a lot of my own books.
The ‘keeper’ books are their own problem. How do I find time to read my lovely sets of Dickens and Scott and Balzac and Irving, my Trollope and Thirkell and all the others AND read the non-keepers and the library books? Anyone?
Joan, I knew I would find understanding people! The idea of you caressing your books with the vacuum cleaner made me laugh. Central branch libraries are dangerous places because they have so many more books. I can browse my little neighborhood branch’s shelves in 10 minutes and find nothing to bring home but set me loose at the central branch and I need a moving van to take all the books I want to borrow home. I have the same dilemma with “keeper” books. If you figure out a solution to the problem, please let me know!
I know what you mean! I have a huge stack of books (in my mind) that I want to get to, but then it’s time for my book club book, or it’s RIP, or I get into something really really long…and then I’ve forgotten that I wanted to read that other stack… but then I read a blog post like this one and I’m like, “Right! Kafka! and Anna K! I started that and didn’t finish.. and…” You see how it goes? You know how it goes.
wherethereisjoy, that’s right, you don’t write down your list! think of how much longer it would be if you did. Maybe I should stop writing them down too since I would end up forgetting about far more than I ever remember. And oh yes, those books for things like RIP and book club. I wouldn’t want to not participate, but definitely distractions.
I’ve had to adjust my expectations of reading plans for longer projects; I used to think that having the idea meant beginning it, but now I think the idea is a simple reminder to reserve reading time in the following year. I’m not sure how to align this with a “live in the moment” approach to life, but perhaps reading need not demand that kind of immediacy? (Although list-making and intentions seem to creep in anyhow.) I haven’t figured it out yet, but I sympathize, whole-book-heartedly.
buried, ah you are a sane voice in the wilderness! You may not have figured it all out but you are closer than I am. I must work on following your example
Man, I so feel your pain because I am having the same issue myself. I have discarded some projects but others I’ve done pretty well with–so well that I’ve been planning New projects! I try these days not to put any sort of timeline on them if possible to make year end carryovers easier. Long term plans, yes?! And I have so many distractions, too–not the least is that I am so bad about starting new books on whims without finishing something I am currently reading. Well, I can sympatize as you see. Pick one science book for this year and then just let the list carry over to next year–I think we get too hung up on keeping these things nice and neat (I do anyway). I was just thinking the same thing about Hilary Mantel by the way–now that she has won yet another Booker, I guess that means I really Must pick up Wolf Hall. I really should finishing *something* first however!
Danielle, isn’t that how it goes? As the end of a successful project nears you start thinking about what’s next and instead of one project you end up with three. You are right that there is no need for a timeline. Litlove want to read Wolf Hall too. Maybe we could all read it together towards the end of the year. I think you usually get a little vacation time around Christmas too. Think about it