Here we are well into July already, the year over half done, and I look at my reading table and shake my head. My goal this year was to read all the books on my groaning table, the books that have been there for months and a few for a couple *gulp* years. How hard could such a thing be? I see the books every gosh darn day since the table is next to my reading spot. Have I read a single book on the table?
Nope.
Not. A. Single. One.
I could fudge it and say all the books I have read have been on the table. You know, when I bring home books from the library I put them on the table. Then I read them. But that is cheating since I did not intend new books to be included in reading what is on the table. I still have half the year left, right? I could do it yet!
Let’s be realistic. If I read two or three books from the table by the end of the year that would be a success. If only the library would stop sending me emails telling me to come and get some books. It is all their fault! Sure I request the books, but if they weren’t so good about giving them to me I’d have to resort to reading the books on my table.
Currently I have the third volume of Saga waiting for me. Volume two was most excellent though the naked giant in all his glory was a bit surprising and, like the explicit robot sex in volume one, made me really glad I was not reading in public where someone might look over my shoulder.
I am about halfway through Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. it is a good book and brings back memories of when I was in grade school and my best friend and I were the smartest in the class and always competing against each other. It wasn’t quite like in Ferrante’s book though, thank goodness.
Another book on the go is Susan Faludi’s newest, In the Darkroom. It’s a biography/memoir about her father and his coming out as transgender after 20+ years of estrangement. He was a not a nice guy when Faludi was a kid and now she is trying to come to terms with the past and who her father has become. It’s good stuff.
Also on the go is Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking. Oddly, instead of making me want to go for a walk, it makes me want to ride my bike.
I feel like I have been reading a lot of nonfiction lately and it is putting me in the mood for a big fat novel. It may end up being another Kim Stanley Robinson or perhaps The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. One or the other will land in my lap in a week or so and neither of them are on my reading table.
Poor table.
Oh, how I envy you. I will never again be able to read The Sparrow for the first time. What a book.
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Care, that good? Well now I am looking forward to it even more!
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Your table!! I’m finding I have a similar problem. When I return a book to the library just don’t look at anything else. I’ve somehow accumulated a lot of books over the year, despite only buying like 10 or so.
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Love, funny how that happens isn’t it? I am glad I am not the only one with a problem like this!
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I feel you. I have so many books that I just need to read, but I don’t. Except I shove them at the back of my bookshelf, so I don’t have to look at them. Handling everything like an adult, that’s me!
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booknerd, don’t even get me started on the bookshelves! And of course most of the books on the table (and on my shelves) are ones I wanted so very badly and was going to read right away. Ha! 🙂
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There are so many books I really want to read like yesterday that I’m starting to fear I’ll never get to finish all of them.
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I know what you mean! Sometimes I wish there was a way I could put a book under my pillow at night and somehow read while I am sleeping.
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Through difusion
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I did something brave the other day and gave away a book from my TBR shelves! To my sister-in-law. I told her that when she’d read it she should pass it on. It felt right. I’ve now decided I’m going to do more of that with my TBR shelves (particularly the non-Aussie) ones! I need to recognise that if I haven’t read them – and some of them have been there for years – I probably never will. But, hmm, the ones on the table – because yes, I do have a table too – I’m not sure. They are there because I (think I) really do want to read them!!
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whisperinggums, *gasp!* I bow to your courage! I really have to do something similar but most of my shelves are in the basement and it is an out of sight out of mind thing. The books on my table, those were the ones I wanted to read right away but obviously I have a problem with knowing when right away is!
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Haha! Know the feeling .
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Ah! The Libraries are always such party poopers! ROFL! I also feel that my fellow bloggers throw my reading plans in a disarray every time they review a great book! 😉
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cirtnecce, I know! Darn libraries. Darn bloggers too! 😉
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My frustration at my lack of reading progresses monumental.
I have abandoned the idea of finishing what is in the house and now just read what I want to. However, my current list or TBR will take up more time then I have remaining in my lifetime.
In the Darkroom looks to be very compelling. I would be curious to read your detailed thoughts on it.
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Brian Joseph, I am in the same boat! between the books in my house and the books on all of my TBR lists I will have to live several lieftimes and no doubt I would only keep adding so I just can’t die, that’s all there is to it 😉
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Poor neglected night table books. I *never* have that problem . . . 😉 Well, we all know the truth about that. At least you are thinking about them. Do you ever weed them and put some back that you might try again with later on? Or will you persevere? Maybe you could set a small goal and just slide one of the books into your current reads pile and not worry about the rest right now (sometimes those goals seem overwhelming and then I don’t even try). I read the Sparrow a long time ago and it was an impressive read! Yes, those Saga books are a little eye-brow-raising at times–must agree with you there. I am also sort of ‘shocked’ by how close to raunchy they get. I hope to get to the first Ferrante book some time this summer, too.
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Danielle, no I am certain you never have this problem! 😉 Sometimes I weed books that I have started and then haven’t picked up for ages and decide that I probably won’t ever get back to. The table is also home to my current reads so I should just pick one of the unreads up “by accident” sometime. Heh, Saga is full of surprises that’s for sure!
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I loved the first three Ferrante books but haven’t yet read the last in the series, I guess I’m trying to delay the end or something because they’re so fantastic.
I empathize with your table conundrum. Oh well – there’s always next year, right? 🙂
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Laila, ha! thanks goodness for next year 😉 Glad to hear the whole series of Ferrante books are that good! I am really enjoying this first one.
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Bwa ha ha! I have no willpower and a TBR BOOKCASE so I am always evilly delighted to read that others too struggle.
Imagine if there were a mighty snowstorm, or all the librarians went on strike, or all the bookshops in America disappeared into another dimension… That’s what the table is for. 🙂 Just read whatever you fancy.
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Helen, I think most of us lack willpower when it comes to things like this! It is nice to know one is not alone 🙂 I have tried to tell my financial adviser that all my books are “retirement savings” but she doesn’t agree on that!
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Oh is your table in need of a #readmyowndamnbooks?😂 I do hope you get to those books, but I’m such a mood reader, it never works for me. I have Ferrante’s books on my tbr, but felt I should wait till after uni cause they seem to be unputdownable!
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Bina, oh my yes! I am a mood reader too so making any kind of systematic plan always fails me. You think I’d learn by now! I am finding Ferrante makes great before bed reading because she has short chapters. But yes, the trick is actually putting the book down at the end of a chapter and not going on to the next one!
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I have the same problem and have 11 books out from the library at the moment. I’m banning myself from borrowing any more. I’ve just finished Richard Mabey’s Cabaret of Plants – guess who pointed me in that direction!
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piningforthewest, that’s quite the library pile you have! I have no idea what you are talking about with the Mabey book 😉 I hope you enjoyed it!
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Bahahaha this makes me happy. I have a big shelf of books that I want to read and make a decision about them one way or the other (keep or discard!), and I have read not a single solitary one this year. I have only added to the shelf. It’s a problem, and I rejoice that I am not alone. :p
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Jenny, I think we are both in good company on this one!
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Poor table indeed! I think so many readers can sympathise with this problem.
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novelproject, it does seem to be a near universal reader’s problem!
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i was congratulating myself on the little gaps appearing in my bookshelves due to some concerted effort to read what I already have and not get tempted by the new.. but then your comment about the table brought me up cold.i’d forgotten that the bedside table has a shelf – and guess what is chock full of books that I’d completely forgotten about…..
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BookerTalk, does it make you wonder what other stash you have around that you have forgotten about? 😀
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