The Great Time-Waster

Today I tried to decide what book to read next and I literally almost had a nervous breakdown. It went something...like this....

Should I buy an expensive book for the Kindle? It isn't getting much love. What if I don't like the book I buy? There are many free books. But I haven't enjoyed a free book yet. Will that be a waste of time? I don't want to go to the library. There's never any parking. I could order another book. I could just read The Magic Mountain for the next twelve hours and feel as though I got nowhere with it...again. I could read more of the Joyce Collection or the P.G. Wodehouse collection. There, I read a chapter each. I feel like I accomplished...nothing. I want to read non-fiction. Do I want to read non-fiction? All the non-fiction for less than a dollar on the Kindle is from, like, 1908. I could break down and buy one of those expensive linguistics books I've been eyeing. Or I could just break down.

Hours, people. So what I'm doing now is compiling a list of the 104 books I'll read in 2011 (two books each week). I have all of these various lists I typed up long ago, including a list of all the movies made from books (about sixty pages); a list of books by female authors I photocopied from a book at a school I worked for; two separate lists of canon classics; lists of previous award-winners; a list from a literary book that listed (ding!) hundreds of literary genres and books that / authors who represent those genres; the one hundred must-read books of 2010 according to The New York Times, of which I chose eight (including one by Tony Doerr!); slots for random novels, including the one NGS told me she wanted me to read; and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Plus other sources.

I have 27 books so far, and I will have a complete list by the end of the night. I'm leaving thirteen slots for random books (including NGS's book). This partially worked for me when I had a goal of reading 100 pages a day, the difference being that I just chose random books from those lists. This time, I'm researching them and only choosing books I think I'll enjoy.

You know I struggle with the idea that I'll never know whether I'll enjoy a book until I read it, so part of me bucks this idea. But, I'm also forcing myself to understand no one can read every book every other person has read, or every book someone considers a classic. Each of the books I'm choosing sounds like a story, character, or idea I can get behind. I'm very excited.