My Reading List

Yesterday, I finished reading Jose Saramago's haunting novel Blindness which was published three years before he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, and I realized that I really haven't blogged about the stuff I'm reading (with the exception of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale) so I decided to jot down thoughts about my reading list for this year.

This is my second year to have an official reading list, and I've found that it's an interesting process. I find it helpful to have a list since Fours (such as myself) find solace in organization and direction. By constructing a list, I can better understand my reading habits and interests and also remember books I've read or want to read. (I have problems with remembering and accurately placing things in time.) Like I said, this is my second year to do this, and already I've learned so much about the process and a little about myself.

Last year, I developed a list after getting the idea from a project of Stephanie and Shari's. The challenge was to choose eight categories/genres and read eight books within those parameters. I sat down in late January and completed a list of sixty-four books.

I can say with qualms that this list was a failure. It failed for a couple of reasons. 1) I neglected to include "fun" reading. Most of the books on the list were longer than average and could be called "classics." 2) The process was very forced. I completed the list in one day and hardly deviated from it during the year. In the end, I only read twenty-two books. While having a list was really good for me, it was too limited, and I found myself unable to break away from it.

In December I started compiling a list of categories/genres I was interested in and came up with six: action/adventure fiction, literary classics, poetry collections, award-winning books, non-fiction, and book I own but have not yet read (not a genre but definitely something I wanted to address). Within these, I chose three or four books to start from, my thought being that I could build the list throughout the year. I've since added three additional categories: children's literature, religion/theology, and a free-for-all category.

The nice thing about having a freer structure and fewer initial titles is that I'm able to be inspired by the things I read or develop an interest in to pick up novels I had no intention of reading. And I don't have to bump another book from my list. There's no set number of books for each category. Thus, I've dropped the challenge aspect of the list. I don't do well with challenges. I tend to panic and shoot my self-esteem all to hell.

Another thing that's really helped me is Shelfari, which Shari introduced me to early this year (see my shelves to your right). It helps give me a visual idea of what my reading habits are. Also, if a book stays too long on my "I'm reading" shelf, I start to get antsy and quickly finish it. This year I resolved to read more than I had in 2008, and I'm already close to fulfilling that resolution.