Update: Well, my New Year's resolution isn't going so well - the book tower continues to grow, I still haven't read many of the books at its base, and I still read multiple books at a time, when I'm not reading magazines or the Internet or the back of soup cans. And rarely a month goes by that I don't buy more books.
My primary problem is that I have the attention span of a gnat, or as A.J. Jacobs says in The Know-It-All (a book I started yesterday), I have "the attention span of a gnat on methamphetamines." I skip from book to book and back again and then get sidetracked by paper clips on the floor.
But despite these ADD tendencies, I am very happy to say I finished Underworld by Don DeLillo, which weighs in at nineteen million pages. And I'm nearly finished with You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem, a novel about a rock-n-roll band, rollicking hotel-room sex and a kangaroo in a bathtub. All-in-all, I've done better this year than last, and there's still hope - I have four months to go...
Ooooo, a paper clip.
....
Original Post: When I first read Joe Queenan's article, Why I Can't Stop Reading Books, I saw a lot of myself in Queenan's essay. I buy books compulsively (as noted here) and tend to read a lot of books at the same time. This habit can be frustrating, however, as the books pile on...
So, I've decided to change this habit and make reading these books (one-at-a-time) my New Year's Resolution.
To help me along the way, I'm writing this post in hopes that it will force my hand. I've also constructed a tower of books in the corner of the bedroom to remind me every day (and I'm sure Leah will remind me too).
To help me stay on task, I'll track my progress via this post, and as I finish books, I'llcross them out. I've also added a line of demarcation noting the books added in 2007. So, without any further babbling, here standeth the tower:
My primary problem is that I have the attention span of a gnat, or as A.J. Jacobs says in The Know-It-All (a book I started yesterday), I have "the attention span of a gnat on methamphetamines." I skip from book to book and back again and then get sidetracked by paper clips on the floor.
But despite these ADD tendencies, I am very happy to say I finished Underworld by Don DeLillo, which weighs in at nineteen million pages. And I'm nearly finished with You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem, a novel about a rock-n-roll band, rollicking hotel-room sex and a kangaroo in a bathtub. All-in-all, I've done better this year than last, and there's still hope - I have four months to go...
Ooooo, a paper clip.
....
Original Post: When I first read Joe Queenan's article, Why I Can't Stop Reading Books, I saw a lot of myself in Queenan's essay. I buy books compulsively (as noted here) and tend to read a lot of books at the same time. This habit can be frustrating, however, as the books pile on...
So, I've decided to change this habit and make reading these books (one-at-a-time) my New Year's Resolution.
To help me along the way, I'm writing this post in hopes that it will force my hand. I've also constructed a tower of books in the corner of the bedroom to remind me every day (and I'm sure Leah will remind me too).
To help me stay on task, I'll track my progress via this post, and as I finish books, I'll
The Know-It-All - A.J. Jacobs
The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
Blaze - Richard Bachman
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
The Last Novel - David Markson
You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon
Falling Man - Don DeLillo
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
----------BOOKS ABOVE ADDED IN 2007----------
Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
Quicksilver - Neil Stephenson
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Lisey's Story - Stephen King
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
How We Got Insipid - Jonathan Lethem
Terrorist - John Updike
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
State of Denial - Bob Woodward
Underworld - Don DeLillo
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Independence Day - Richard Ford
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford
The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford
The Plot Against America - Phillip Roth
I Celebrate Myself - Bill Morgan
Everyman - Phillip Roth
The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
Until I Find You - John Irving
Saturday - Ian McEwan
Allen Ginsberg's Collected Poems 1947-1997
Blaze - Richard Bachman
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon
Falling Man - Don DeLillo
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
----------BOOKS ABOVE ADDED IN 2007----------
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Lisey's Story - Stephen King
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
How We Got Insipid - Jonathan Lethem
Terrorist - John Updike
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
State of Denial - Bob Woodward
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Independence Day - Richard Ford
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford
The Lay of the Land - Richard Ford
The Plot Against America - Phillip Roth
I Celebrate Myself - Bill Morgan
Everyman - Phillip Roth
Until I Find You - John Irving
Saturday - Ian McEwan
Allen Ginsberg's Collected Poems 1947-1997
