Week 204, The Big Pile*

 

Books, tharsands of 'em. As Michael Caine famously almost said in Zulu, until he took a second look at the script after locating his reading glasses.

I've tidied up all the books that are 'loose' that I currently have an interest in and here they are in three groups on my desk. Actually that's not entirely true, there is another category of books that I haven't included, guitar books, for the simple reason that they would dwarf this small collection.

Here's a quick overview of what we have in front of us.

The left hand column (piled in a way that librarians and school teachers have previously, repeatedly, told me not to) contains books that I currently have some investment in. You can tell something is happening there by the variety of home-brew bookmarks. Some of these are not really as engaging as others and may eventually be abandoned, others, such as the book on running, are a regular read. Perhaps the book on running ought to be a 'dipper' rather than a reader.

The middle section of books correctly aligned in the vertical are 'dippers', poetry and short stories.

The column on the right are books in the queue. A couple of these are going to need a bit of a run up, in particular Ulysees. Andy you pretentious twonk, are you really going to read that? Well maybe, eventually, I don't see why not. I'm not unfamiliar with Joyce and have spent the time getting in to the right frame of mind to appreciate his work before and it has been worth it, but you can't just dive in otherwise you'll just cast it aside muttering oaths. A couple of the computer books may also be 'dippers'. Like the guitar books I have a shedload of computer books, some of which are actually still valid for purposes other than wedging under the leg of a wobbly table, or for being used as a boat-anchor, or for propping open doors, or for kicking under the rear wheel of a transit van to prevent it rolling downhill (I'm sorry about that Oxfam, they were too big to fit in the bin).

I feel that there ought to be some views taken and some conclusions drawn about this.

1. I have too many books and they are all over the place
2. I have too many books that I am "reading" concurrently
3. My interest is somewhat scattergun
4. There are a bunch of self-help/self-improvement things in there, are they effective
5. Am I really interested in all of these things

Let's have a think about that.

1. Is there such a thing as too many books? Perhaps if you can't move around your house. Oh... Maybe I should keep them more organised and weed out those that are not going to be read, that are obsolete or that don't enrich my life in some way.
2. They don't get read properly, maybe it's possible to read two or three concurrently if they are on different topics but the cognitive load is such that it ends up with words just passing by my eyes. In which case what is the point.
3. Yes, but that's fine surely if kept in check with number 2 above?
4. Some are, some aren't. Quickly identify which are not beneficial and discard - most aren't.
5. Yes, but to greater and lesser degrees. A qualitative assessment is in order to determine whether I am prepared to invest a lot of time into something of which I may only have a mild interest. A little critical thinking about what I am actually going to read should be done before purchase rather than being hypnotised by publishing blarney.

What I'll do is I'll whittle down the pile of current books to two, keep them in the same place that I shall dub the "active book location" and anything outside of that is not read unless it is a 'dipper'. Those outside of this location will be organised by subject and placed in a queue** to be chosen once a place has become available in the active location. That sounds great, I'll almost certainly stick with that for a week or two.

Oh, and I probably ought to organise my guitar books in a similar way...

* It's not that big a pile, however it isn't the only pile.

** Actually this is what we might commonly term a bookshelf, it's where the tharsands of other books in the queue already are.

For official/internal use only:

8484

Week 203, High Contrast for Preference

 

Having left my brain in storage at St Pancras Station for a while I've been finding it difficult to focus on reading for any length of time.

However, there I was the other week in the middle of a fortnight off work when I picked up a book.

I inhaled the book in a matter of days and then followed that up with another two books almost before another week had passed.

The next thing I need to learn to do is remember what the contents are of the thing I've just read... Hence I'm not going to review any of them (there are plenty of very decent reviews out there that are easy to locate), or at least not beyond saying that they were all very interesting.

First up was Exercised by Daniel Lieberman. This book demolishes a number of myths about exercise, including those that it can prematurely wear bits of you out. I now understand that I'm worn out for other reasons but we won't go into that here.

Second was Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Flawed in a number of ways it does contain a compelling argument that our media presents an impression of considered discussion of complex topics while actually delivering fairly soft entertainment.

Third was I Wanna Be Yours, the autobiography of Professor, Doctor John Cooper Clarke of the parish of Salford. He documents his early years in microscopic detail almost to the point of the flavour of the dirt you would get from under your fingernails after putting your hand down a grid*. He didn't say any of that. It was very funny. He played Bernard Manning's Embassy Club probably at around the time that me and a schoolmate's brother conjured up some idea of getting into the building after closing time, we hid in a bush and watched some dodgy dealing take place by occupants of two large and flashy cars. No names, no pack drill. We eventually wandered off and probably got up for school bright and early the next day. I note that my schoolmate's brother still lives at the same address as he did then as a child, apart from the 4 years he spent inside for being part of a heroin dealing gang. Which is what most of the last quarter of the book goes into great detail about, Dr JCC and his interest in heroin. Give it a name: the life of the junkie. With money disappearing into his arm and the constant need to perform to supply the habit. He's all clean now though.

This last one may have rattled on a bit but still doesn't count as a review.

For official/internal use only:

8484

* A grate, or drain, as known to those elsewhere.