READ ME! That is what Sara Nelson's new book, So Many Books, So Little Time screamed out to me when it arrived. I have so many of the same problems. I always have at least 500 books in my "to read" pile, and they are triaged in importance, the order of which is subject to change at any second depending on my needs as a reader. So, when I saw this book, I figured it will bring a solution to my dilemma. I was wrong, and will explain why as I go on.
As early as the Prologue and the first chapter, so appropriately named, "Great Expectations," as I believe it expressed Sara's intent at the beginning of this reading project, and it expressed the reader's state upon entering her creation; I was completely committed. And I continued to feel great expectations with each chapter that I read. While it did take me 3 days to read the book, longer than it should have, I did take to carrying it everywhere with me in those 3 days, a behavior that is rare for me.
The book describes Sara Nelson's one-year journey to read books of her selection and to write about the experience. But as all of us `read-a-holics' know, the next book we read is always driven by circumstances that we cannot predict. Thus it was for Ms. Nelson as well. She had a well chosen list of books she wanted to read, but ended up reading several that she did not intend to, and not reading some that she did intend to. This process could have been predicted by any well-addicted reader. We all know, that what we want to read next, may not be what we thought we would want to read next, when we started what we are reading now.
It was with great pleasure that the author mentions Anne Lamott's book Bird By Bird as I felt from chapter 2 that Nelson's book had the same, `look and feel' as Lamott's; but with a very significant difference. Lamott is trying to teach us how to self-discipline ourselves to write. Nelson is telling us what happens to us when we read. And in so many ways, she was right on. In page after page, Nelson explains what she looks for in a book, why she likes it, and sometimes why she doesn't like it, and sometimes, nothing at all.
Her November 25 chapter is particularly interesting and speaks of opening lines. She is right; you only get one opening line. And had she not mentioned Melville and opening lines, I would have completely missed the full implications of her opening line, which I went back to read after I read that chapter. "Call me Insomniac." Despite the overt reference to the story of the Great White Whale, I would have missed it, because her first line did exactly what she wanted it to do, it captured me and reeled me in, because, like her, I am an insomniac.
In the final analysis, I would recommend that all read-a-holics put this book into their "MUST READ" pile with special prejudice toward bringing it to the top of the pile. As read-a-holics, we must stick together. This book is one of the finest books for serious readers I have found. And she did NOT solve my problem; because she suggested so many books I had never read yet, that I now have another 5,000 pages on my shelf as recommendations. Be careful, Sara reads everything, even those 1200 page tomes that we often avoid, but shouldn't. Happy Reading!