Reading seems to be a passion in my family. My late mother was known to read several books simultaneously. My dad is a voracious reader, typically polishing off a book every few days. My wife carries books around almost everywhere she goes; you never know when you can sneak in a page or two. And my brother is an avid book reader too.
As with so many other facets of my life, I tend to run either hot or cold. There are times when I can rival my wife, dad and brother. I sometimes will read for hours on end, stopping every now and then only to eat, sleep or relieve myself. However, a good deal of the time, I read very little in print -- except for a few verses or passages for the various series featured here. Most of my reading during these periods comes from blogs and websites.
Part of the reason for this is that, since I live in a rural area and our family doesn't have much space in the budget for books, a good deal of the books I read come from our regional library system. Unfortunately, being out in the boondocks typically means I must wait a week or more for books I've ordered to arrive.
It's not uncommon for me to read something on the web that piques my interest. I do a bit of research and discover that our library system has a book or two that deals with the subject matter. I eagerly put in a request for one or more of the books, but, by the time the book[s] arrive, I've become passionately interested in something else!!
Heck, if truth be known, I'd guess that anywhere between one-third to one-half of the books I check out are never read! Oh, I might crack one open once or twice, but it gets returned without me reading as much as a chapter.
For example, about 3 weeks ago (I recently renewed it for another 3 weeks), I checked out The Book of Dead Philosophers
by Simon Critchley. Upon reading the book jacket and the introduction, I thought to myself, "Ooh, this looks like a great book!" Yet, despite my obvious interest, I'm only in the middle of Chapter 1. At the rate I'm going, I would need to have the book in my possession for 6 months or more before I finish reading it!! (I do plan to feature a post or two about some of the scant information I've read thus far.)
With expected surgery looming on the horizon, I anticipate that I won't be able to spend ANY time on the computer/internet during the initial phase of my recovery. Since I may be bedridden for awhile, I'm going to need to do something to keep my mind engaged...something like read a few books!!
So, in no particular order, here are some of the volumes that have been gathering dust on my bookshelf waiting to be read.
As with so many other facets of my life, I tend to run either hot or cold. There are times when I can rival my wife, dad and brother. I sometimes will read for hours on end, stopping every now and then only to eat, sleep or relieve myself. However, a good deal of the time, I read very little in print -- except for a few verses or passages for the various series featured here. Most of my reading during these periods comes from blogs and websites.
Part of the reason for this is that, since I live in a rural area and our family doesn't have much space in the budget for books, a good deal of the books I read come from our regional library system. Unfortunately, being out in the boondocks typically means I must wait a week or more for books I've ordered to arrive.
It's not uncommon for me to read something on the web that piques my interest. I do a bit of research and discover that our library system has a book or two that deals with the subject matter. I eagerly put in a request for one or more of the books, but, by the time the book[s] arrive, I've become passionately interested in something else!!
Heck, if truth be known, I'd guess that anywhere between one-third to one-half of the books I check out are never read! Oh, I might crack one open once or twice, but it gets returned without me reading as much as a chapter.
For example, about 3 weeks ago (I recently renewed it for another 3 weeks), I checked out The Book of Dead Philosophers
by Simon Critchley. Upon reading the book jacket and the introduction, I thought to myself, "Ooh, this looks like a great book!" Yet, despite my obvious interest, I'm only in the middle of Chapter 1. At the rate I'm going, I would need to have the book in my possession for 6 months or more before I finish reading it!! (I do plan to feature a post or two about some of the scant information I've read thus far.)With expected surgery looming on the horizon, I anticipate that I won't be able to spend ANY time on the computer/internet during the initial phase of my recovery. Since I may be bedridden for awhile, I'm going to need to do something to keep my mind engaged...something like read a few books!!
So, in no particular order, here are some of the volumes that have been gathering dust on my bookshelf waiting to be read.
- Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief -- Lewis Wolpert
- Soldiers Falling Into Camp
-- R. Kammen, F. Lefthand & J. Marshall
- The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History
-- Joseph M. Marshall III
- The Evolution of God
-- Robert Wright
- Do Nothing and Do Everything: An Illustrated New Taoism
-- Qiguang Zhao
Add to these books the fact I plan to reread the Chuang Tzu in preparation for the next series and you can see I have a lot of books waiting for me.
Of course, I could simply lay around eating potato chips and watch mindless hours of soap operas, Oprah and Dr. Phil... :-D
Of course, I could simply lay around eating potato chips and watch mindless hours of soap operas, Oprah and Dr. Phil... :-D
Hope you get around to posting on the Zhao book -- I've been interested in that one.
ReplyDeletemy husband is also hot and cold about reading. he loves books and blazes through them but then takes a long break afterwards. i tend to read several at a time and read one whenever i get a spare minute (not very often these days!), which one i read depending on my mood. :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a librarian by training (although moved into a different area of academe) so real books are everywhere in our home. We recently had to buy nine new bookcases to be able to find our way around. (We should be a private library of Taoism and Forteana.)
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest that in your anticipated period of recuperation, don't get any book that is too heavy, in weight I mean; a year or so ago I read "Pillars of the Earth" (compelling but hardly as great as its Oprah-recommendation suggested...someone described it as "no-frills prose".) This was a big book; I think it caused arthritis in my wrist!
I have had "Dead Philsophers' on my own to-read pile for a while.