I have some reading habits that I don't like to admit to. Maybe all readers have one or two bad habits? I have mentioned before that I tend to keep a mental queue of books I want to read soon in my mind. Sometimes these are books I have recently bought, or heard other bloggers talk about, and sometimes these books will compose themselves into a huge stack by my bedside (they do this themselves you must understand, with no help from me). The thing is that I don't always live inside the book I am supposed to be reading completely and totally. I may be enjoying a book, it may be a book I compusively want to pick up. But often somewhere at the back of my mind I am already deciding on what books I am going to read when I finish....this one, or that one...I really do hate this. I am supposed to be concentrating on the book in hand, not contemplating what's next. Perhaps when there are only 20 pages left to read it is okay to think ahead. But not when I am only halfway through a book, and I think I need to work on this.
I can also be a very lazy reader. I don't look up unfamiliar words as often as I should, and I don't read with the attention to details (that would be critically!) that I would like. And it gets worse. Lately I am finding myself weighing the size of a prospective book (both page length and degree of difficulty) against what is already on the go. If I have one epic read started, do I really want to dive into another 500+ page book (especially when the print is so tiny?). And one other little thing. I sometimes think I bail out on a book too soon. Actually I am thisclose to starting a different mystery read. In this case the book is good (the whole two chapters I have read!), but it is a victim of a lack of attention. While I was working so hard on finishing up my end of the year reads, I neglected some of my other books and now I am not quite in the mood for a Viscount (ca. 1811) clearing his good name. I am sure I will be later, but I suspect there is going to be a changing of the guards a tad bit early and I am planning on picking out a different mystery. Maybe I need to revisit my goals. We are not even a week yet into January, there is surely time to hone what I want to achieve this year?
In any case, the point of this post was to do my favorite thing (create a list), and so without further ado, here are the books swimming around in my head (a few less than thirteen this time around). The books I am going to not give another thought to once they are written down, as I am going to employ all my reading energies to the books I am reading!
- Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth Von Arnim--I read the intro to this while on vacation and it sounds utterly delightful. I wanted to read it then but I ran out of time.
- Gentlemen and Players, Joanne Harris--I did a little switch on one of my challenge lists--I was going to read Holy Fools, but I have yet to find anyone who read and loved it, so her newest one sounds like a reasonable substitute. Also it looks really good and I don't want to wait.
- A Woman of Berlin, Anonymous--I want to read this, want to read this, but never choose it. I still want to read it!
- Wanderlust, Rebecca Solnit--I just checked this out from my library. Dorothy has recommended this one.
- A Legacy, Sybille Bedford--I have four books by Bedford. All of them sit in the stack by my bed. After reading that one of her books was a favorite of Litlove's last year, I think I need to finally read her!
- Gone to Earth, Mary Webb--Another one I wanted to read over break, but didn't get to it.
- The Book on the Bookshelf, Henry Petroski--I want to read more books about books.
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy--The Hobgoblin recently posted an excellent review of this, and I have seen it on favorites lists elsewhere!
- Chocolat, Joanne Harris--I love this book. I have read it several times and am totally in the mood for it now. I plan on starting it later in the month so I can finish it in February. The perfect February read--sort of a Valentine to myself!
- 13 Steps Down, Ruth Rendell--Okay. This is the book that is going to usurp the place of my current mystery. Although not like the Lynely mysteries, it is at least set in contemporary London.
I could list other books, but I don't want things to get out of control here. Do you switch out books easily? My problem, of course, is that I have too many on the go and one of them is bound to suffer. Four days into the New Year and I have already set a book aside. The shame! What is your one bad reading habit? Surely I am not the only one (of course the trick is not to admit to them...).