Is it sad that I have a stack (well, stacks maybe) that has more than thirteen unfinished books in it. I have books that I have abandoned and quietly slid back into their places on my bookshelves. And then I have a stack of books, some years old, that I have a fondness for in some weird way but can't seem to return to the shelves. What to do with these. In some cases if I wanted to get back to the book I would need to start from the beginning, but in others I think I could just pick up the book and skim just a bit and then continue on.
Many thanks for all the input in my desire to clean the slate for 2015. I can see I am not the only one that finds such bookish questions a never ending dilemma. I am likely going to do as I mentioned and try and read more from my own shelves and piles and read without a particular plan in mind. But I still have ideas of which direction I will at least start the new year out in, and am contemplating how I will approach my reading and just what I want to get out of it. Mostly I want to break my bad habits and read a little more thoughtfully and not do everything so pell mell.
I will start the year with a clean slate in one way or another, and I think I will do a good cleaning out of my 'set aside but not completely abandoned' books. There are some, however, that I think I want to give another go with. Here are the top thirteen (in no particular order and not all shown in photo):
Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Meaning of Names by Karen Campbell
Decision at Delphi by Helen MacInnes
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
The Lie by Petra Hammesfahr
Lumen by Ben Pastor
The Faces of Angels by Lucretia Grindle
Light of the Moon by Elizabeth Buchan
History: A Novel by Elsa Morante
Lee Miller: A Life by Carolyn Burke
Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
Save for one of these books, there was nothing actually wrong with any of the stories. In some cases I was thoroughly enjoying the book but got caught up in other books and these just got set aside through no fault of their own. A couple are fairly recent additions and really shouldn't be there except for a lack of reading time. I will admit that one was a bit of a slog, but I was so far into it and wanted to know how it turned out that it has been left on the pile.
I now have a burning urge to pick one of these up and begin reading it once again. In any case, this is what I want to avoid next year (either finish or put it back) and I think I might pull from this pile over the course of the year to do a little clean up.
I'm a firm believer that timing is everything! I'm in countdown mode now, only three more work days for me until I get an extra long weekend--and Thanksgiving holiday just a week away. I have visions of long stretches of uninterrupted reading (and maybe writing and even stitching) time.