A Year in Reading: Prelude

I do like looking back over the year and considering the books I’ve read. This year’s list is not yet complete, so I’m going to wait a little while before I write my version of A Year in Reading. It’s a nice exercise in which you think back about what you read and loved this year.

C. Max Magee makes a good point:

But books, unlike most forms of media, are consumed in a different way. The tyranny of the new does not hold as much sway with these oldest of old media. New books are not forced upon us quite so strenuously as are new music and new movies. The reading choices available to us are almost too broad to fathom. And so we pick here and there from the shelves, reading a book from centuries ago and then one that came out ten years ago.

Very true. I usually borrow popular works from the library, which means I have to wait until the frenzy has died down and the book is actually available. That’s assuming I bother to read them at all. There’s so much to read that just because everyone’s talking about a book, doesn’t mean I will read it. Even if the marketing for a book is relentless, and I succumb and get myself a copy, there’s still no guarantee I will read it. So many books, so little time…

C. Max Magee also says:

A lucky reader is one surrounded by many other readers.

Thank goodness for the Net, which allows that a non-joiner like me my own little space to ruminate about what I enjoy, without having to submit myself to joining a bookclub. Thanks to all of you readers for deigning to share your opinions with me over these last couple of years!

(Thanks to Languagehat for the tip.)