Hi there, as a geek I like lists and therefore I maintain a list of books I want to read . While preparing a posting for another thread I raked around in this list and found it has 350 entries at the moment. If I read one book every week I will need seven years to empty this list. Unfortunately, another property of this list is that it is steadily growing. Well, I guess I will die before I reach the bottom of the list. Anyway, do you maintain similar lists? How many entries? What topics? Regards Gyro
I make lists like this all the time...it's huge though...sigh. I dont really categorize them, but the list gets altered depending on my interests at the time. What kind of stuff is on your list?
Good morning, same here. If I stumble upon an interesting read I just copy and paste the title etc. on the list. I'm toying with the idea to automagically generate search request for that internet auction facility from the list entries . The list contains books about the sixties, hippy counterculture, hacker and Unix culture, travel writing (mostly Rory McLEan at the moment), astronomy, vintage radio and computer literature, Ludwig Renn, authors of romaticism, Novalis, Eichendorff and such and some other books where it's not clear how they ever could find their way on the list . The first entries: - Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire, by Jerome Carcopino, 2003, 368 pages. - Definitely read Island after you read Brave New World. - Charles Perry, The Haight Ashbury - a History, 1984, Vintage Books, - Tucholsky, Rheinsberg - Blaauw & Brooks "Computer Architecture Concepts and Evolution" - Radio Astronomy Teacher's Notebook - "Turn Left at Orion" - Lee Smolin, The live of the cosmos - Wells, The time machine - "Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked The World" - Buchs "Angriff auf die Freiheit" ein, das am 17. August im Carl Hanser Verlag - The Hippie Handbook Regards Gyro
Good morning to you! What a diverse list. Mine is mostly made up of classic literature, and biographies of favourite historical figures, political and philosophical pieces. (It would probably take me years to get through Sartre alone)...Do you have a specific order you read them in? or just whatever takes your fancy at the time? (i opt for the latter)
Dear Knottygrl, I have a few biographies on the list, too: Richelieu, Strindberg (can't remember why I put these two on the list), Einstein and Goethe. I've considered Satre, Camus and some others. But I guess one have to 'dive' really into the stuff and need a lot of context to understand these authors. I'm not sure if I have enough staying power for such an endevour. I often read in the evenings in bed and after 15 pages or so my eyes become smaller and smalchhrrrrrr . Usually I have five to ten unread books laying around. If this stack shrinks I try to buy some books from the list. In Germany we have 'Buchpreisbindung' for at least all books in German language. That means a book is sold for the same fixed price in every shop in Germany, no discounts are available. Often the same book is cheaper in countries without 'Buchpreisbindung'. One can work around this mechanism if the book has a flaw, then a discount is allowed. So some clever fellows sell books with a flaw (the books are new, but have a little stroke of textmarker on it or they have a dog-ear) on ebay and such sites . So often my books come in as they appear on ebay . Often I read two or three books in parallel. I try to mix them: heavy with easy stuff, Engish with German books, different topics etc. After reading a few travel books for instance I switch to a technical topic or a book about hacker culture. Do you mix up, too, or do you read only one book after the other? Regards Gyro
I try to mix it up for sure...Alternating between fiction and nonfiction. So I will read a classic lit book, then maybe something about history (I'm into ancient Rome right now)...I'll definitely go for something light, then something heavy all depending on my interest at the moment. I have so much to read, I feel like my life would be made up of books if I allowed it to be, but alas, one can not find experience solely through the written word.
Dear Knottygrl, maybe not, but it helps coming throught life. It is my feeling that people that are reading (books, newspapers, blogs, whatever) have a broader horizont. Which means not that over people are dump or such. It is just easier to communicate with them. It might be a exaggeration, but they often know more and other topics than sports, weather and their own profession. It is easier to keep small talk going than. It might be compelling to build a world out of books, but give people a chance, too . Regards Gyro
Books are wonderful... my current list of books to read is a double sided 8.5x11 piece of looseleaf... I've crossed off about half of them (ie: bought and read) but the list grows faster than I can possibly read. Lovely thing about books.
Sometimes I maintain a list, but whenever it becomes huge enough, I throw it away and begin to read some other book.
