What comes to mind when someone mentions “sitting down to read a book”? I often think of winter days, maybe sitting beside a window that has African violets on its sill. Or long nights, perhaps with classical music or jazz in the room. Either way, the image fits January, and that may be what gave me the idea of devoting my postings here this month exclusively to a list of “books read” I’ve been compiling from 2005.
It’s a break in the rolling categories I’ve been presenting each month – those will resume at the beginning of February. Even so, as we ponder the range of books mentioned here, you could argue those categories continue all the same.
The project originated when my schedule at the newspaper was switched from a Wednesday-through-Saturday timetable (with a double-shift hammer pounding each week to a close) back to all-nights. At the time, on those evenings when the newsroom was fully staffed, a break would occur between the lockup of the first edition and the later ones – and this was a great time to read a chapter or two from a book-in-hand. (Alas, cutbacks soon took their toll.) For a change, I could nibble at those volumes I’d piled up “to read someday” – and decided to keep track of just what I tackled. This ledger was never intended for public consumption, but given the nature of the Red Barn – delving through boxes, baskets, and bins stashed in the loft – it seemed fitting to air these anyway, at last.
As I’ve noted previously, one of my laments in trying to maintain a literary writing discipline while being employed full-time was the lack of time to keep up with thoughtful reading. As you’ve no doubt heard, if you’re serious about writing, you have to be devoted to reading. Even so, what I found was that my extended reading often came in “orgies” based on vacations, recovery from surgery or illness, even airline travel. So here we are, surveying a few volumes and occasional magazines each day during the month.
I love having you weigh in with related works or arguing with my observations – reading is, after all, a passion we share.
Jnana's Red Barn 
Books are my addiction, reading my passion, and writing my creation. Given that, I find sizing them up in order of importance is the difficult part.
Maybe it’s like my daughter’s “greatest movie ever,” which seems to tally somewhere more than a thousand titles. (Likewise, her songs.)
Importance can have a number of criteria, after all. As an inspiration or new direction? As a reference volume you return to often? As a stylistic model for poetry or fiction? Or simply in terms of what moves you, good or bad? Even as a road map, especially for living?
No wonder we never have enough shelves in our house and the barn …
I would now be on the street if not for Kindle. :>)
Or, for us, a barn …
My barn is smaller. Limited edition.
Touche!
It’s always so great and comforting visiting the Barn, but I feel guilty in knowing that I haven’t been reading enough, Jnana. I most definitely have to work on diversity. I don’t know why, but I’m stuck in a rut of re-reading heroes instead of branching out. Right now I’m reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail for the first time. First read it in the late nineties but I wish I had read it prior to becoming a reporter. I would have been a better journalist. Frost. “The Poetry of Robert Frost” sits atop my desk. Write on!
There’s a lot to be said for revisiting heroes, maybe even more so at a later stage of life.
Hunter Thompson, of course, took the inside a campaign genre to a whole alternate consciousness. Not sure how that works for some of the correspondents I’ve edited, who seem to need to get their feet solidly on the ground first.
Branching out? Many of the books in this list came out of the freebies sent to the office. I’d open them in the middle, if something good popped up, I might select it for full reading. It’s surprising how much you can tell from a single paragraph within a work … is it well written, does it have anything to say, does it challenge convention?
As I look back on this list, I’m wishing I’d included a single quotation from each book, a taste of its import. So if anyone else wants to try something like this, think of that option. On top of everything, I’m having moments of wondering who wrote this.