2010 wasn't a very successful reading year for me. I read and reviewed 53 books, total: almost half of what I read and reviewed in 2009. I'm highly embarrassed by that number, and I suppose I'm feeling a little masochistic about it, too. Because tonight I pulled down the leftovers, lined them up on my shelf, and let them reproach me all they wanted.
In no particular order, my leftovers are: The Women by TC Boyle; The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips; So Big, by Edna Ferber; A Sensible Life by Mary Wesley; The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandoval; The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig; The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesy, and two very beautiful Rumer Godden first editions, China Court and An Episode of Sparrows.
And this isn't even including my Kindle leftovers.
Looking back, I remember picking up each of these books, how excited I was to read them. So many authors I was looking forward to reading! Maud Hart Lovelace, for example, was recommended to me by a ton of people; I felt like the only person on the planet who hadn't read her yet.
And yet, Maud et al. fell by the wayside. Sometimes it was because I put a book down somewhere and lost it. That was what happened with The Imposter's Daughter--I found it tucked away under my Christmas tree when I took it down. In other cases, it was the wrong book for the wrong time: when I started in on Mary Wesley, I had just finished a Britain-between-the-wars marathon and couldn't stomach one more example of the genre.
I actually forgot about the Godden books was because they became incoporated into my decor. They are so beautiful, with watercolored dust jackets that are just the right amount of tattered to look old and treasured. I put them down on my dresser, next to the ivory porcelain clock and the antique brass Shiva statute, and they just seemed to belong there. After a while, they became part of the landscape and I stopped seeing them as books on my to-read list.
Yet several days ago, I idly flipped open the cover to China Court and was instantly charmed.
There's nothing I love more than a book that opens with a family tree. It promises a story packed with generations of family lore, secrets, and lots of good, complex characters--enough so that you need the tree to keep them straight.
It's my new year's resolution to work my way through my leftover pile. I think I'll start with the two beautiful Goddens.
Happy 2011! I wish a year of good reading to all.
Don't feel bad, I have a huge stack of "meant too's" as well. In fact: Whistling Season and The House on Fortune Street are 2 of them.
ReplyDeleteI feel better when I just donate a few bags, it is a great way of easing one's guilt....LOL
I luckily usually just check books out from the library quite a lot of the time and then when I don't read them return them back from whence they came, leaving no trail and little memory that I wanted to read the book...albeit my massive goodreads list labeled "to-read". :(
ReplyDelete53 is still very impressive by my standards. It's actually my all time high for reading (which I made in 2009). This past year I was down to just 43 books.
I have a bunch of books that just begin to blend into the decor, too. They're usually older and while I wanted to read them, but now they kind of just are decoration.
I don't feel so bad now that I know I wasn't the only one who petered out a ways through the Doig and Livesy. Thanks for commiserating!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about Goodwill being great for guilt...it helps with errant clothes purchases, too.
TB: What a good plan, to keep your leftover pile somewhere else. Hee hee.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't consider them leftovers ... just books I didn't quite get to yet. It isn't like they spoil and go bad like food leftovers!!!
ReplyDeleteMy stack of 'meant to's' is so big it's hard to se my alarm clock! Oh well, time marches on!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Most of the time it's just a case of the wrong book at the wrong time, but it seems to get harder and harder to get to a book as time goes by. I'm cutting back on the book acquisition until I get through my backlog. Hopefully, the piles will someday whittle down and I'll be at reader equilibrium.
ReplyDeleteThough I'll most likely mess it up along the way. Oh well.
I really liked The Whistling Season when I borrowed the audio book from the library.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at your masochistic act of taking the leftover books down to taunt you.