If you look on the Readers Advisor Online blog and scroll down a bit, you'll see a post with a mind-boggling list of "best books" of 2008. (I tried to get into a permalink for it; I couldn't.) I haven't checked each one (nor do I intend to), but I wonder who would have the time to do so and how much overlap (if any) there is between those lists.
I say this knowing that, while I'm not a pokey reader, I'm not nearly speedy enough to read 462 books in one year. Sarah Weinman, you have me beat there--and, I suspect, you always will.
So it's conceivable that someone out there can actually read all the books on those lists. But that person won't be me.
Right now, I have a list of TBR books (readers, you know what TBR means, right?) that I probably won't be able to finish in my lifetime. And people keep writing even more books. Further, those lists are based on highly subjective judgments. And many good books never make the cut. What's a reader (of average speed) to do?
All I can do is try to choose wisely and keep on reading. And, while I may not gulp my books down at record speed, I'd like to think I'm savoring them, thus getting more from the experience. What I lack in quantity will hopefully be offset by the quality of what I read.
How about you? How do you keep up with all the books you'd like to read? Are you going for quantity or quality in your reading experience? Do you think one must be sacrificed to get the other? Do you focus on one genre or do you like to sample a variety of books? (I tend to like variety, though I gravitate for many reasons toward crime fiction.)
No comments:
Post a Comment