The Pile-Up/In the Book Review
Instead of reciting the titles of the three or four book that I am “reading” at the moment, here’s a summary of the pile-up on the dining table, where all the unread and unshelved books in the apartment have finally been gathered. (When Kathleen and I want to eat at the table, I move two of the piles to a TV table, and we dine in the canyon of books.
Fiction (two piles): 36 books. Should I just get rid of The Raw Shark Texts as a mistake? Or is it a mistake?
Current Events/History/General Interest: 12. This number would be a lot higher if I were a bit more rigorous about the “Miscellaneous” piles; see below.
Poetry and Criticism: 9 books. Ditto.
Biography: 10 books, including Francis Bacon’s Life of Henry VII. How precious is that?
Miscellaneous (two piles): 34 books, including Jane Eyre, which even before the midpoint strikes me as age-and gender-inappropriate, and The Upanishads.
Hopeless, isn’t it?
As for this week’s Book Review:
¶ Social Historian.