Monday, September 22, 2008

Its a sci-fi free fourth quarter!

it's been observed that I was probably an obsessive compulsive librarian in a past life. Getting books in order on shelves is one I'd those things that I really get nuts about, so it won't come as a supeise to learn that our whole book situation here at the fortress was driving me crazy.

Finally a few weeks ago as part of our ongoing "let's live like adults" program, I sat down and burned a week getting the library here in order. And I couldn't be happier. We got the rest of our books unpacked, and I finally got every thing into some kind of order. As an example, I'd been wanting to get all my Asimov books together in one place for years, and now I finally have. (Three whole shelves worth.)

Looking at all our books in one place, the one thing that really jumped out at me was - wow, I have a lot of science fiction. I mean, that's not all THAT surprising, but the scale compared to the rest ofthe collection was something of a shock.

I consider myself to be a pretty well-read guy; I got a minor in English. To steal a line from High Fidelity, I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being and understood it. I actually LIKED Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. So, what's up with all these robot books?

Well, I like robots, obviously, but I really hadn't ever clicked that given the choice between a book with and without robots, I'd choose the robot EVERY TIME.

So, I made a decision. Between now and the end of the year, I'm not reading any SF. I'm going to sit down and read some of those not-robot books I've been meaning to read.

First up, then, is something I've wanted to read for years, but never got around to. And, why not just head for the deep end?

Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1.

1 comment:

Dani In NC said...

Good for you! We all have to shake up things every once in a while. It helps us to be the well-rounded people we actually think we are.

I had a revelation about my reading life recently. I was the kid who always had her nose in a book, and in my head I thought I was still that kid. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I had only read 2 novels a year since the 3rd Harry Potter was published! I've been stuck in a magazine-and-knitting-book rut. So, like you, I am trying to vary my reading list.