Thursday, April 4, 2013

My reading list


This is my reading list.

No, wait. Make that random slips of paper, stuffed in an envelope, tucked away in my purse, bearing the titles of books I want to read. Maybe my reading stash would be more accurate.

Granted, it is NOT the most efficient system in the world. I have a hunch some people keep reading lists on their computers or cell phones or tablets. Fancy the thought.

Not me. I collect little slips of paper. Much like the little mouse who partially shredded a telephone book into fine, fluffy confetti to create her nest in a co-worker's desk drawer some years back. I understand you, little mouse.

My reading list's workplace cousin: Post-it notes on a wall.
For the record, there are currently 19 slips of paper in my reading stash. Newspaper clips, yellow stickies, the corner of a notepad torn and folded. Some have 6-7 titles written on them. Some just one. Titles jotted down, often horizontally, after reading a book review or hearing an author interviewed on public radio. A couple are printed -- Nancy Pearl reading lists, I think.

I've been told it's an odd system. My book group has chortled more than once when I pull out my stash, papers flying, announcing "I just heard about this book. . . ." And I can only imagine what fellow bookstore shoppers think, watching the crazy lady in the Fiction / Authors M-P aisle flailing through a tattered envelope stuffed with crumpled clippings and post-it notes.

But it's my system. And It works. I'm steadily reading my way through the stash, adding new prospects here and there. And I should note -- when half of the stash slides into a foot-soaking tub, bobbing lightly among the ice cubes like autumn leaves on Cannon Hill pond -- it's not quite as traumatic as watching your cell phone or iPad mini go into the drink.

So it's got that going for it. Which is good.


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