Can you ever catch up or is it a losing battle?

[ions]

Recently I thought about all the books I had read. Considering my age and being someone who professes to love reading I was very unimpressed with the number of books I had actually read. Now I feel as though I must catch up but with reading the classics that I want to and keeping up with newer books my reading list is growing exponentially. There's just so much to read!!

I come on here and read about people who are REREADING books! I don't feel like I'll ever get around to all I want to read once, nevermind anything twice!

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed by all they want to read?

 

[Wabbit]

Yeah, I do!

I don't really care too much about the "classics" tho. I'll read whatever I gets my heart beating, my mind racing, or my curiosity burning. If it happens to be a classic catches interest, then OK. I don't really feel though that I HAVE to read certain books because they are considered good by "them"

I do feel there are too many books and so little time! The shadow of my enormous "TBR" pile shadows me! There is ice on top of it and playful goats hop about on the summit! It must be about 80 books now! I am too afraid to count!

I have, recently, made an effort to set aside more time for book reading. There are so many books to read before my time is up here on this Earth With the books that I WANT to read, and the books that are UNREAD, and the books that I want to RE-READ... well, I better hope to live till 100 years old!

 

[pwilson]

I definitely know what you mean but think of what it would feel like to finish. Nothing left to read! It's too awful to even think about! I'll gladly take the alternative!

 

[Jenem]

I don't feel overwhelmed, but I know where you're coming from. I have a list of books that I want to buy and it includes a number of classics I feel it's important I read. I've plowed through a number of them, but I still have many to go. I do reread books (at the expense of getting to a new one) but I'm not stressing it. I only get annoyed when I come across a stinker.

 

[Wabbit]

I definitely know what you mean but think of what it would feel like to finish. Nothing left to read! It's too awful to even think about! I'll gladly take the alternative!

Very true

I don't feel overwhelmed, but I know where you're coming from. I have a list of books that I want to buy and it includes a number of classics I feel it's important I read. I've plowed through a number of them, but I still have many to go. I do reread books (at the expense of getting to a new one) but I'm not stressing it. I only get annoyed when I come across a stinker.

Do you carry on tho or do use give the book up as a stinker and move to something you might like better?

 

[Jenem]

Do you carry on tho or do use give the book up as a stinker and move to something you might like better?

Always have to finish the book. It just takes me longer

 

[mehastings]

I have a totally different view on things. I look at it as "look at how many choices there are, I'll never be without something that interests me". I've read some classics and I have some more that I plan to read, but outside of a few specific authors (Dumas, Hardy, Wilde, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare) I don't worry too much about reading every single classic novel. I know that I could spend years reading "classics", but would probably spend two thirds of this time reading books that don't appeal to me. I just have lots of stuff on hand for whatever mood I'm in. I know I will never read every single worthwhile book, but as long as I'm always reading, that is just OK by me.

 

[ions]

Just to add I have classics on my tbr list because I do enjoy them and I actually feel that they make me a better reader overall. As for how many choices there are if a book is in my tbr list I've made the choice to read it just a matter of order and when.

It doesn't help that many of the books on my TBR list are monsters. War and Peace, The Stand, Brothers Karamazov, Michener books.... Why can't they all be a quick Orwell 1984 or Golding Lord of the Flies length?

 

[Wabbit]

haha yeah have War and Peace... might take awhile

 

[Renee]

I know the feeling. There's dozens hundreds of books I would like to read. Wanting to read something new doesn't necessarily stop me from rereading something though. Personally I don't think about how much I have read and how much more I have yet to read, rather I focus on what I want to read today and leave it at that. It's easier to just not think about too much.

 

[honeydevil]

i know this feeling, it's kinda annoying, anyway i have also a different problem, i want to read certain books, like stephen king, koontz, anne rice.....but it seems that i can't get there. I read all other stuff, good stuff, funny stuff, but i never get there where i want to go...

 

[RosesInHerHair]

I have the same sort of problem. I feel obligated to read classics and "expand my mind", which takes longer than reading lighter books, so it puts me behind. I should gorge myself on Stephen King novels all summer because once I start college I'll be doing plenty of reading to "expand my mind" whether I like it or not.

 

[ja9]

I think it's a losing battle, since no matter how long I may live I will never be able to read everything that I want to - especially since my tastes change over time. Had I stuck to the Russian writers that I loved so much as a teenager, I would be an expert by now; as it is, I jumped ship after Tolstoy and never went back.

I like to think that I'm eclectic rather than fickle, but in truth I'm easily sidetracked and organized reading programs don't work for me. It's like when you go to the dictionary to look up a word and you see so many other words that are so much more interesting that you forget what you were looking for in the first place.

The high school I went to required that we read many of the "classics", which I of course hated at the time. It's surprising to go back and look at them now and see how different they are from what I remember. For example, I had to read "The Great Gatsby" in 10th grade and thought it was excruciatingly boring, and now it's one of my favorite books. On the other hand, I thought "Madam Bovary" was wonderful, and now I don't like it at all.

Anyway. Even if it's a losing battle, it's a good fight.

 

[Wabbit]

I like to think that I'm eclectic rather than fickle, but in truth I'm easily sidetracked and organized reading programs don't work for me. It's like when you go to the dictionary to look up a word and you see so many other words that are so much more interesting that you forget what you were looking for in the first place.

aaah yeah that's me

 

[ions]

I jump from style to style of writing to keep reading fresh to me. Also it's a great change of pace to move from Anna Karenina to a book in The Dark Tower series. While it looks eclectic I try and design it so when going from book to book there's as much change as possible. It keeps me from getting tired of a genre, keeps different writer's styles fresh to me and works out my imagination more than just staying in the same world.

For example right now I'm reading Hawaii which will probably take me until the new Potter. After that War and Peace followed by a handful of short fantasy/sci-fi books to balance out the size of War and Peace.

I think maybe if I collect all the books on my tbr list that I do not own and gather the ones the ones I do own into one pile and head off to the woods cutting myself off from any further information on other/new books I might just make it to the end. Maybe we could convince todays authors to observe a moratorium to let some of us catch up?

 

[Mari]

I already own enough books to take me the next forty years to read. And yet I 1) keep buying more, 2) reread. So yeah, it's hopeless.

 

[cajunmama]

I jump from style to style of writing to keep reading fresh to me. Also it's a great change of pace to move from Anna Karenina to a book in The Dark Tower series. While it looks eclectic I try and design it so when going from book to book there's as much change as possible. It keeps me from getting tired of a genre, keeps different writer's styles fresh to me and works out my imagination more than just staying in the same world.

I feel the same way. I'm in a horror kick right now so I keep it interesting with books from other genres in between horror books. I have several hundred books on my "to read" list, but it grows faster than read, so I'll never run out of things to read. I have mehastings point of view on my list, though. Just look at all my options!!

 

[soxfan]

Most definitely a losing battle. I buy books faster than I can read them.

 

[ions]

I just felt like bumping this because I've added so many books to my TBR list lately it's nearly doubled in length and wanted to rant about it. Some books I feel as if I have to read now so they bump others down the list. I finished reading Oryx and Crake and now I've added Atwoods major works to my list. One author and at least 5 books are added. Rushdie has a new one coming out soon. It's not the most horrible problem to have in the world I guess.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I've added so many books to my TBR list lately it's nearly doubled in length

Story of my life ever since I started here.. I'm continually adding books to my TBR list - at least 3 a day and of course I'm never going to match that.

Some books I feel as if I have to read now so they bump others down the list.

This is also the same with me. When I began my list I vowed that I would read the books in the order that they appeared on the list, so maybe the length of the list wouldn't be /that/ daunting. Well, yeah.. that didn't happen

I do get a little frazzled when I look at how many books I "have" to read, but then I just think about how I'll never be stuck without a book to read (this problem being the main reason why I joined the forum)