Skip to main content

And the library keeps growing

One of the things that Jason was kind enough to leave behind when he moved was an entire wall of empty bookshelves. These are short shelves that are attached the wall, and they've served as a way of keeping track of which books I have yet to read. (If I put all of my read and unread books together, I'd lose track of the unread ones.)

The deal is, my ongoing love of collecting (and reading) Stephen King hardbacks has ballooned into a full shelf and soon, two full shelves.

But how many of those books have I actually read? Well, I'm actually in the middle of reading A.J. Jacobs' fantastic The Year of Living Biblically after reading a number of short stories from King's Skeleton Crew collection. I want to pace myself here: read something by King, then read something by somebody else. I don't want any burnout here. And I want to read all of these books in a reasonable timeframe.

My new year resolution is still intact: I am reading more pages everyday compared to last year. Thankfully I'm reading something right now that I really enjoy and look forward to finishing (hopefully) this week.

What's funny about the growing number of unread King books is mainly due to my experience in hunting for rare books and CDs. If you see a copy of something you've never seen anywhere else and you want it, definitely get it then and there because there is very little guarantee that it's going to be there the next time you come to the store. So the fact that these King hardbacks are more than half price off and I'm not losing my proverbial shirt in the process, I figure it's a no-brainer.

What's even funnier is how easily tempting it is to pick up a King book found in a clearance shelf at a Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Half Price Books. I choose to pick up the books that I find interesting rather than go totally based on other people's opinions about what to read and what avoid. When stacks of From a Buick 8 are in good condition for one dollar a pop, I can't say no.

That said, I have taken some advice on books to read and which ones to avoid. Frankly, as much as I appreciate the advice on what to avoid, I enjoy picking up and reading books that sound enticing so I can form my own opinion. Maybe I should start a separate blog on this whole quest.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J