Bibliothèque discothèque

Many people make it a goal to read 52 books in a year. That’s one book a week, every week, during the course of one year. These people are all more ambitious than I am. I mean no disrespect to those who do this, but I can’t possibly fathom how you can enjoy and retain anything from a book if you have to frantically finish the whole thing by Friday in order to keep on track. I’m sure there are people out there who can do this, but I’m not one of them.

I’m a girl of more modest goals when it comes to things like that. One book a month (that’s 12 books a year for those of you playing along at home) is really more my speed. I only started doing this in 2006, and of course that September I started my degree, during which time I read constantly, but almost never for pleasure. Overall 2006 was a good year, though I fell short of my goal by a considerable margin. In addition to three Nabokov novels (Pnin, Lolita and Pale Fire), I finally got around to reading American Gods, The Great Gatsby, The Orchid Thief and The Virgin Suicides.

I’d like to pick this up again this year, and I think I’ve already made a fairly good start. I just finished The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson’s memoir of growing up in Des Moines—I guess after all these years I’ve finally taken an interest in my roots— and before that I read Shakespeare, a biography of the Bard by, yep, Bill Bryson. I decided to take a break from all that Brysoning and I’m currently rekindling my love for Neil Gaiman with the short story collection Smoke and Mirrors (is there anyone who can be so gentle and humorous when talking about death, demons and dismemberment?).

Beyond that, however, I have no idea what I want to read. I’m the sort of person who finds a book she likes and then reads it over and over again, until the book’s falling apart and the story embeds itself in my bones. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but I do feel like I may be missing out on all those unread books. If you have any suggestions for some must-read material, send it my way!