fiction files redux discussion

I've realized lately that I'm not really choosing what to read... the books are choosing me. This is very unsettling because the books jumping off my shelves and creeping into my hands have been books that mess with my head. I think it started with The Haunting of Hill House. Next thing I know The Tenant and Ubik are leaving bloody trails up my leg as they claw their way into my lap.

I've tried returning to World Literature, an area I considered a safe zone, but was surprised when Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio and Cees Nooteboom made the shadows around me shimmer while all else remained motionless.

Now I find myself reading a book simply called Hell by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Why are these books doing this to me? I went grocery shopping yesterday and when I got home I find The Haunted Dolls' House and Hauntings Bangla Ghost Stories in my bag, the former already finding its way to my bedside where I normally put my glasses.

I envy Ben's categorical approach of reading books this year. My approach of submitting to these nasty little books is indeed despicable and painful. I used to let about four books that I had been eying jump into my hands and then I would choose one. But now I find they're getting sharp-toothed and vicious. I need to find a way to muzzle my books.

Does anyone have this problem? How do you choose what to read? Do you have a method?

i think the books are choosing you, brian. these particular editions sound very bloodthirsty.

i don't really have a method of choosing books beyond the initial choosing in the bookstore. quite often i just browse the used bookstore around the corner and see if anything jumps out of me, and quite often it does: it could be a book i've seen recommended by my friends on the ff, or one i'd seen on a must-read list. several years ago i found it easy to choose books that were referenced in other books, i.e. my reading of the way of the pilgrim because it was mentioned in franny and zooey. of course then i bring them all home and put them on my to-read shelf, and when i need a new one, i just scan the shelves and pull. i never start a book and not finish it but if i am not getting into it right away, i might put it back on the to-read shelf until i can bear to pick it up again. like that abysmal hangsaman that i can't even admit to be shirley's. :)

obviously none of that is going to help you, but i thought bumping the thread might get you some useful replies. :)

I don't have much of a system nowadays. But I go through periods when I'm interested in a few writers; then, if available, I'll read their letters, journals, or essays and begin to explore those writers who influenced them.

Adrian wrote: "I don't have much of a system nowadays. But I go through periods when I'm interested in a few writers; then, if available, I'll read their letters, journals, or essays and begin to explore those wr..."

That's interesting. I will often pick up the letters or journals but I never am able to sit down and read them through. I will page through them, read a few here and there but can never manage to keep it together long enough to consider it exploring an author. I am still selectively reading through Steinbeck: A Life In Letters which Brian sent me last year.

I wish I could manage to read in a more thematic manner.

I'm frustrated that individual books have turned into libraries.

It's daunting. I have to 'shrug off' this recent idea that's taken hold in my head, and just read as I go along.

Some, of course, are the "have to's," aka T.S. Eliot's outlook. Yeah.

Brian, I want your reading list. You have such interesting stuff on it.

These days I go with whims. Recently I had an Emily Dickinson month. This past month was Jack Kerouac. Earlier this year, Faulkner. I find myself deep diving into familiar work.

I think those writers and the passion with which I pursue their work for about a month at a time are all about what's happening in my life right now so I'm rolling with it. I think it will be interesting to look back on what I was reading, and what I wrote about it in my journal, a year from now.

BUT... when I get my head back on, get a job, move, etc. etc. I still have a reading list created from our MySpace group with about 200 titles on it, recommended over the course of what, two years? I used to just pop the word doc and copy and paste titles in there. Near the top is The Magus, so that may give some of you an idea of how far back in time that list goes.

I'm also really liking some of the kids' books that we've been reading lately. This year we started reading together in the evenings and I've been reading everything from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Swiss Family Robinson. Some of the books my daughter is reading are really amazing -- The Underneath and The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Brian, I want your reading list. You have such interesting stuff on it.

These days I go with whims. Recently I had an Emily Dickinson month. This past month was Jack Kerouac. Earlier this year, Faulkner. I find myself deep diving into familiar work.

I think those writers and the passion with which I pursue their work for about a month at a time are all about what's happening in my life right now so I'm rolling with it. I think it will be interesting to look back on what I was reading, and what I wrote about it in my journal, a year from now.

BUT... when I get my head back on, get a job, move, etc. etc. I still have a reading list created from our MySpace group with about 200 titles on it, recommended over the course of what, two years? I used to just pop the word doc and copy and paste titles in there. Near the top is The Magus, so that may give some of you an idea of how far back in time that list goes.

I'm also really liking some of the kids' books that we've been reading lately. This year we started reading together in the evenings and I've been reading everything from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Swiss Family Robinson. Some of the books my daughter is reading are really amazing -- The Underneath and The Invention of Hugo Cabret.