So many books, so little time. My reading list just gets longer and longer. If each book has a bibliography of, say, ten worthwhile titles and each of those lead you on to ten others, which in turn...Where will it all end?
It's occured to me that one could always adopt a calculated actuarial approach. I am now aged 54 years. Let us say that a reasonable life expectancy would be, God willing, 75 years. I read, on average, depending on the size and difficulty of the book, say a book a month. That would leave me with about 250 books I'm likely to get through in the remainder of this life. I should really be picking my titles very carefully. I mean, what if I arrive at the pearly gates without having read Proust, say. Will I be barred as a cultural philistine? Would I be sent to a sort of purgatorial detention and forced to read "Du Côté de Chez Swann". On reflection, if heaven is populated exclusively by Proustians, the alternative venue might almost be preferable!
All of which begs the question: why do we read?
To be continued
It's occured to me that one could always adopt a calculated actuarial approach. I am now aged 54 years. Let us say that a reasonable life expectancy would be, God willing, 75 years. I read, on average, depending on the size and difficulty of the book, say a book a month. That would leave me with about 250 books I'm likely to get through in the remainder of this life. I should really be picking my titles very carefully. I mean, what if I arrive at the pearly gates without having read Proust, say. Will I be barred as a cultural philistine? Would I be sent to a sort of purgatorial detention and forced to read "Du Côté de Chez Swann". On reflection, if heaven is populated exclusively by Proustians, the alternative venue might almost be preferable!
All of which begs the question: why do we read?
To be continued
posted by asbo at 3:28 PM
1 Comments:
Having read "Du côté de chez Swann" recently, I can safely say that it doesn't make that much difference if you read it or not before you die, other than to satisfy literary curiosity. Taking a lead from "Little Miss Sunshine": "A la recherche..." is a bit of a book written by a loser for losers. Ultimately reading is a poor substitute for living (as opposed to merely existing), but as there are times when real living is impossible, it is good to have the substitute.
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