Books: You read some, you admire others
When we left the East Coast, my spouse and I wheeled four suitcases filled with books into the local library. Of these, we had read the books in just two. The other two were filled with “wanna, gonna” reads. We had long-term plans for getting to them, but just did not get there. We swore then that we would buy only those books we were certain to read soon, not those we wished to pick up some day. When it was time to leave from our next home, we were surprised to see the same result: three boxes read, two more to leave behind. Yet again, practice fell short of plans.
Our logic for our book buying was clear — we may not have time to read “War and Peace” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” now, but we would eventually get to move them from their decorative, dusty perch on the shelf to the more accessible bedside table for a few days of leisurely reading. This dream remained, well, just that. We thought we would race through the seasonal action thrillers, podcasts and prolific news and topical commentaries before turning out the lights on weekdays and get to the perennials on the shelf during the weekend. And yes, sometimes we got to page 100 (of 1,000-plus pages), but no farther. Our friends started joking that we had impressive book spines on our shelves without the books.
Part of the problem was our perception that we would need a great deal of reading of history and mythology to understand the setting and characters of the classics. After all, one must have a comprehensive vision of the Russian landscape during France’s Napoleonic times to place Tolstoy’s characters in “War and Peace” in the right place and time. The trouble with this strategy was that we got sidetracked by gossip and countless references and did not get back to the books on our shelf. Emperor Napoleon and Tsar Alexander were major distractions. Starting on that track was a sure-fire way to get off the highway and drive through several stoplights and crowded streets.
It is time to recall the “no new books” vow till our reading tour of the shelf is complete. That, in turn, means not going to any more book sales. Alas, the Friends Bookstore in the Sausalito Library will have to wait another couple of years before we return with large tote bags.
Ash Subramanian is a Novato resident. IJ readers are invited to share their stories of love, dating, parenting, marriage, friendship and other experiences for our How It Is column, which runs Tuesdays in the Lifestyles section. All stories must not have been published in part or in its entirety previously. Send your stories of no more than 600 words to lifestyles@marinij.com. Please write How It Is in the subject line. The IJ reserves the right to edit them for publication. Please include your full name, address and a daytime phone number.