Reading Project: The Long Slow Read-Down

Long before the local libraries closed due to the virus, I had started on a long-term reading project: to read the books that have been lying around my house for years (and "lying around" is often the exactly right term) or, alternatively, get rid of them.

So, if it's a book I don't think I'll ever read, I deposit it in one of the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood or even, if it's in poor condition, throw it away. Then there are the books that I do think I might want to read: I pick one, read it, and then (this going to sound familiar) deposit it in one of the Little Free Libraries or, if it's in poor condition, throw away.

For a long time I was of the opinion that you can never have too many books. Now, though, I know I have too many books. Books I am sure I will never read. Books I've read but am sure I will never dip into again. I hope I die with far fewer books than I have now.

One of the books I'm reading these days is David Halberstam's Summer of '49. It's a pocket-size paperback with yellowing pages, published over thirty years ago. Also, it's wonderful, and I'm glad to have finally gotten around to it. Halberstam's portraits of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams are particularly priceless. A fine book, and when I finish it, it will, as they say, go bye-bye.

I should add that, as a follow-up, I'm going to read another of Halberstam's baseball books: October 1964, which I received at jólabókaflóð last year. That's a new tradition in our family, and one that pushes hard against my goal of reducing the number of books in my house. The challenge is real, folks!

For example: the trouble with dropping books off at a Little Free Library is that you also find more books there. And since they're free, I'm likely to take home books each time I drop some off, and they're often books that, as it turns out, I'll probably never read. My rule of thumb is to drop off twice as many as I pick up. But again, the challenge is real!

Another book I'm reading right now is Evelyn Waugh's autobiographical A Little Learning. This was another LFL pickup. I like it. I'm in fact enjoying it immensely. Somewhere in the not-to-distant past I had started reading it, got maybe half-way through, and then let it slip through the cracks (probably some other book captured my attention at the time). This time I'm sure I'll make it to the end, then deliver it forthwith to a local LFL. 

See how the piles of books are growing down! I call it the Long Slow Read-Down. Wish me luck!