As of yesterday, I am 33 percent done with my 101-things list. Thus, a short report:
Favorite item completed (so far): No. 73. "Read at least 10 books that I own but haven't read." I believe you can never own too many books, and since all of mine come from thrift stores, yard sales and friends' giveaway boxes, I tend to pick up anything that looks interesting.
I'm not a professional reader (although I think I'd be good at that). And I normally don't finish a book if it starts to bore me (there are more good books than I'll be able to read in a lifetime, so why waste time on ones I don't love?). So that leaves me with a lot of books I never get around to reading/finishing. The list made me plow through some of those.
I absolutely, thoroughly hated the first one ("Love, Again," by Doris Lessing), and was a little disappointed in "The Reader," by Bernhard Schlink, and "The Bridge," by Doug Marlette, but the other seven were fantastic. This will definitely make another appearance on my next list.
Most ironic item completed (so far): No. 21. "Make more money in one month from journalism than from real estate." This turned out to be way too easy -- not because I made it big in the world of writing, but because my real estate sales came to a screeching halt somewhere around December! Sadly, I have completed this item several times over since then.
Item completed that's turned out to be the biggest waste of time (so far): No. 46. "Start keeping a list of every book I read." This was something I'd wanted to do for years, and I still like the idea in theory. I read so many random books and then forget about them. I thought it would be interesting to have a long-term record of what I was reading during different phases of my life, to see how my tastes changed, etc. Also, I wanted to note authors whose debut novels I really enjoyed (such as Janet Fitch's "White Oleander" and Jeffrey Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides") so I would remember to read their later books when they came out.
But in practice, it just feels like busywork and a chore, and I'm not going to keep it up.
4 comments:
I recognize thing #73 from MY list! :o) I read a good bit, but most of the books aren't ones I already own...
congratulations my dear! are you home from colorado yet? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever but we're planning on seeing you Sunday night. I'll have my people call your people.
WHAT??? Where is JOIN A BOOKCLUB??
I've thought about No. 46 a lot too, but ultimately I've come to the same conclusion that you have. Plus I don't need any more lists/papers/documents anyway.
You're making great progress. I'm impressed.
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