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The Tyranny of the To-Read Pile
April 1, 2009 in gewgaws
I was going over some of the old news items that I had bookmarked for posting in the past couple of months—you know, during those dark days when you thought this blog had died an inconspicuous death. One of them, from last December, remains relevant: “The Tyranny of the To-Read Pile” from The Guardian.*
Yes, it seems simple enough to suggest that, during these trying economic times, we turn to the books that we’ve hoarded but never read. Squirrels do it with acorns; why not I? For what purpose have I been haunting used book sales and slapping down Border’s ubiquitous 40% off coupons than for this very moment? If I liked, I could not buy another book for the rest of my life and still have more than enough books to read (no, seriously, I have about two bookcases worth of unread books. Two bookcases.).
And yet…with bookstores on the brink of bankruptcy, the discount coupons are flowing ever more freely. And with the industry-wide layoffs, the pickings on the “take shelves” (as in, “take these books, because I’m not taking them with me”) are better than ever.
And that damn to-read pile grows more despotic.
*Which, as it turns out, is switching to an all-Twitter format after 188 years in print.
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