so many books and
amount of time to read them
so clearly finite
In the goofy column in the Guardian, 10 Chaotic Questions, one of my favorite goofy writers, Bill Bryson is asked 10 goofy questions by Dee Jefferson.
One of the questions is What book, album or film do you always return to, and why?
Mr. Bryson replied, “There are so many books in the world, and the amount of time to read them is so clearly finite, that I find it slightly a waste of time to go back and read something again. Same with movies. I did rewatch The Grand Budapest Hotel – not all the way through, but I went back and watched certain parts of it because I was just kind of enchanted with it and there were some scenes where I wanted to know, how did they film that?”
Let me repeat that first line again: There are so many books in the world, and the amount of time to read them is so clearly finite, that I find it slightly a waste of time to go back and read something again.
I understand where Mr. Bryson is going.
Years ago I had a conversation with a friend who pointed that you read for 60 years and read a new book a week, you will have time to read … 3,120 books.
In 2010, Google made the estimate that there had been 129,864,880 books written since the invention of the printing press.
Google added the caveat that This number does not include all historical manuscripts, self-published works, or books with non-standard identifiers.
With that in mind, you have to agree with Mr. Bryson that there are so many books in the world, and the amount of time to read them is so clearly finite, that one could find it slightly a waste of time to go back and read something again.
Years ago it came to me that my destiny was the South Pacific and I entered into a long correspondence with the United States Department of Education to qualify to be hired as a teacher for the American Territory of Western Samoa.
I actually got to the point where I was informed that I had made to the ‘eligible to be hired list’ and I would be notified as soon as the next position was avaialble.
That was in the 1980’s.
I am still waiting.
I guess there isn’t a lot of turnover.
Here is the point though, for several months I made plans to move myself to a dot in the Pacific Ocean.
I looked over my library and mentally reduced it to about 100 books that would have to travel with me.
All 100 books were my FAVORITES.
Books I had read and reread and would reread again.
I have long wished that I had made a mark in my copy of the Caine Mutiny to record how many times I have read it as I know its over 100 times.
BTW, I got that idea of marking a book each time I read it when I watched an interview with Civil War Historian Shelby Foote who said he had reread the complete seven volume In Seach of Lost Time by Marcel Proust NINE TIMES. He considered it his reward after finishing major writing projects and took about two months to complete the reading each time.
I like to say I learn something new each time I read the Caine Mutiny … or at least I relearn or remember something new each time I read it.
I can also say that using E books I found that a book can read differently by how the text is laid out and if I change the font size or turn my tablet sideways and the text is laid out differently, the book reads differently.
One instance sticks in my mind where in one of the Hornblower books, Hornblower and the Hotspur, by CS Forester, my paperback copy hyphenated a word on a line break so that sentence read as:
from where he sat, he saw that a rib-
boned Officer climbed the side of the ship
and I always thought it meant a skinny, rib boned person … whatever that meant, and I reread that volume countless times.
Then I got a new edition and the line read:
from where he sat, he saw that a ribboned Officer climbed the side of the ship,
and I said to myself OH IT WAS A GUY WITH A RIBBON AND STAR on his uniform … duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Well, there you are.
So little time, so many books.
Much like the Church with not enough parking, it’s a really good problem to have.
I will continue to read what catches my interest and when I want, I’ll grab an old friend and reread and you what?
I could never find it even slightly a waste of time to go back and read something again.
No Haiku For You 