Reading List

Traditionally, I’ve always been big on reading things twice. Or three times. Or eight. Or twelve. It’s a policy I endorse for a number of reasons, and one I continue to recommend to other people. But near the end of 2008, I realised that, despite having read constantly for almost my whole life, I hadn’t actually read that many books. Instead, I’d read the same stories over and over again, with very little variety or experimentation, and almost exclusively in the one genre. This was an annoying thing to realise, as it debunked my long-held assumption that I was (a) widely read and (b) the complete opposite of a genre snob. It is not a nice thing to have one’s rosy self-perceptions thus disturbed, but it is also, by way of compensation, useful. Thus, my main resolution for 2009 was to read exclusively new/unfamiliar books: something I achieved, with one exception, and that only because I was meeting the author. I kept track of what I’d been reading via this site, and as the list proved to be a fun sort of challenge and memory-aid, I’ve decided to keep it up. The stricture against revisiting novels no longer applies, but now that I’ve started broadening my tastes, I find that I enjoy it – and that is a very nice thing indeed.