Four Books a Week Keeps the Mind Tweaked

You’ll never catch me prepping for a marathon, at least not the variety that entails actual running. Physically, the challenge before me involves not much more than balancing a book or five in one arm, and a tray with a pot of tea in the other. I am a librarian, to be sure, but more than that, I am a bibliomaniac. If I could, I would read a book a day, but that wouldn’t be realistic. Four books a week, however, seems perfectly doable.

There is no lack of published material about people’s “Reading Years”, be it Alberto Manguel, Nick Hornby, or Sara Nelson, to name a few who have shared their choices with a general audience. Why then, is mine any different? Well…First, there is the question of quantity. In all of the above books, the author/readers got through about a volume a week or less. Perhaps they read more but chose not to tell us about it, but I just found it to be not enough. For me at least, 52 books a year poses absolutely no difficulty.

Second, I am in the book business on the consumption side of things. I deal with readers just like you on a daily basis, people who come to the library looking for a great read. What they want are recommendations from a trusted source, someone to filter the thousands of new titles every year, not to mention the sea of older ones. Since most people do not have the time to get through as many books as I propose to read this year, they can at least do so vicariously through me and then select for themselves those that hold the most appeal.

Finally, everyone’s reading selections are unique, so having looked at one person’s should have little bearing on whether you peruse another’s, as all of them are equally interesting, at least in theory. The concatenation of titles I devour in a year is highly varied, a mix of fiction and nonfiction, old and new, French and English, with a couple of Young Adult books thrown in for good measure. I read writers from all over the world, at a range of literary levels.

Although I am a professional librarian by occupation, this is not a ‘librarian confidential’-type of blog. It is about being a Reader, one whose greatest joys can most often be found ‘between the covers’. I will of course discuss the books themselves and my reactions to them, but the focus will be more about the challenge, especially given that I have a full-time job.

The parameters of my goal are relatively simple: I must finish four books each week, in paper or audio (unabridged) formats, without skimming. These will not be mere picture or coffee-table books either, I assure you. Some will be slender while others will be bricks.

Here beginneth, then, the mental marathon...