Raymond Carver - the American short story writer and poet once said :
Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read.
I feel equal parts envy and guilt when I read this quote. Envy because even the thought of lying in bed all day and reading is extremely pleasurable to me , let alone actually doing it. Guilt because , as a fully grown adult, I cannot ignore my daily responsibilities and to even imagine this kind of a carefree attitude induces guilt. I have often fantasized about how to get away with such a day and I am yet to come up with a scenario which does not involve some kind of physical incapacitation!
Fantasies aside, maybe reading is not an all consuming passion for you but simply a pastime which you enjoy. How to then make time for in our busy lives? I have thought about this in detail and I feel, at its most basic, there are two aspects to this problem:
Discovering the books which you would like to read
Finding the time to read
In this edition, lets look at the first aspect of the discovery of books to read and the next one will be about building a consistent reading habit.
How do you discover books you want to read? Just read the books recommended in this newsletter.That’s it.
Just kidding.
The internet is the most obvious place to start looking for books.Even though it has made information easier to find, it has also added a lot of noise.Mercifully, there are some corners of the internet which are helpful. goodreads.com is one such website. It is a site where you can browse books based on your interests.You can add books to your virtual bookshelf and keep a track of the books you own or have read or most importantly, want to read.One can also add friends and browse what they are reading, which is one of the ways I discover books.You can also read reviews ( and write reviews ) posted by other users on the site which are often as enjoyable as reading the books. There are book clubs which you can join which read a set of books decided by a monthly poll and discuss them on the site. I am part of two such groups - One on Classics and another on Non-Fiction. Though I am never able to keep up with the pace of the reading , I find these groups very useful in finding books and writers which I otherwise would not have discovered.I found this gem of a book - The death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy.
Another very helpful avenue of book discovery is Amazon. You can try searching for the names of the writers you enjoy reading and then checking out what other similar writers and books are thrown up by the Amazon recommendation algorithm. Many of Bill Bryson’s books which I have recommended in earlier newsletters have turned up this way.Another useful tip is to have an Amazon wishlist created only for books which you can then use to buy them online or offline.A word of caution about these wish lists though.They can get unwieldy if you don’t keep pruning periodically - I currently have a wish list containing about 300 books and it is quite difficult to manage.
Finally, a source of discovering books which works really well for me is to simply look up lists of ‘Best’ books online.Granted, the methodology to arrive at these lists is often times suspect and you can’t really ever ‘rank’ the wonderful yet subjective experience of reading a book. But the trick to using these lists effectively is to read the citations next to the books stating why they have been included and pick the ones which appeals to you most. I discovered a book which was a tranformative reading experience and really changed the way I thought about the Soviet Union in one such list from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/best-books-of-the-21st-century
The book was Secondhand Time ( Rank # 3 on this list ) by Svetlana Alexeivich.It is, in my opinion , the most profound and the most moving non-fiction book ever written.
In general, going through book blurbs and searching for writers similar to the ones you enjoy reading is the way to go. If you do end up selecting a book which you dont enjoy, which happens a few times, simply quit reading it. An unfinished book is not a sign of lack of perseverance but rather about appreciating the fact that time is limited. Life is too short to be reading a boring book.
What are some of the methods you use to discover books? Do let me know in the comments section.
Liked your POV about unfinished books. I often struggle to take the decision of leaving a book midway even if I realise that it's a time sucker.
Goodreads Choice Awards is a good source for learning about new books that are good.
My other source is this podcast called 'The Book Review' host d by the editors of The New York Times. Link - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9Nc3NJaHg5eQ?ep=14