Anyone else experience anxiety over backlogs of books yet unread? I have like 100 books I really want to read. I haven’t even finished the Iliad or begun reading the Odyssey despite almost being 30. My mind keeps drifting towards new interests and experiences. I even chastise myself sometimes for re-reading a book instead of reading one that I have on my backlog.
“God help us -- for art is long, and life so short.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The more you know and are exposed to, the more you will collect unread materials. Each book you read creates more strings to follow.
Don't worry about it, it's only going to get worse.
Nah I make steady progress on my reading list, plan some rereadings, and add new books as I see fit. About 16-20 books right on my reading list now outside the Bible.
Am reading the Bible constantly and will read and reread it over and over until I die. Am right now reading some nonfiction on war, listening to fiction audiobooks to pass the time at work.
I take the study of books on guerrilla warfare seriously because that is exactly how it has been historically conducted by all the past authors and wielders of the artform.
Two texts I'm reading were written by Americans yet found in Osama's compound from the SEAL Team Six raid, documents published by the CIA.
One such document is a recipe for IEDs provided by Western intelligence that was used against American forces, my goal is to transfer this knowledge to the same Americans to use against legitimate government forces in the Revolution.
A war veteran friend of mine still is uneased by piles of trash on the roadside for this reason. This knowledge can be used to conduct honorable warfare against the same oppressors that betrayed the people. Books are very powerful things and how this power is used is the responsibility of the one who wields the knowledge.
stop gangstalking me
OP you are getting too caught up in what you "ought to be doing."
You got into books and reading presumably because it was fun right? You enjoyed it doing it?
Giving yourself a long list of dense books which you feel you HAVE to read or you're doing something wrong is a surefire way to create a lot of toxic and negative associations with those books
Stop thinking about the whole canon and whittle it down to a few that you know you are interested in or like. You don't have to go in order or anything.
Also watch other people get excited about them. Listening to Steve Donohughe (sp) passionately talk about the Iliad made me feel excited to read it
You will never make progress if you feel like Sisyphus with a boulder, it needs to be fun
Stop gang stalking me
Do you guys write your backlog down or do you just keep track of it in your mind?
My list gets smaller every year and I care less and less about entire unread genres. Critically examining a few authors has been taking up most of my time, catching up on a few classics from antiquity as well. The world gets smaller.
It's a very visible pile on a bookshelf and haunts you when you open up the ereader for something new.
Called having a bookshelf and piles of books all over your apartment.
I have a notepad on a tablet
Literature is a form of entertainment. If rereading a book entertain you more than reading a new one, you should reread. If you have a shitty taste, you should stop trying to like the Iliad.
Remember, struggling to finish a book is a sign of the book not being for you.
I never mentioned feeling obliged to read any particular book. The 100 books I'm speaking of are books I really want to read because I enjoy and look forward to reading them. My problem stems from being too open to new experiences which invites more things than I can handle in my life which essentially paralyses me from doing anything.
Sometimes I wish I could either duplicate myself or just download all the books straight into my mind and not have this problem.
>Sometimes I wish I could either duplicate myself or just download all the books straight into my mind and not have this problem.
Both defeat the purpose of developing taste. I don't have to read a book to know it's shit.
You’re giving literature way too much importance. We’re talking about books, anon. Books. Stories printed on paper. I’m glad you enjoy reading. Caring so much about it that you give yourself a panic attack defeats the point. All I’m saying is reading the Iliad or whatever doesn’t make you better at anything.
Try not to worry about it. At least you don’t have 600~ books of which you’ve read an approximate one-tenth.
Umberto Eco had 30,000 books in his library and hardly read any of them.
I just picked up a book of his literary criticism recently
Nah. Im just stoked I have so much shit I still want to read. It makes me feel like my wage cage hasn't completely sapped my will to live and explore this world. Not yet anyway. Let the "anxiety" vitalize you, be glad that you give a shit about something, and revel in the glory that there are still corners of this life intriguing, beguiling, or provocative enough for you to give a shit about enough to feel angst about them. The alternative is a dreadful void illusion awaiting the real deal in oblivion. Read "The Odes of Anachreon" translated by Thomas Moore and "Fear and Trembling" by Soren Kierkegaard.
Yeah. There’s just too much to read.
A bit but it doesn’t exactly bother me THAT much
>Anyone else experience anxiety over backlogs of books yet unread?
Nah, I just read what what I want to read and don't give much of a damn otherwise.
If you really wanted to read a book, you would have read it already. What (You) really want is wanting to read a book.