A very simple algorithm

[flexagon]

Lately I've been reading the books on my "to-read" shelf in strict order of decreasing thickness, in hopes of making a visible difference and also getting through some especially long-delayed readings. It's worked. With this strategy I've gone crunching through the last of The God Delusion, Beyond Adversary Democracy and The Illusion of Conscious Will; these alternated nicely with fiction since The Great and Secret Show was the thickest book I started out with, and Flood by Baxter was in there too (I love books where the-earth-as-we-know-it is destroyed, and I read this one in a delighted day and a half). I've now started The Phenomenon of Life by Christopher Alexander, but I'll have to intersperse that with something smaller since it's really too big to carry around. I do feel some satisfaction for getting through so much nonfiction; it's nice to have serious thoughts about topics that are not in my usual petty cohort of obsessions.

Since starting this policy a few weeks ago, the incoming books have kept... coming in. I did buy one on Friday (The Little Stranger, which I decided to buy after reading a review by Stephen King), but before that two were lent to me and two were given to me. It's kind of astonishing. I'm in a giant book-circulation network.

Comments

[apfelsingail.livejournal.com]

Well, and as you pare down your collection and pass on books, you inspire others to do the same. :-)

[flexagon]

Aha, you're right! Actually everybody influences everybody else... no wonder life is so complicated. It's full of feedback loops.

[apfelsingail.livejournal.com]

Yep! I have definitely noticed that books I am weeding out have taken on a life of their own as they rotate through various people. And you inspired it. ;-)