I post this because an old friend, who telephones a couple times per year, and I talked
on the phone last night about books, among other things. As we age, I for one try to
read and discard my books. I hope that many will inspire young people, among whom I counted myself decades ago. I rejoice that many inspire me after all these years, some more,
some less than when I acquired them. Anyway, here's the email I sent to my friend after
last night's conversation, in which he asked me how many books I read in 2014.
Tom,
Thanks for last night's phone call. When I said that I have
kept a journal since 2000 to describe what I read, you asked
how many books I read in 2014. Up a bit early for work today,
I listen to the podcast of "Radio EcoShock," a superb, wide-
ranging ecology show I listen to online weekly, from Vancouver
Coop Radio. I also have before me the list of what readings I
described since January 1, 2014:
9 long poems (200-2000 lines)
24 plays
7 novels
10 biographies
5 autobiographies
5 histories
1 law
7 philosophy
1 literary criticism
2 science history
1 biology
3 economics
2 anthropology
1 geography
You might classify these works differently. I might have mis-classified
them here, given that they are from a chronological, not a genre list.
I also list each work in one or more category, which lets me look up
a certain work without wading through 14 years of the chronological list.
I write a looseleaf page or so about each work I read. I started this in
the fall of 2000, when I last taught school in Anaham. Then I vowed
to read and discard my books, a page about each taking less space, and
giving me a record of books I read, how they affected me, and perhaps
contributing to some future literary effort. My subconscious probably
wanted to preserve what's left of my academic pretensions. Who knows?
As I listed 2014 above, I noticed the small number of novels and large number of social
science books. The plays are numerous because in December, 2013,
I gathered all my Ancient Greek and Roman plays, then read most
of them during the winter. I also read a couple Shakespeare plays in 2014.
The Ancient plays, long dear to me, were in a big box of books I spread on
a shelf in a student common room at the University of Northern
BC during a spring, 2014 overnight trip to Prince George.
Giving away such precious books, I hope to someone as young and eager as I once was,
conditioned me to give away almost all my books after reading them.
I'm still eager; just older. This seems miraculous given my life since I
met Carla and we had Chelsea, us all immersed in a culture that little values
book learning, or learning generally.
This winter, I plan to read my 1800s English novels, mostly George Eliot
and Thomas Hardy; but I have one Charlotte Bronte novel left. I
started reading it this month: "Shirley," about early-1800s resistance
to job loss due to rising industrialism. Her "Jane Eyre," which I read in
2012, was spellbinding. Several years ago I read a bundle of Charles Dickens.
Dickens "Bleak House" was a monotony, like Somerset Maugham's "Of Human
Bondage." I read the latter during my 2002 time teaching high school in Manning.
Every time I went away to teach, I brought, read, and discarded many
books. I don't go away to teach anymore.
Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," a 2014
reading then given away, was comprehensive, modern in a secular way for
the 1770s, and full of parallels to the US empire's current decline.
Gilbert Highet's "Man's Unconquerable Mind," my latest reading, which I described to you last
night, argues that some people will keep thinking despite political and cultural
obstacles; but also that since the Renaissance, it is impossible to master
all subjects. This tells me to use my time wisely, neither despairing of
learning at all because I cannot learn all, nor burying myself in books and
neglecting nature, which Highet is not the first in my experience to call edifying, which he
also calls music, as Nietzsche does in "The Birth of Tragedy" and
"Geneology of Morals," other 2014 readings.
So, blog readers, who wants this growing journal after I'm gone? Any takers for the
remaining books, in case I die before I can discard them all. I intend to leave no trace that
I ever walked this earth. Honor me by keeping your minds working, your hearts reaching
out to one another.
