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fabled_librarian This post is pretty much what it says on the tin. I need to get it through my head that I just can't read as many books concurrently as I used to be able to before I got sick. So far, I have not learned that lesson as well as I need to. I just don't have the focus, concentration, or speed to read as quickly as I used to, nor for as long. And I don't have the memory any longer to be able to switch between books and keep them all straight in my head, nor -- if I get overwhelmed with reading too many books at once -- to stop reading a book, pick it up later, and remember where I was and what I had already read. And I am currently reading far more books than what is manageable for me these days. So here is a list of what I'm reading (I may forget things and have to update the list later). I want to finish these, or at least most of them, before I start reading other things. Or if I don't finish any of them, I at least want to decide I'm not going to finish them and them move on to something else. Also, as a note, I'm not including audiobooks in this list. For one thing, almost all of the audiobooks I'm reading at any given time are rereads, and for another, the number of audiobooks I'm currently in the middle of is far less than the number of physical books. Without further ado:
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce *Finished!*
Besom, Stang, and Sword by Tara-Love Maguire and Christopher Orapello *Finished!*
The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature by Starhawk *Finished*
The Healing Terrain: Coming Home to Nature's Medicine by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Kiva Rose, and Others
Unfuck Your Habitat; You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron *Removed from List for this Year*
The Right to Write by Julia Cameron
A Pine Barrens Odyssey: A Naturalist's Year in the New Jersey Pine Barrens by Howard P. Boyd
The Path of Paganism: An Experience-Based Guide to Modern Pagan Practice by John Beckett
Playing With Fire: An Exploration of Loki Laufeyjarson by Dagulf Loptson *Finished*
The Poetic Edda
The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions: Take Control of Borderline Personality Disorder with DBT by Cedar R. Coons
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
And two that I just started, that I think I'd rather go on with others before continuing with in earnest:
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley *Removed from the list for now*
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende *Removed from the list for this year*
In the future, I think I need to keep my "currently reading" collection of physical books to a maximum of four or five at a time, and possibly less. I'm also fairly confident from previous experience that I always want to have at least one book in my currently reading stack be a re-read, and specifically usually something I've read enough times (and enough times before the memory loss got really bad) that it doesn't require much concentration. I also want it to be something enjoyable and comforting, in addition to familiar and easily processed. I also ideally want one of the books I'm reading at any given time to be a fantasy or possibly sci-fi -- something absorbing and distracting that I can get lost in. But I also think I want to try to limit myself to two fantasies at a time, if possible. Since a lot of my old favorites are fantasy, and it's still one of my favorite genres, that will usually mean my two at a time are accounted for between my old re-read and a new-to-me (or at least newer-to-me) fantasy. I also want to keep it to a maximum of one really difficult book at a time (for me these days, that is mostly really dense books, those that use a lot of large words or technical language, and complicated reads. But it can also sometimes encompass books that are really difficult for me to read due to their subject matter, style, or genre, or due to their layout and/or punctuation. Good examples of what I mean are: Greek Religion by Walter Burkert, The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien (or any Tolkien now that I think of it), and Cottonmouth Kisses by Clint Catalyst. The Firekeeper Series by Jane Lindskold is also probably a good example. It stretches over six (I think) volumes, and multiple countries with their own unique laws, customs, and cultures. Each book is several hundred pages long, and some are around a thousand pages. It also has a huge cast of characters. That said, it's not as dense or difficult as LotR, for example, and I may be able to read another complicated book along with it, whereas any Tolkien will fill my quota in that department on it's own -- even though both are favorites of mine. I'd also ideally like to keep it to one religious or spiritual book at a time, though I might be able to swing two. I'd also like to do the same with self-improvement or life-hacking books, unless they are from radically different categories -- for instance, I think I can read a book on cleaning at the same time as one on DBT, but I want to try to avoid reading multiple DBT books (except for workbooks) at a time, or something like a minimalism book at the same time as a cleaning life-hacking book. Just generally speaking, actually, I want to avoid too many books on the same or similar subjects at a time.
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce *Finished!*
Besom, Stang, and Sword by Tara-Love Maguire and Christopher Orapello *Finished!*
The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature by Starhawk *Finished*
The Healing Terrain: Coming Home to Nature's Medicine by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Kiva Rose, and Others
Unfuck Your Habitat; You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron *Removed from List for this Year*
The Right to Write by Julia Cameron
A Pine Barrens Odyssey: A Naturalist's Year in the New Jersey Pine Barrens by Howard P. Boyd
The Path of Paganism: An Experience-Based Guide to Modern Pagan Practice by John Beckett
Playing With Fire: An Exploration of Loki Laufeyjarson by Dagulf Loptson *Finished*
The Poetic Edda
The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions: Take Control of Borderline Personality Disorder with DBT by Cedar R. Coons
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
And two that I just started, that I think I'd rather go on with others before continuing with in earnest:
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley *Removed from the list for now*
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende *Removed from the list for this year*
In the future, I think I need to keep my "currently reading" collection of physical books to a maximum of four or five at a time, and possibly less. I'm also fairly confident from previous experience that I always want to have at least one book in my currently reading stack be a re-read, and specifically usually something I've read enough times (and enough times before the memory loss got really bad) that it doesn't require much concentration. I also want it to be something enjoyable and comforting, in addition to familiar and easily processed. I also ideally want one of the books I'm reading at any given time to be a fantasy or possibly sci-fi -- something absorbing and distracting that I can get lost in. But I also think I want to try to limit myself to two fantasies at a time, if possible. Since a lot of my old favorites are fantasy, and it's still one of my favorite genres, that will usually mean my two at a time are accounted for between my old re-read and a new-to-me (or at least newer-to-me) fantasy. I also want to keep it to a maximum of one really difficult book at a time (for me these days, that is mostly really dense books, those that use a lot of large words or technical language, and complicated reads. But it can also sometimes encompass books that are really difficult for me to read due to their subject matter, style, or genre, or due to their layout and/or punctuation. Good examples of what I mean are: Greek Religion by Walter Burkert, The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien (or any Tolkien now that I think of it), and Cottonmouth Kisses by Clint Catalyst. The Firekeeper Series by Jane Lindskold is also probably a good example. It stretches over six (I think) volumes, and multiple countries with their own unique laws, customs, and cultures. Each book is several hundred pages long, and some are around a thousand pages. It also has a huge cast of characters. That said, it's not as dense or difficult as LotR, for example, and I may be able to read another complicated book along with it, whereas any Tolkien will fill my quota in that department on it's own -- even though both are favorites of mine. I'd also ideally like to keep it to one religious or spiritual book at a time, though I might be able to swing two. I'd also like to do the same with self-improvement or life-hacking books, unless they are from radically different categories -- for instance, I think I can read a book on cleaning at the same time as one on DBT, but I want to try to avoid reading multiple DBT books (except for workbooks) at a time, or something like a minimalism book at the same time as a cleaning life-hacking book. Just generally speaking, actually, I want to avoid too many books on the same or similar subjects at a time.
