which book to finish first?
shaming myself into finishing a bunch of books
According to BookTok and Bookstagram it’s normal and fine, actually, to buy new books and put them into an ever-growing aesthetic to-be-read stack. #tbr. I’ve got a slightly different problem.
When I get a new book I start reading it, but I don’t always make it to the end of one before starting another. There is only one book I’ve done this to on purpose — or dnf-ed, did not finish, in social media terms — and that’s because the author said some wild shit on twitter about a marginalised group of people and I decided my brain did not need any more of his words.
So, today we, me and you, are going to type out the list of books I need to finally fucking finish.
Let’s go…
Pandora’s Jar, by Natalie Haynes
The Odyssey, by Homer and translated by Emily Wilson
Just Kids, by Patti Smith
The Culture of Narcissism, by Christopher Lasch
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Bitch, by Elizabeth Wurtzel
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, by Natalie Haynes
Republic, by Plato
Homesick for Another World, by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett
So. Now what? Well, obviously I want to finish all these books, but as you can see, the list is substantial. And this doesn’t even include books I’ve bought or been gifted that I’ve not even started! Which is why I feel the need to shame myself into finishing these.
I reckon I can go about this a few different ways. I could start with the book I’m closest to finishing to help build my reading momentum. That would be The Ancient Guide to Modern Life where I stopped on page 191 of 254. Like, come on Rachel. I could read that in an evening.
I could start with the book I started reading the longest ago. Is that even a phrase, “longest ago”? That would be the Plato, but I have other things to say about that later on. The next longest ago would be Bitch. Which would also count for the category Largest Chunk of Book Left to Read. I stopped on page 89 of 409. Hey, at least it isn’t pink.
Ok. I just lied. I have way more of The Andy Warhol Diaries to read as I am on page 23 of 1123. However, I am not convinced that this book is meant to be read one page after another. I think it is more like a coffee-table book that you pick up to read whatever diary entry on whatever page when you have a few minutes. Or you can go through the substantial index and pick your favourite celebrity from the last half of the 20th century — Warhol was a massive name-dropper — to find out exactly what he thought of them. If I let myself start quoting his opinions here we’ll never make it through this post, and I’ll end up reading this whole book instead of writing. But I cannot not mention that he thought that Bruce Springsteen “talks dumb” and that Donald Trump was attractive and masculine. Yikes on bikes, Andy.
I could tackle my list in chronological order by publication date, but then I’d have to start with the Homer and Plato and these books demand to be read out loud. When I started reading The Odyssey the story wasn’t sticking in my head, despite reading the recent translation that uses words like “tote bag”. That was until I decided to read it aloud. Then I went flying through! According to my favourite historians of ancient Greece and Rome, Homer was probably not one person. And he definitely didn’t make up The Iliad and The Odyssey. Due to the repetitive nature of the poetry, historians believe these poems were shared orally for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before someone wrote them down. So it’s only right and historically accurate that I read it out loud. As for Republic, well that one is just fucking dense and reading aloud makes you go slower, allows for more processing time. Reading either of these first, as a kick-in-the-pants to get going on that list, does not make sense.
And you know what? I don’t think that writing pithy bits about these books is going to reveal a good plan of action. I just need to put on my big girl reading pants and get to it.
Preferably before the two new books I’ve ordered arrive in the post!
thanks for reading this edition of hot mushrooms — apologies for how swear-y this one was!
P.S. In the midst of my little photo shoot I decided to challenge myself to put them in order of original publication date. Here was my guess:
Then I checked and here is the accurate chronological order:
Good for me!