Someone really influential in my life once said- Buy more books then you can read, read more than you can remember and remember more than you can use. The direct result of that is now I have an apartment with probably a thousand books, most of them don't fit on the 3 billy bookcases I have, and am now looking for other places to store them. Though I had many before I heard that quote- things really got out of control once I heard the above.
Aside from the boring logistical task of managing these books- the interesting thing is my relationship with these 'snapshots of the human story'. Books are now almost like old friends- friends who have illuminated parts of the territory that I need to know more about and which I can reference.
The way in which I read has also changed over time- I no longer go through books, or consume them- rather I 'argue' with them. This is still something I am working on, but the feeling I am trying to get to is one where I actively engage with the content- trying to link it to other works/thinking I have run across and constantly testing how and where what I have read prior is linked to the present work.
I am trying to stay focused whilst staying surrounded by all these books on finishing each one but that's an exercise in futility- I wander through the different piles reading parts of one, the whole of another etc, but they are all works in progress. There is a talk made by a good friend of mine that if you are interested gives you a sense of the delights and discoveries awaiting you in reading.
26th Feb- I recently ran across a rather fascinating picture that made me sit up and take note: Its a picture of President Obama holding Matt Taibi's Book Griftopia I recalled in my mind a story of President Chavez of Venezuela- gifting to President Obama the book “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent”
I am fascinated by how books can expand your thoughtscape and how spending time with them - I wonder if President Obama had the opportunity to read either of those books...and what if any effect they had on him.
Aside from the boring logistical task of managing these books- the interesting thing is my relationship with these 'snapshots of the human story'. Books are now almost like old friends- friends who have illuminated parts of the territory that I need to know more about and which I can reference.
The way in which I read has also changed over time- I no longer go through books, or consume them- rather I 'argue' with them. This is still something I am working on, but the feeling I am trying to get to is one where I actively engage with the content- trying to link it to other works/thinking I have run across and constantly testing how and where what I have read prior is linked to the present work.
I am trying to stay focused whilst staying surrounded by all these books on finishing each one but that's an exercise in futility- I wander through the different piles reading parts of one, the whole of another etc, but they are all works in progress. There is a talk made by a good friend of mine that if you are interested gives you a sense of the delights and discoveries awaiting you in reading.
26th Feb- I recently ran across a rather fascinating picture that made me sit up and take note: Its a picture of President Obama holding Matt Taibi's Book Griftopia I recalled in my mind a story of President Chavez of Venezuela- gifting to President Obama the book “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent”
I am fascinated by how books can expand your thoughtscape and how spending time with them - I wonder if President Obama had the opportunity to read either of those books...and what if any effect they had on him.
