You may have heard something recently about reading the printed word. You've likely heard that in addition to reading the printed word, many have taken a pledge to do so. This pledge, the baby of east side bride and cevd, means we are committed to reading books and newspapers and magazines and subway signs and words that are printed.
This all sounds very pleasant--coffeehouses! the smell of ink!--but I would like to remind us all that pledges are rarely made without a bit of underlying risk. In this case, make no mistake, we undertake a great deal of it. To say nothing of stepping silently around the characters who spend time at libraries, we must reckon with smudgy, soft ink on our hands, paper cuts, early-evening cherry pie cravings when nothing else will do, men at bars who ask--or do not ask--with cocked eyebrow, what we're reading. We risk missing our train stop or leaving a half-finished paperback in the back of a cab. We risk heading in bleary-eyed, achy, having a poem knock the wind out of us as we cross the street. We risk daydreaming, staring at strangers whose toes remind us of Seymour's, glimpsing the dust of other worlds. We risk walking into another land and coming back changed, or not ever quite returning at all. It is a brave choice, to make a pledge. And if we're going to Read the Printed Word, it seems important to face the facts.
A list with a Lauren in its pocket: I face risk with lists. At least for the time being, books I've finished in 2010 will appear at the right-hand side of this blog. This is not to say I'll list everything I read in print, for that would be a bit unwieldy. I'm leaving out research and professional livres, for example, and t-shirts and street signs and newspapers and magazines and plaques and calling cards. Mostly, you'll see fiction and livres for littles and collections of poetry, and only those read from cover to cover. Will re-reads be included? Of course. Categories may or may not appear. I'm prepared for all sorts of possibilities.
What, dear reader, have you got going, printed word-wise?
What have you risked recently by burying your nose in its depths?
30 maids a-milking:
I think this is lovely. Just lovely. Very lovely.
Principles of Corporate Finance ("Concise Edition" <---HAHA) *cries* FML!!!
I have also started a list, albeit a short one right now since for the most part I am not including books read for research either. For me it felt riskier *not* to take the pledge. I spent my first year in grad school neglecting to read for myself and my work and my spirit suffered for it. This year, I promise to read the printed word. For fun. For pleasure. Because it does me good.
I've loved this idea since I first saw it.
I am attempting to read 50 books this year. So far I've read 2.
yes. yesyesyesyesyesyesyes.
So impressed that you have written down what you are/will read. I'm such a slow reader, except on holidays when I plough through books. I tend to only have a few minutes scurried away here and there to devote to reading when I'm working. But I'm enjoying Doblin's, In Alexanderplatz. It was a gift from my boyfriend on Valentine's day (we have "pledged" to always exchange books on this day). I have him the Winnie-the-pooh series. Good luck!
you have read more in 2010 than I have read in the last two years. This makes me sad and embarrassed.
i've secretly been wanting you to keep a running list of your reads for a while now.
xoxoxoooo
Love this post. I finished reading War and Peace a few days after my birthday in Jan this year (I got it for my birthday the year before so it took me a while); I've read Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Cohelo, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and some book I've forgotten the name of of about mountaineering which was suprisingly good. I've also read bits and pieces of John Keats collected poems and letters. I'm in a bookclub so it is good for motivation- start a bookclub!
i know just what you mean about walking into another land and coming back changed...you put it so well...that feeling of the world of a book haunting you, wishing you could live in that story just a little longer, find out more that it had to tell you. i'm planning a post on my voracious appetite for books soon.
I have blatantly copied the format of your list - this is a great idea. No hate, but I just can't get behind the e-reader format.
working on a lovely mod edition of rabbit redux from the city opera thrift store (oh updike, you dirty man), and gillian flynn's dark places, which might or might not make it to THUNDERTOME, as a friend of mine edited it (i left out my boss's memoir as well).
Ooh,lovely, lovely post. And risky, to list all that you have been reading. A risk I've been unwilling to take so far, for fear of being judged by my book covers. But a risk that I'm very. very happy that you've taken.
As usual, I have a few on the go. I find book monogamy challenging. they would currently be The Mistress's Daughter, Pride and Predjudice and Zombies, and Trinidad's Doctor's Office.
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a pretty risky post, i would say.
i will read anything by geraldine brooks or
alexander mccall smith. actually, i think i
have.
old books: dorothy sayers! the only woman
allowed in the c.s.lewis, chesterton, tolkien
club.
love your blog!
midnight in the garden of good and evil, i should reread that one. it's been about 10 years. i'm dying to go to savannah and it's because of that book.
love this. i've been reading the golden notebook by doris lessing-- i had no idea that it existed but apparently it was really important to feminism in the 1960s and 1970s and even won a nobel prize. it's SO GOOD.
I am a terrible reader of things that are very long. So far, this year, I have started three books. I am about a third of the way through each. Does that count as a book?
I didn't think so.
I love reading something I feel, when the author can put it much more eloquently than me. You've inspired me to make a list of all the books I've wanted to read, and actually start reading them.
I've been doing tons of re-reads lately. Nice and comfy but it's time to get to the library.
if you are up for the risk, the at the steep-edge-of-the-heart risk, i'd check out the poetics of allison titus' sum of every lost ship. her lyrics a ribboning, small light bouncing off sequins. and then i'd try the otherworld of nicky beer's diminishing house--her language like taking flight. and then i'd tie down all this almost-floating-away with a collection of letters, because who doesn't love the epistolary impulse?
For my own entertainment, I am making my own slow but steady way through the Pern series as per Anne McCaffrey.
For my son's enjoyment, we have been reading such classics as
The Monster at the End of this Book
Goodnight, Moon
Guess How Much I Love You
One Glad Man
On the Night You Were Born
Red is Best (because it is, you know)
The Cat in the Hat (and other favorites by Dr Seuss)
Are You My Mother?
We have been considering starting a real-life chapter book, also.
I'm thinking maybe The BFG...
A lovely list. When I start reading anything worthwhile that I will admit to reading, I'll post mine... (at least I am reading though, right?)
I love your list of reads so far. I want to hear what you thought of Persuasian and HeartBreaking Work (I think you know how I feel about the former and I loved the latter when I read it a few years ago).
p.s. The Secret Language was one of my favorites growing up. I read it, hands over ears, at the Indy 500.
For another type of risk, pick up Pascal's Pensees in English or French. He is so much more than just the wadger or his maths.
this post is great! the other day i almost broke down in tears waiting in the rough-and-tough waiting room at the auto mechanic while reading "ireland in mind"
oh i love when you infuse frenchiness into your english...i can;'t wait to follow your list and what a good idea...
i am risking right now three: an end to suffering by pankaj mishra about how the west came to know about buddhism (sooo good) and edith wharton's new york stories. I just finished the meaning of birds by lorrie moore which just about broke me (but great!)
(hi ♥)
that's truly lovely. and I applaud you on the bravery of your list (although we must have been reading Franny and Zooey at the same time). I'm not sure I have it in me to put down everything I've read since a few things have truly disappointed me to the point of quitting mid chapter. blah. but you've inspired me anyway...
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