I have partly met the reading goal I set myself end of last year- crossed everything off a TBR list. Grated, it was among the shortest could find on my blog! Except it feels like it doesn’t really count, because I haven’t actually crossed off all the books, only the ones that are available to me- the remaining four aren’t in my public library’s system (I did check, just in case they’d acquired any of them in the ten years since I wrote that particular list) nor have I come across them in my thrift store and used sale hunts. So it feels satisfying, but not completely.
Also would like to note, that books crossed off my TBR lists usually have a link to the post where I wrote about them, when done reading. If the title is crossed out without a link, that’s because I tried a few pages and decided it wasn’t for me. Didn’t read enough of it to feel like I had anything to say writing a post. They only count in the Abandoned category if I actually was liking it or giving it a good try, and then gave up after fifty to a hundred pages or more.
3 Responses
Congratulations! That’s a fun goal to do.
It would be nice if one day all books, no matter how old, were available, but if that does happen, I know it won’t be anytime soon. Seems a shame that old books are getting lost though. There were so many books published in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and as the physical copies are vanishing, so do all traces of the books. I know I’m rambling here, but if I ever became a billionaire (heh), that would be a great pet project.
Somehow I don’t mind too much, as I know there’s no way I can read all the titles I want to, in my lifetime. So the fact that simple availability limits them, gives me some chance of actually getting through a bigger chunk of what’s out there for me. On the other hand, I feel despondent knowing how many like you said, slide away into oblivion just because nobody wants to keep the physical copy. Maybe that’s why I hold onto all the books I like, I keep hoping that my personal collection might actually be worth something to someone someday, because I have paper in hand with words on it that aren’t in a computer anywhere . . .
I agree with you guys that it is shameful how so many wonderful books just seem to disappear. At the rate they are being written, I suppose that no one should be surprised when that happens – every year I start out with the intention of reading more that was published in the mid-twentieth century and end up being distracted by all the hyped, bright and shiny, new stuff that hits the bookstores every Tuesday. Maybe e-books are finally going to make it possible to find still most everything ever published, but at what cost…and the search is usually painful because you almost have to know exactly what you’re looking for if you are ever going to find it. Stumbling blind through the internet is not the same as doing it in a bookstore.