![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
How to make an exhibit work
Apr. 22nd, 2006 02:49 pmHeidi, Bub and went to see the Hatshepsut exhibit at the Met yesterday - a good show, and well worth seeing.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Apr. 22nd, 2006
It's official: overwhelmed by books
Apr. 22nd, 2006 03:08 pmIt's time to admit defeat: my stacks of unread books have overwhelmed me. I've known this for a while, but I guess this makes it official.
Until a few years ago, I was always starved for books. My bookshelves were full of books I'd read, and I might have a small stack of two to ten unread books. The main danger was to run out of books to read and having to face a dry spell. (The library had long been exhausted - Dutch libraries aren't that great).
About a year after I moved to New York, I started to have a somewhat alarming pile of unread books that never seemed to get read even as newer books came in, were read, and moved to either the bookshelf or the local thrift store. Some of those are still unread six years later and I probably should just give up on them. All this time, I've been reading 5 to 10 books a week (I read quickly, have good retention, and read on the subway to/from work as well as late at night), so a lot of books are getting read - just not all of them.
But worse than that, I now have a stack of three books side and 2 feet high of recently purchased books that I just won't get around the reading - and even though I have sharply cut down on buying new books, the pile is still growing rapidly. Right now, the pile contains about 15 Egyptology text books, 10 other history books, some 50 novels, various book-sized comics, and random art books. And once Heidi's semester ends, the archeology, genetics, paleo-anthropology and primatology textbooks I've been eyeing for months will move to my pile; add the chemistry textbook she got by mistake (she wanted an introductory text, not a grad student level book), the computer books I have to read for work, and the various books people lend me, and the result is clear - I will not be able to read even half this pile this year.
So what to do? My friend Andrew just shelves his unread books and calls his bookshelves a "library of intent"; I could dump the books that I expect to read at most once but haven't gotten around to in five years; I could stop re-reading favorites every few years; or maybe I should take a leave of absence from work and read 10 hours a day. (Heidi will remind me that I'm paying rent, food and her tuition, so I guess that's out.)
Is there a Readaholics Anonymous chapter in town?
Until a few years ago, I was always starved for books. My bookshelves were full of books I'd read, and I might have a small stack of two to ten unread books. The main danger was to run out of books to read and having to face a dry spell. (The library had long been exhausted - Dutch libraries aren't that great).
About a year after I moved to New York, I started to have a somewhat alarming pile of unread books that never seemed to get read even as newer books came in, were read, and moved to either the bookshelf or the local thrift store. Some of those are still unread six years later and I probably should just give up on them. All this time, I've been reading 5 to 10 books a week (I read quickly, have good retention, and read on the subway to/from work as well as late at night), so a lot of books are getting read - just not all of them.
But worse than that, I now have a stack of three books side and 2 feet high of recently purchased books that I just won't get around the reading - and even though I have sharply cut down on buying new books, the pile is still growing rapidly. Right now, the pile contains about 15 Egyptology text books, 10 other history books, some 50 novels, various book-sized comics, and random art books. And once Heidi's semester ends, the archeology, genetics, paleo-anthropology and primatology textbooks I've been eyeing for months will move to my pile; add the chemistry textbook she got by mistake (she wanted an introductory text, not a grad student level book), the computer books I have to read for work, and the various books people lend me, and the result is clear - I will not be able to read even half this pile this year.
So what to do? My friend Andrew just shelves his unread books and calls his bookshelves a "library of intent"; I could dump the books that I expect to read at most once but haven't gotten around to in five years; I could stop re-reading favorites every few years; or maybe I should take a leave of absence from work and read 10 hours a day. (Heidi will remind me that I'm paying rent, food and her tuition, so I guess that's out.)
Is there a Readaholics Anonymous chapter in town?