Far Too Many Books to Be Read!
Start With Why!
You want to read this newsletter because:
- You love reading!
- You love reading books - be they physical hard copies or in an ebook format (Kindle?)
- You love reading widely and often! If you do you will find that one book may refer or lead you to other books of interest. Sometimes it seems like the connections that you can make are endless!
- You love that reading opens your mind to new worlds of wonder and awe. As well, reading should be entertaining!
- You love that reading can be and should be an exploration of the world from the comfort of your chair. No limits where you can take yourself in your mind!
One Very Interesting Connection.
Can you tell me why Adam Shoalts in 'A History of Canada in Ten Maps' makes reference to Giovanni Boccaccio's 'The Decameron'? The Decameron is about a group of friends who tell their individual stories in the plague years in Italy in the 14th century. The Decameron is available as a Kindle ebook through Amazon for under $1.00.
Why Do I Read?
My name is Paul S. and I read because my maternal Grandmother read to me as a child. She apparently read to me as often as I wanted because she too loved reading and felt that it would, as it has, stand me in good stead for my entire life. At school, in the workplace, and as a distraction from the 'real' world at times. Not to mention that she also, apparently, would put an alcoholic spirit (at times) into my nighttime milk/cocoa to ease me into sleep.
Areas of Interest
- Travels. Including the 87 Greatest Travel Books of all time (for paid subscribers only - coming soon!)
- Wandering / Meditations
- Esoterica
- History - primarily American, British, and Canadian
- Military - primarily American and British
- And fiction of course!
Typically I look to mention, discuss, and make connections with about 10 to 15 books per newsletter and suggest other authors that might be of interest.
Do you have an antilibrary?
Have you read every book in your library?
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb suggests that the library in the picture above (at the top of the newsletter) is an example of an antilibrary - where you cannot have been expected to have read every single book and one that doesn't necessarily show off your knowledge but allows you to reference knowledge as you need it.
According to Taleb, an antilibrary represents the books that we know we don't know and serves as a reminder of our own limitations and the vastness of the unknown. It is a collection of unread books that challenges us to expand our knowledge and understanding and to recognize the gaps in our own education and expertise.
Taleb uses legendary Italian writer Umberto Eco's uncommon relationship with books and reading as a parable of the most fruitful relationship with knowledge.
An article in The Marginalian by Maria Popova further explores this connection between books and knowledge and goes on to suggest that read books are less important than unread books in your library.
Umberto Eco
You may be familiar with some of his books 'The Name of the Rose' and 'Foucault's Pendulum' but he is also famous for his work on semiotics and in the next newsletter I will be looking at another book of his 'Six Walks in the Fictional Woods' and maybe 'How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays'.
Tsundoku: Japanese for leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books.
My own experience is that the more books that you read the more books you want to acquire even if you will never have the time to read them all. Reading the Bibliography sections in most non-fiction books is a problem as it can create a financial and time dilemma for me as it just leads to more books that I want to read or just add to my Amazon Wish List or add to my Kindle or request from the local library or ...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
Books that lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole (just recently re-read Alice in Wonderland as an adult and I wonder if I had read it all in the first place because it certainly was different – to a degree anyway – from what I remember) to other books (and you don’t need mind alternating mushrooms to get there) that will have you rampaging through your local library or spending inordinate sums on expanding your Kindle library. Mind you the Kindle editions are generally cheaper than a physical book and some of the ‘older’ books that you might enjoy can be as low as $0.99 or even in some cases free. Like ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ by Edward Gibbon for a meager $1.99 and logging in at 11,569 pages (in Kindle).’Of course, if you are a hardcore physical book connoisseur then websites such as Abe Books and Thrift Books might just be the answer. More on Abe Books in another newsletter.
The author of this website does not receive any commissions, rebates, or gratuities from any website or any link that may appear in the newsletter.
The 87 Greatest Travel Books
Coming Soon! The 87 Greatest Travel Books. For paid subscribers only. Updated each newsletter with a monthly release of these travel books along with the opportunity to comment on your own favorite travel books.
Esoterica in Books
The Annals of Imperial Rome – Cornelius Tacitus. In the last couple of years, I have read quote “trashy” novels that have characters reading this – for fun!
The Rings of Saturn – W.G. Sebald
Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages – M.R. (Matthew Robert) Green. I mean really how many books mention The Rings of Saturn?
Authors That Might Be of Interest
- Hannah Arendt
- Rebecca Solnit
- Freya Stark
- Don Winslow
- John McPhee - how many books has this guy actually written? Including collections - about 40!
- Adam Hochschild
Next Newsletter
The next newsletter will be entitled Peregrinations - in other words, a long and often wandering journey and to start you off a GPTChat outline of an African journey through some of its books!
1. "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen: This classic memoir recounts the author's experiences living and running a coffee plantation in Kenya during the early 20th century.
2. "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith: This charming novel follows the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, the first female private detective in Botswana.
3. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe: This powerful novel set in Nigeria explores the impact of colonialism on the Igbo people and their culture.
4. "A Bend in the River" by V.S. Naipaul: This novel set in an unnamed African country (Believed to be the Congo) follows the journey of an Indian man who moves to Africa to set up a trading post.
5. "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver: This novel follows a missionary family in the Congo during the tumultuous period of decolonization.
6. "The Last King of Scotland" by Giles Foden: This novel is a fictionalized account of the rise to power of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
7. "The Traveler of Al-Azhar Park" by Ahdaf Soueif: This novel set in Cairo explores the relationship between an Egyptian woman and a Palestinian man against the backdrop of the city's famous Al-Azhar Park.
8. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini: This novel tells the story of a young boy growing up in Afghanistan, but also has an important chapter set in the Sudan, where the protagonist and his best friend flee to escape the Taliban.
9. "The White Masai" by Corinne Hofmann: A true story of a Swiss woman who falls in love with a Masai warrior in Kenya, and decides to leave her old life behind to live with him in his traditional village.
10. "The Sunbird" by Wilbur Smith: This adventure novel set in ancient Egypt follows the journey of a young Egyptian prince as he sets out to find the legendary bird of fire, the Sunbird.
Books Mentioned in This Newsletter
- Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action - Simon Sinek
- A History of Canada in Ten Maps - Adam Shoalts
- The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio
- The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon and David P. Wormersley
- Shadowlands: A Journey Through Britain’s Lost Cities and Vanished Villages - M.R. (Matthew) Green
- The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
- Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
- The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald
- The Annals of Imperial Rome - Cornelius Tactius
Contact email: stillmorebookstoberead@gmail.com