The Beginning of the Epic Reading Quest

09 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment

by Silbena in Personal Tags: authors and books, decisions, Epic Reading Quest, more awesome than you can handle, reading

I have embarked upon an epic quest.

Before I give you the outline of this epic quest, let me first set the background. I, like all the other little geeklings I know, have always been an avid reader. As a child, I didn’t quite half live in the library like my father did when he was young, but at least I was a frequent visitor. I remember reading pretty much everything in what was the young adult/fantasy section before my family moved back to Australia (that is, before I turned 15). Since then, my reading has diminished slowly, since I’m unfamiliar with the library system here and the closest library is much, much smaller than the one I was used to and still much further away. To work around this lack, and because I got my first casual job when we moved here, I stared buying even more books, instead of loaning them, and for a while, I also read them, if slower and less frequently than before. Then, the last year of high school came and I devoted myself to it with single-minded perseverance, and I didn’t have any time to read books other than the ones that had been assigned for us in English and Literature.

When high school was over, I found myself intellectually free to read again simply for my own pleasure. But once you’re out of practice with it, I find, it is very difficult to get back into it, unless you make a conscious attempt at it. During those holidays, I read a few books, like Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty Four (you might remember my post on it, slightly over half a year ago). I also began re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, since I had never before read it in its original language (and I’ve got to say, it makes much a greater impact in English than in Finnish). Then semester one of university started, and under my unfamiliar work load, I abandoned reading again for more light-hearted pleasures like movies and tv-series. Now that I’ve managed to rid myself of the evil spell of Biology (bioooologyyyyy *shudder*), I find myself with much more free time and brainspace; I’ve taken up reading again. I went through the Harry Potter series, and then picked up where I left off with Lord of the Rings.

So, how does this relate to the quest I haven’t talked about at all? Well, I guess there’s still a bit of background I should give before I explain myself fully. Equally, or perhaps even more than reading, I love owning books. I currently own three bookshelves, and they’re all full of my wonderful paper-bound lovelies. I love touching my books, I love looking at my books, I love just knowing that they’re there; I also love counting and cataloguing my books. I know that while I stopped reading actively about two years ago, for a while I still continued buying books. This means that even now, my bookshelves are slightly backed up with books I haven’t yet read. And since I haven’t bought a book for an awfully long time (since Borders and Angus & Robertson closed down in my proximity), I’m itching for simply owning some other ones. And yet, I’m a somewhat rational being, and I made the resolution that before I go and buy new books, I should get through this log of unread books.

And then it got kind of out of hand.

You see, I’m aware of the fact that I haven’t been reading actively for an awfully long time, and I’m worried that if I read something I don’t enjoy immensely, I’ll become uninspired and drop it for months or years. So, in order to combat this problem, I made myself a reading list — interweaving old favourites I haven’t read for an awfully long time but always loved dearly with books I’ve not completely read after I started them or books I barely even knew I owned. That way, I reasoned, I should get through it.

But, you see, I own a lot of books, and I’ve read a lot of books, and I love a lot of books. So, my to-read list (which is being revised constantly, since I haven’t even included all the books I haven’t read, yet, because I got too excited about the prospect of reading my old loved ones) is currently composed of at least 51 items.

51 items! I’m both daunted and incredibly excited about getting through this sea of stories. And because I always assume that you find everything I do immensely exciting, I’m going to keep you updated about my Epic Reading Quest (and I’ll totally make that the tag).

Time to forsake any possibility of having a social life in favour of reading a lot!

I’ve nothing to wish you this time except lots and lots and lots of precioussssss books, lovelies.

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