Chekhov's Mistress

The TBWA Pile

by Bud Parr

I have two book piles among the piles of books I have. There’s the To Be Read (TBR) pile, which is not so much a pile now but an entire shelf of books – and those are the ones I kind of think I’m going to read next, not the ones I’d merely like to read but with no pressing need or the ones in the bookstore that tend to preempt the ones I’ve already bought in the TBR pile.


The TBWA pile consists of books I’ve read and want to write about: To Be Written About. When I write about a book on my site I try to be thoughtful, and well, who has the time to be thoughtful? It’s very easy to write a quick post on something in the news or random thoughts; even easier to quote something that I’ve read. Even though there’s a conversational value in all that, the greatest satisfaction I get from this blog is writing up a book I enjoyed or have thoughts on. Alas, as Sartre wrote, “Man’s misfortune lies in his being time-bound.”


Here are a few books in my TBWA pile: James Meek’s The People Act of Love, James Marcus’s Amazonia, Anne Carson’s Decreation and Autobiography of Red, Stephen Koch’s The Breaking Point, Witold Gombrowicz’s Bacacay, and more. I had also planned to do some joint projects with A.M. Corea of Out of the Woods Now that have languished. And herein lies another problem: whenever I write anything diary-like, it tends to be about something negative; what I’m not doing or not liking. There’s always time for that, I guess.


If you see me walking around blogland, I’ll be the guy with a big L on my forehead. In the meantime…

posted February 14, 2006

comments

As good ol’ T.S. Eliot says, “There will be time, there will be time”.

    – amcorrea (02/14  at  08:15 PM)


I love the TWBA category. I only wish that i had that many books “on deck”; I’m about to write about _Jesus Land_ and then I’m out. Must read more.

But I’ll be excited to hear what you and Ana Maria are cooking up… Keep us posted!

    – Anne (02/14  at  08:54 PM)


Luckily, I post on my readings as I go along--not even waiting till I’ve finished the book.  Not only does that reveal to me my thoughts as I’m moving through it, and the changes it brings both to the book and my own learning, but once the book is finished, so’s the review!  Of course, I don’t subscribe to any particular theory of critique, and so my posts are mainly what struck me as special, or not too terrific, but in all categories: voice, style, story, language, etc. I’d suggest you pick one book out of that pile at a time and do a quickie before you get overwhelmed and shelve them all!  Your thoughts are too valuable to be lost.

    – susan (02/18  at  11:56 AM)


Thanks, Susan, and I always enjoy reading your thoughts as you go along - particularly enjoying your Faulkner notes, recently. I had been thinking about doing what you’re doing, but not sure I’m brave enough. It’s easier (for the meek) to write out fully formed thoughts than to ask questions of yourself, publicly, as you go along. Still I might try it soon.

    – Bud (02/18  at  03:25 PM)


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