Have You Read This One?

[Peg Herring]

A frustrating part of being a reader is that you're never, ever, done. People are always mentioning books that sound interesting, recommending authors whose work I might enjoy, or even handing me books with a "You've got to read this."

But there isn't time!

Although I never made it to a lot of the old classics, there are new classics, prize-winners, best-sellers, and unread works of authors I like lined up on my mental TBR list, waiting for my attention. I used to read everything, but now I can't even keep up with mystery, my own genre. I'm several behind on most of my favorite authors' books, haven't even tried books by people I've met at cons or online. Titles, blurbs, reviews, and recommendations come so fast I don't even remember most of them, much less find the book and actually read it.

The upshot of all this is that I read a mish-mash of books, mostly chosen by the mood of the moment when I walk into a bookstore or visit amazon.com. My Just-read list in no way represents order or even orderly intent. You may find me erudite on the subject of one book or author and totally clueless when it comes to another. I suppose I should attempt some sort of system, but I doubt it would work. No matter what I say I'm going to read next, I'll always respond when someone waves something different in front of my face and says, "Have you read this one?"

[Peg Herring]

So true. I don't think as many people buy the best-sellers as figures indicate, and I don't think a lot of the people who do buy them actually read them!

[Benoit AKoa]

Excerpts do it for me. If I read an excerpt and if after I’m done I feel the urge to read the real deal immediately or three excerpts later, then that’s the one I read those days. I stopped reading best seller lists as they can by created by falls hype.