New Year, New Plan (sort of)

“If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them – peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.”

Winston Churchill, ‘Painting as a Pastime’.

If those are not the words of a true kindred spirit, I don’t know what is. 🙂

It will not come as a surprise to anyone here to hear me say that I have long since come to the realization that the books I have acquired todate (& it’s still an ongoing thing) already far exceeds what I could possibly read in my lifetime. My only consolation is that, the pleasure that I get to derive from them are not just limited to the reading of them. It gives me tremendous joy and comfort just knowing that they are there waiting for me, for the right time.

At any rate, one of my intentions for this new reading year, is to endeavor to put Mr. Churchill’s wise words to practice. And to make it more fun (& random) I thought I’d use my Goodreads account to sort and select a random batch of titles in my TBR stacks for me to seek out and explore each week. I don’t mean that I’ll be reading these selections in proper (although I may very well do so too, if I find one that’s too good to be put down!), but rather just to do as Mr. Churchill suggests, to give them the recognition they deserve. This will hopefully help me get back in touch with some of the neglected titles that might have fallen ‘out of sight, out of mind’ along the way….
And so, as it happens, I’ll be starting off with these six here (within the box):

My Random Six (Week 1)

William Boyd, ‘Protobiography’.
Ali Smith, ‘Hotel World’.
Barbara Carole, ‘Twevle Stones: Notes on a Miraculous Journey’.
Muriel Spark, ‘Aiding & Abetting’.
Bruce Chatwin, ‘On the Black Hill’.
Robert Macfarlane, ‘Holloway’.

We’ll see how it goes, and if there’s anything interesting to report back.
🙂

Happy Reading, dear friends! Any exciting plans for the year ahead?