what i'm reading: a new plan

As I've mentioned many times, I keep a running List of books. The List dates back to the mid-1980s. 

It's not a complete list of books I've read. I wish I kept track of every book I read, but because I didn't start this at the Beginning of Time, I can never start it. 

The List is also not a to-read list. If it were, I would be too overwhelmed to read a single word. 

The List is all the books I hear of or read about that sound interesting and attractive to me. The List is the universe of books that I turn to when looking for what to read next. 

Books from the List comprise about half my reading -- meaning, I read many books that aren't on the List. This bothers me in ways I cannot begin to explain. I work hard to free myself from All Or Nothing thinking, but it pops up in all areas of my life. 

[Strangely, for someone whose default setting is All Or Nothing, I don't care about reading series. I often read the first book in a series, and then, whether I liked it or not, don't go any further. I can explain this... but it would make this silly, boring post even sillier and more boring.]

Recently I've been pulling smaller reading plans out of The List. I'm enjoying having a reading plan, albeit a flexible one where I also read many books that are not part of the plan. I'm obsessed with crossing things off lists, and since the massive List is too long to approach that way, these plans give me a sense of accomplishment. 

I'm aware that is all a bit ridiculous. It's just how my mind works.

I've done pretty well on this subset of The List, from this 2017 post.

Three biographies I want to read
Jackie Robinson: A Biography -- Arnold Rampersad (review)
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder -- Caroline Fraser (review)
Helen Keller: A Life -- Dorothy Herrmann (not reviewing)

Three people I want to read biographies of but don't know which one to read
Muhammad Ali (review)
Bob Dylan
Galileo (not reviewing)

Now I'm going to turn my attention to this bit.

Six writers whose books keep appearing on my list but I haven't read yet (there are many more)
Frans De Waal
Carl Safina
Robert Sapolsky
Margaret Laurence
Colm Toibin
Helen Oyeyemi

Three write nonfiction, three write fiction. I'm aiming for a minimum of two books per author, although not consecutively. 

But first, new Roddy Doyle, and more labour history and organizing.

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