In all seriousness, buying books creates a problem. Not enough time to read + buying more books = a big stack of unread books. I’m not a math theoretician, but this makes sense in my brain. Reading relaxes me, gives me pleasure, and occupies my usually troubled mind. Books are my life. If I had it my way, I would read much faster and retain more in my memory. It would be nice if I read 10,000 books before I go to my grave but considering I have entered middle age and I’m edging toward 3,000, it doesn’t look like it will happen.
My mind is always active. I haven’t been diagnosed but I’m pretty sure that I have ADHD. My brain requires stimulation on a constant basis, either by work, activity, or entertainment or I become a depressed, lifeless lump. My curiosity for new authors and stories is endless and because I always prod for new material, I find it without too much trouble, even if details of some of the authors are difficult to research. Currently on my To-Be-Read shelf are the following: 100+ Shadow novels and approximately 50 other pulp hero novels. By modest estimations, I have at least 100 horror-themed novels, 70ish Fawcett Gold Medal novels, 25 Ed McBain novels, and an unspecified amount of crime fiction and western books that don’t fit the previous categories.
These are rough numbers. A comprehensive list would make the task too daunting. I simply do my best to read whatever strikes my fancy and it’s more effective for me to do that than to follow a structured list and schedule. I may read like it's a business, but that doesn’t mean that it must become a business, if you take my meaning. I’m not sure what to do with this except to purge some books here and there that are no longer interesting and not keep any finished books that I don’t like or believe serve any purpose. In the meantime, I read what I have. Laying it out like this actually makes my task easier to digest. In my mind, I thought that the list would be 600 books or worse. It looks more like there are 400 on my radar and subject to change, but I think it’s doable. It’s a problem and not a problem at the same time. Definitely a first-world problem and something that only book lovers would understand. Personally, I think the guilt of not reading what I have has some ties to living in a consumer culture that somehow has a practical and impractical perspective on buying and using things.
I take comfort in hearing about the likes of Umberto Eco (author of The Name of the Rose), who owned 50,000 books in his lifetime. Here’s what he said, “It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones. . . we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That’s why you should always have a nutrition choice!” I plan on watching the documentary Umberto Eco: A Library of the World to hear more about his philosophy. Having a book on tap for when you might need it fits my aesthetic. I realize that some books that I try out at first don’t grab me, but if I try them at some future point, then I’m more receptive. Such was the case with Arthur Machen. If didn’t return to his work in 2012 after trying a little bit in 2010, I would not be the big fan that I am now. This also happened with Nigel Kneale’s short story collection Tomato Cain that I finished just recently. The same works for Shadow novels; sometimes I really feel like one and I absorb it with enthusiasm and some I don’t because I’m not feeling it at the moment.
Currently, I’m back in the horror saddle, hopefully more so than I’ve been in the past 3 years. I recently got my hands on some more audiobooks and am listening to some Jeff Strand novels. I am reading short story collections released by Valancourt which includes Orchard of the Dead by Stefan Grabinski, The Other Passenger by John Keir Cross, A Different Darkness by Luigi Musolino, Looking for Something to Suck by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, and books by Bernard Taylor. Valancourt also released reprints of Robert Bloch’s books (The Opener of the Way and Night of the Ripper so far, then Pleasant Dreams and The Scarf this year.)
My reading has also taken me back to British pulp fiction. Back in the 50s and 60s, a publisher called Badger released a digest called Supernatural Stories. They had certain writers publish stories under multiple pseudonyms, but according to my research, it wasn’t unusual for the same author to write all the material for one issue (almost as if the issue was just a single author short story collection instead of an anthology). I started reading short stories by John Glasby, chemist, astronomer, and prolific genre writer. His story “Nightmare on Ice” was recently republished in Pulp Adventures #45 released by Bold Venture Press. It’s an amazing story a small group of men stationed in the Arctic (similar situation to The Thing but the creature is different). The tension in the story is genuine and not a word is wasted. “Solitude” (reprinted in Pulp Adventures #43) is a story about a cuckolded archeologist and the artifact he plans to use for his revenge. My favorite so far is “The Black Widow” about a haunted French villa and an apparition that resides in and leaves a painting at will. There is something about that one that is especially chilling. I’m sold on Glasby and plan to read more in the future.
Takeaway: I’m the creator of my personal vicious circle of buying more than I can read, but I’ll deal with it. In the meantime, I’ll have some fun.
Written by Nicholas Montelongo

These are rough numbers. A comprehensive list would make the task too daunting. I simply do my best to read whatever strikes my fancy and it’s more effective for me to do that than to follow a structured list and schedule. I may read like it's a business, but that doesn’t mean that it must become a business, if you take my meaning. I’m not sure what to do with this except to purge some books here and there that are no longer interesting and not keep any finished books that I don’t like or believe serve any purpose. In the meantime, I read what I have. Laying it out like this actually makes my task easier to digest. In my mind, I thought that the list would be 600 books or worse. It looks more like there are 400 on my radar and subject to change, but I think it’s doable. It’s a problem and not a problem at the same time. Definitely a first-world problem and something that only book lovers would understand. Personally, I think the guilt of not reading what I have has some ties to living in a consumer culture that somehow has a practical and impractical perspective on buying and using things.

I take comfort in hearing about the likes of Umberto Eco (author of The Name of the Rose), who owned 50,000 books in his lifetime. Here’s what he said, “It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones. . . we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That’s why you should always have a nutrition choice!” I plan on watching the documentary Umberto Eco: A Library of the World to hear more about his philosophy. Having a book on tap for when you might need it fits my aesthetic. I realize that some books that I try out at first don’t grab me, but if I try them at some future point, then I’m more receptive. Such was the case with Arthur Machen. If didn’t return to his work in 2012 after trying a little bit in 2010, I would not be the big fan that I am now. This also happened with Nigel Kneale’s short story collection Tomato Cain that I finished just recently. The same works for Shadow novels; sometimes I really feel like one and I absorb it with enthusiasm and some I don’t because I’m not feeling it at the moment.
Currently, I’m back in the horror saddle, hopefully more so than I’ve been in the past 3 years. I recently got my hands on some more audiobooks and am listening to some Jeff Strand novels. I am reading short story collections released by Valancourt which includes Orchard of the Dead by Stefan Grabinski, The Other Passenger by John Keir Cross, A Different Darkness by Luigi Musolino, Looking for Something to Suck by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, and books by Bernard Taylor. Valancourt also released reprints of Robert Bloch’s books (The Opener of the Way and Night of the Ripper so far, then Pleasant Dreams and The Scarf this year.)

Takeaway: I’m the creator of my personal vicious circle of buying more than I can read, but I’ll deal with it. In the meantime, I’ll have some fun.
Written by Nicholas Montelongo
The author does not allow comments to this entry
No comments