Reading Projects:

A Word from the Control Booth

By now it should be obvious that this Substack arose from my love for/practice of/ belief in:

• reading (mainly) fiction

• keeping track of the books

• aggregating things that have some aspect in common

• looking stuff up

• making up games/challenges for my own amusement

As well as from:

• The whole-hearted endorsement of Saul Bellow's dictum: A writer is a reader moved to emulation.

But it's rooted in darker thoughts, too—ones hovering over the site where two irreconcilable ideas crash head-on. The first, instilled in me in boyhood: Make something of yourself.

The other is, of course, all about us, always: This too shall pass. 

Readers of this Substack's first posts (from the essay, "Oblivion") know these matters are much on my mind these days—impermanence, being forgotten. Beyond feeding my list-making habit, beyond the Oh you gotta read this feeling, you can take this blog as one guy's attempt to jam a steel bar between the whirring spokes of time.

Anyway, thanks for taking part. I welcome your responses. I hope that even if you don't take me up on my reading projects/challenges [coming soon], you'll become aware of a few books/a few writers you didn't know before coming aboard. 

And, as always, there's a special spot in me heart for those who bring a friend.

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Ongoing Projects:

a) Shelter from the Storm:

Here's the concept: Each of us has a small cache of books we know and esteem that even other readers like us likely don't know—our discoveries, books we feel a special need to keep out of the clutches of oblivion. I invite you to recommend one.

The details:

• One per subscriber [for now].

• Tell us why, in one sentence.

• When there's enough for a list, I'll post.

• You can have your name attached, or not—up to you.

b) Birth Year Project: A standing invitation

You supply your birth year [in a comment]; I'll respond with a short list of books published that year—the popular/well-known titles first, then some books I'd recommend. If your year's already been used, fret not; I'll do a fresh one.

Extra credit: You read one of the books (ideally one you're unfamiliar with), then tell me what you thought. If we get enough of these, I'll aggregate and post.