Book Orbits

I am utterly promiscuous about the books I read. I have standards, mind you. It's just that I can't -- won't -- commit to a single book once I've cracked it open. In the course of the evening my moods might change. I'll put down one and stick my face in another. It's a happy life, but it means I have no simple answer when anyone asks what I'm reading.

I prefer to think of books moving in orbits around the gravitational pull of my interest. Those books in the tightest orbit are those I have to hand, the ones I've begun reading and haven't given up on. Even though I like to juggle my reading, I tend to stay committed to the books I've started reading. I usually, eventually finish them. I am faithless, but tenacious.

Farther out are the books on the bedside shelf. I may or may not have read snippets of these, but they're all books I find intriguing enough to put on the shelf where they can tempt me with dreams of the unknown pleasures that await within their covers.

Even farther out are the books in my library. These are the books that I've acquire and might want to read someday, but not necessarily any time soon. Though I have too many books to be bothered with cataloging them, I allow that I might have more books than I can read in the rest of my life. I certainly have more than I can put on my shelves. No worries. Books stack; I have high ceilings. My public library also allows me to create lists of books in their holdings that I want to read.

In the deepest orbit are the books on my radar screen. These are books I've heard enough about to occasion some interest. I usually don't act on these blips of curosity, except that if a book comes up enough times on that radar, I will draw it into a tighter orbit.