Reading

On the off chance you don't have enough books cued up in your reading list, this Best of 2006 list is in Rebecca's Pocket. Best of 2006 includes links to "Best of..." lists from the American Library Association, the Library Journal, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly and many more. I'm happy to find that I've already read several books that appear on one or more of the lists. My book group's current selection, The Inheritance of Loss, is on several of the lists.

But I'm haunted by the thought that if I only read one book a week and I'm lucky enough to have my eyesight hold out for thirty years, I'm going to have to be pretty selective. I've only recently learned that if I'm a couple of chapters into a book and it's just not doing anything for me, ditch it - or at least move it to the bottom of the list.

Bill, with his depression-era frugality, is irresistibly drawn to bargain books advertised in junk mail. This week he gave me one of those books that inspires me to ask, "Is it possible that publishers are paying people for books this bad?" Success with Organic Fruit is packed with misinformation and incredibly bad photos.

So, things that are open right now on the end table, bedside table and kitchen table:

The Eternal Frontier, An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples, Tim Flannery
The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
The End of Faith, Sam Harris

Some of the books working their way to the top of the pile:

Collapse, Jared Diamond
Crimes Against Nature, Robert F Kennedy, Jr
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant (okay, I'm way behind in fiction)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (ditto)

Things I may have to buy soon:

John Adams, David McCullough
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Jimmy Carter
and a number of books recently featured on CSPAN's BookTV