Keeping up with books

At least TV is less likely to unfold in a starless vacuum, whereas the vast majority of published written material will forever languish in quasi absolute obscurity. The light that is periodically shed on recognizable authorial figures and their works is microscopic when set against the boundless dormant library that makes up the space of literature, which is less and less distinguishable from a virtual garbage dump with each passing year. Major publishing houses, prestigious prizes, interviews with established authors, academic canons, etc., all exist to put a face on the anonymous abyss where creative works go to die as soon as they come into being. And while a handful of remarkable specimens do indeed rise to the top, it would be risible to assume that ours is a literary (or artistic) meritocracy.

Keeping up with seldom read books, while impossible, is therefore a moral imperative, and any dent made in the writerly institutions that be (especially their more venal manifestations), any gaze laid upon their invisible margins, is a small triumph. Or so I tell myself in my more seditious moods; the fact of the matter is that it’s best not to worry about what lies beyond your control and simply go about your solitary business, which is toil enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year

― pomenitul, zaterdag 28 november 2020 23:34 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Putting this on my wall in a golden frame, so otm. I'm way more 'relaxed' about 'keeping up' with literature or books than with music, with which I get something akin to fomo way earlier and more stressful (which is daft, but.. true, at times). I don't ever feel 'out of the loop' with literature or books though. Where with music I'd like to keep up with what happens in at least some genres important to me, I just don't feel this w/ books. Perhaps it's also to do with the vast amount of books of yore I'd still like to read, books that are written hundreds if not a thousand years ago.

Music feels too much at times because we're (trapped) in this yearly cycle that's being rushed on by aoty-list-season (which I enjoy!) and being on the pulse way, way more than literature. Or at least that's how I perceive it.

I subscribe to five or six literary magazines (the usual suspects plus some Dutch ones), read the supplements in various papers, and on top of that get a lot of reading tips from other books! (a side-project of sorts is working through the books lauded in Huysmans' 'A Rebours', for example, I'm about to start 'La Faustin') Those will lead to other books I want to read again.

It's not 'keeping up', but knowing I won't run out of books I'd like to read, and knowing also that I probably won't even be reading the book I thought I'd be reading after 'La Faustin', because so much can entice me before I pick it up I will have changed course, is just a pleasant feeling.

Tl;dr what Pom said, learn to stop worrying and embrace the infinite amount of books, and see where it takes you next, one book at a time.

I'm way more 'relaxed' about 'keeping up' with literature or books than with music, with which I get something akin to fomo way earlier and more stressful

cosign

Part of it for me is that it's easy to absent-mindedly 'listen' to music as I go about my daily business, so I fall prey to the quixotic call of exhaustivity because it almost seems achievable, whereas with books it's so obviously a non-starter that I'd rather not go down that route at all. That said, every once in a while I will manically devour as many acclaimed contemporary-ish (published in the last five years) books as possible so I can get a better sense of what the current 'scene' looks like and tbh it does actually quench my latent FOMO because it makes me realize I don't care for the majority of it, whereas with music, gluttony just gives rise to more gluttony.

xxxxxxpost, thanks for the link, flopson! It is a grueling read, but I think I understand better now. What a brave and eloquent writer. I'll check more of his, incl. the novel, Alice Knott.

He's...okay.

What he writes about Molly is more than okay.

But if not for you, so be it.

No, I like his writing on Molly.

His other writing is just okay.

I just want to put it out there that while this isn't the case with Butler's writing on Brodak, just because an established writer loses someone in a tragic way doesn't make them writing about it "good writing." Case in point: the J0yelle McSweeney book about losing her infant daughter, which is...really rigid, unfeeling, boring even.

As someone who usually reads books fairly quickly, I would be a hell of a lot more anxious if I only read say 6 or so a year. How the hell do you decide what to read next when there are so few opportunities to choose?

i don't understand this question! there are fewer opportunities but so many books available that it's the same difficulty regardless. but times i have read only a few books in a year i've been so busy/tired/destroyed that everything was difficult so it made no difference. people who read less for other reasons such as not caring about reading as much could also have an easier time because they just never feel anxious about how many books there are.

i'm about to finish a 500 page book i started last week though so things are going much better

the number of books i’m currently “reading” but haven’t finished has risen dangerously over the last couple of weeks

just reviewed this stat myself. disastrous. utterly disastrous.

every year i say finish before you move onto the next one and every year i do that for two short books and then it all falls apart.

Happy to read multiple non-fiction books simultaneously, but can only manage one fiction at a time - except *maybe* if I have some short stories on the go.

I'm a book monogamist but that hardly keeps the fomo away - if anything it's worse with all those shelves of unread books staring at me.

finishing a book is part of what motivates me to read another so i have learned not to pick up multiple books so i don't end up with 10 half read books and finish 0 of them, also do best when i finish something faster

I often read one longer fiction or non-fiction book at the same time as reading one poetry book. Multiple books within the same genre is a but much for me!