A stack makes a poem

Theresa’s post, ‘Visual Poem – stack of books in a cafe‘, inspired me to share this post. I found her visual poem interestingly stimulating.

I had taken pictures of my books-to-read last year hoping to get pushed to get done with my reading by posting it on my Instagram and sharing the date I intend to read all of them.

I did not post on Instagram.

I did read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ first because I wanted to refresh my memory of the story before tackling ‘Go Set a Watchman’. I had read it in high school in the early to mid 80s so that was a long time ago.

I bought Watchman before Mockingbird and I started reading the former but it didn’t grab me as much as the latter did. I have not returned to it yet despite having read a good review by a fellow blogger. I do need to get on with it.

Instead of tackling the three books waiting for my attention, I bought an addition. I was looking for a light read for the holidays. I chose the familiar, Danielle Steel. Not only had she inspired me before, my fiction writing (nothing published) years ago had been influenced by her, too. Alas, the holidays were too busy and I didn’t even read a paragraph of it.

As if not enough, the first month of the year saw me with the best of intentions. I purchased Stephen King‘s ‘On Writing’. The reason is pretty obvious, I think.

Unfortunately, and I have to admit that it isn’t only because life happens but because I have not prioritized reading, I have not finished reading a single book on my side table stack.

I have read several chapters of my autographed copy of ‘The Drug of Hope’, a gift from the author. The author is an acquaintance. I would have liked to call Frank a friend but I don’t want to be presumptuous. I find it intriguing and despite it being too graphic and almost morbid, I just didn’t get a chance to get back to it yet. My father-in-law even finished reading it before me.

I also started with Lisa’s ‘Who are you, again?’ but I guess a few pages don’t count for much. Like Frank, I would consider Lisa a friend but let us settle for acquaintance. I have to double-check if my copy is signed. I think so; I bought it at the launch. That is how long it has been since I opened the book.

My stack remains (as they have been stacked since last year on my bedside table)…

On Writing
Who Are You, Again?
The Drug of Hope
Magic
Go Set a Watchman

Let me correct myself here. I have a new book on top of the stack – ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass’ (Lewis Carroll). I hope to get my little princess to be interested in reading. I read a few pages to her one night. She fell asleep. She has not asked me again to read to her.

I promise to finish one book this month. They can’t possibly wait two or three years as Leo Tolstoy has been waiting for me to finally finish reading ‘Anna Karenina’ (Kindle) and ‘War and Peace’ (Print). (I have over 100 pages of Anna under my belt; not quite of War.)