I love to read. A lot. Whenever I have a chance. I’m the person who cannot go to sleep unless I spend at least 5 minutes reading. Doesn’t matter what. Good book helps. But a magazine article is a good compromise. Even instruction manuals will do in a pinch.
Needless to say, I have a lot of books. I have full bookshelves in my home office. I have full bookshelves in my wife’s home office. My kindle collection contains over 1200 books. And I read almost all of them. (Some of them are reference volumes and meant to be perused, not read.) Sci Fi is my preferred genre. But I am not opposed to a good mystery or detective novel or some of the classics. Heck, I even managed to make my way through first 2 books of “50 shades” series (although the sex scenes really started to get in a way of the story in book 2).
I’m starting to run out of decent books to read. I’m not even asking for a great book. Not everyone can be Robert Heinlein, or Ayn Rand, or even John Ringo. I’ve read through all of the authors I know about. I even got new titles from new authors. But they don’t write fast enough. I’ve been re-reading a lot of books in my collection simply because I don’t have anything new to read that would catch my interest.
I’m sure there are more books for me to read, if only I could find them. So far, I have not found any databases anywhere that would list the books by genre and keywords and would have a short description of each, so I could determine right away if that is something I may be interested in reading. Maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough. It’s hard to believe that I’m the only person with that problem.
With the current technology levels, publishing a book is easier than ever. With Amazon eBook formats and print-on-demand services, anyone can publish a book with minimal financial investment. No longer are the writers at the mercy of the publisher, the established gatekeepers of the printed word. So why aren’t there more books coming out? Or maybe they are, and we just don’t know about them? Maybe there needs to be some sort of a clearinghouse (is that even the correct word) for the writes to list their books by genre with some keywords and short description for the potential readers to see? With reader reviews (similar to Amazon). So that someone looking for a good book to read can easily find something to suit their mood and reading habits. Is Goodreads that place? Possibly. Maybe I need to spend more time looking there to see what it offers.
Anyway, that wasn’t where I was heading. Not even sure how I got to that point. Must be lack of sleep and associated lack of sufficient quantity of coffee. What I was getting to, is that while there are some new good books coming out, there are so many more “blah” ones, and some really bad ones. It’s not that I feel bad about spending money on the bad ones; they are not that expensive and overall not a huge dent in my monthly budget. What I do resent, is the time I waste trying my best to get through the bad ones. As I get older, and as my schedule gets busier, I am beginning to realize that time is my most precious asset, and I should be more conscious of how I use it and what I waste it on.
No, I’m not going to stop reading. Not sure if I even can. It’s an addiction, albeit much cheaper one than drugs, gambling, or sports cars. But I will get more selective with my book selections. Maybe re-reading more of the old or modern classics. Or more time petting my dog. Or reading to my dog…
OK, I think it’s time to stop rambling now and get more coffee, before my mind takes me places I don’t want to venture into. See you all later.