The Book You Read, The Books You Don't

In re The Beatles by Bob Spitz:

I’ve done more things this summer than I have in any other summer: travel to three countries, take a class, do an internship, submit or resubmit four research papers, refine a Web site (it’s not online yet, but it will be), maintain a personal blog, and get back in touch with a childhood passion. That passion (consuming anything about the Beatles, whether in walking Abbey Road, listening to Anthology again, almost buying a vinyl on Brick Lane, or reading the biography) has welled back up in me after lying dormant (relatively) for roughly the last seven years, and it fueled a lot of the excitement of this past summer.

Unfortunately, that passion, especially the latter manifestation (reading the biography), got in the way of other books I’ve always wanted to read. Case in point:

I was packing up for Bloomington last night. (Not finished yet!) I brought too much stuff last year, including some books that I kept in my dorm room largely for show, so I wanted to trim down the stock a little bit. I didn’t think that would be too hard; my personal Wells Library filled a milk crate and three shoeboxes. But as I browsed through the titles I would leave behind, I began to regret whatever time I had wasted over the summer. (Yes, I did waste some time. Watching new-to-me episodes of House can be productive, but watching familiar reruns of Scrubs can’t.)

I kicked myself especially over the classics. Sure, I had books that were already read, an unopened book about poker, and non-essential reference books that I could easily leave at home. But as I tossed The World Is Flat into the keep-at-home tote—

The Godfather! I started reading it last year after I “won” it at a Quizbowl meet during freshman year. I’m not even halfway through it! And The Art of War! I didn’t buy this at Barnes & Noble just ‘cuz it was on sale! And St. Augustine’s Confessions! I’m not even a THIRD of the way through this! Ugh! Why did I start reading that 900-page monster when I had THESE?!

After some exasperated sighs, some head-clutching, and some annoyed hair-combing with my hands, I resigned myself to my fate and began to toss most of them aside. I didn’t read these books when I could, and now that the school year is starting, it’s just gonna get harder to fit them into my schedule. I still have some shreds of hope, however, because I chose The Godfather and The Confessions to bring to my dorm room. I can find time.

(“I can find time.” I can’t wait to read this at the end of the year and laugh at my blind hope.)

Anyway, this is what I’m bringing to IU, excluding textbooks:

• The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
• The Confessions, Augustine of Hippo
• Gray’s Anatomy, Dr. Henry Gray (my one concession to vanity; besides, I might need it for my biology class)
• Spanish<->English, Spanish->Spanish, and English->English dictionaries
• Bible, multiple authors
• Liturgy of the Hours, multiple authors (I’ve tried before, and I might try again!)
• On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Charles Darwin (didn’t know the title was that long, did you?) (could double as a supplementary textbook for my evolution class)
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Desinovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• Day by Day, multiple authors
• The Essential Erasmus, ed. John P. Dolan
• Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
• All the President’s Men, Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
• The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross

^That only takes up HALF the milk crate. I feel much better now about the prospects of my back, and my car's gas mileage.