I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life

by Anne Bogel

A “great” book means different things to different people.

Determine a method of organization. Alphabetical order ensures you will be able to find any given title, but this is only the beginning of the avid reader’s concerns. The Dewey Decimal System will wow your friends and ensure they’ll talk about you at cocktail parties. Organize by color, and everyone who doesn’t organize their books by the rainbow will think your efforts are seriously misguided, but your shelves will be breathtaking. To relish the twin delights of baffling your friends and

finding your books, organize by Trivial Pursuit

Bookworm Problems

favotite quote

You are full of bookish joy, but still woefully short on shelf space.

I know what it means for books to shape you—the person you are, the person you were then. For readers, the great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other readers you’ve been. Sometimes you think fondly of the readers you used to be; sometimes looking back makes you cringe a little. But they’re still here. They’re still you.

A good book, when we return to it, will always have something new to say. It’s not the same book, and we’re not the same reader.