I hate not knowing what to read next!

[Dave]

I just finished my next book club book. I won't know what the next one is for a week. I have 52 books on my to-read list (incidentally I also have 52 friends---I may have to drop a friend or find a new book to add), but I don't know where to start. It's oppressing me.

[Reads with Scotch]

Come on Dave, everyone is doing it.

[Dave]

That might work. It's not on my to-read list so that number won't change and my OCD about numbers won't be aggravated.

[Lori]

Oscar Wao is a great choice Dave.

But yeah, I hate not being able to decide what book to read next, especially coming off a great read. One with the same mood, or completely different? Decisions, decisions.

So I go to my bookshelves that are overflowing with to-read books (I had to move the ones I read down to the basement!) pick out a handful, and read reviews here and at Amazon. If it's a tie, I read the first paragraph or two.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

I use the Zen approach to books. When it is time, the book will come to me.

[Reads with Scotch]

I use the wife knows best method. She gives me a stack of books and I read them in the order she gives them to me.

[Dave]

Thanks for saying "a little" odd, Sarah.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

That's sweet, Nick! I wish my husband would do that.

[Reads with Scotch]

Well it back fires from time to time... Once I looked in my bag and found 'the time travelers wife" Eh NO not going to read that. But usually she just gives me books that I asked for previously. Only once in awhile does she try to sneak some garbage in there.

[Dave]

Damn, it's 352 pages long. I can't finish that in a week. But on the bright side it has 52 in it. I'm torn.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

You could read The Crying of Lot 49. It's "fun"!

[Dave]

Oscar Wao is a no go. It's not at my library.

[Dave]

You put fun in quotes. I think I'll pass. Everybody's ahead of me anyway. I think I might read Live and Let Die, but I feel like I should be reading nonfiction right now.

[Dave]

Stiff looks interesting. 304 pages and it's in paperback. Thanks.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Ooh, ooh, then read one of Mary Roach's books, Dave! She wrote Stiff, which Sarah M. just recommended in a different thread, about all the different ways bodies donated to science get used, and Spook where she looks into ghost hunters and clairvoyants and reincarnation, and Bonk about sex.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Wow, cross-post heaven!

[Dave]

Dang. Sex or cadavers. You're complicating things, Jackie.

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

Get the one that's in at the library, Dave! Bonk is new (and it's about sex), so it's probably checked out.

[Lori]

Nick, The Time Traveler's Wife is a great read! Your wife is trying to broaden your sensibilities, make you into a better man to match her brilliant sensitivies. And you are proved lacking! Not up to it, hmmm.

[Reads with Scotch]

Nope, not up to the challenge. I have no desire to read it. I just don’t think I would find it interesting, or compelling... Lame more like. Not my cup of burnt sienna.

[Rusty]

I don’t know why the wives play those games either, Nick. I’ve been married almost ten years and my wife still tries that garbage sometimes. The other day she asked me if I wanted to see the movie “Music & Lyrics”. Almost before she finished the sentence, she realized the futility and said “Nevermind”. I mean, I’ll sit in the same room with her and work on the laptop or something, but I’m not going to waste an hour and a half of my life watching crap.

[Reads with Scotch]

Yes, the wives should really know us by now. Sometimes I just have to sit there and stair at her for a bit until she realizes what she asked. Then I am quietly excused.

Its generally at this time that I run outside like a little boy and start playing with my trebuchet }:-D No chick flick for this alpha male.