Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Book overload!!!

I was reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" and as I finished the first part, I came to a hard realization. I am in the middle of too many books right now. As in, I haven't been reading this many book simultaneously since grad school. Full-time grad school. What am I reading?
  1. The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell. I started reading this because I was interested in reading it in the future and there were three people who had requested the book before me at the library (the library has only two copies; compare to the 131 copies of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, a count which doesn't include the audio book versions and large print editions). Apparently those other people are speed readers because my reserve showed up in less than a month. Since it is from the library, naturally I needed to read it right away before returning it.
  2. Grimm's Fairy Tales, Grimm Brothers. I started reading this over a year ago. It's my bedside reading book. Starting and stopping with this book is pretty easy since it is a compilation of unrelated short stories. I usually read it if I need something during a daytime nap and nothing else is lying around in the bedroom.
  3. Don't Know Much About (R) Mythology, Kenneth C. Davis. This book is an anniversary present from my wife and I'm interested because I'm thinking of starting a mythology podcast (which is also the inspiration for reading Campbell and Grimm Bros.). Since I own the book, reading it has been off and on. And yes, there is a copyright symbol in the middle of the title. The author has written a string of similarly titled books about history, the Bible, science, etc.
  4. Fathering Your Toddler, Armin A. Brott. I've been reading this one for a while too, though I haven't picked it up for a couple of months. I'm trying to stay informed about what to expect with Jacob. Unfortunately, this volume has been taking a back seat lately.
  5. The Thought of Saint Paul, William Most. A book from my Christendom days that I started reading for the year of St. Paul (which ended in June, now we're onto the year of the Priest). The writing is a little dry and academic. He repeats himself a lot. I lost count of how many times he referred to Luther's "Sin boldly but believe more boldly" line from Epistle 501 to Melanchthon.
  6. Mad Scientist Hall of Fame: Muwahahahaha!, Daniel Wilson. I started this book last week when I was playing with Jacob in the living room. He started playing by himself but didn't want me to leave, so I grabbed something off the shelf. The book has short biographies of real and fictional scientists who were crazy with varying levels of genius. The first bio was of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, followed by a crazy but scientifically idiotic Soviet named Trofim Lysenko.
  7. I'm also reading a couple of different monthly comic books (Hellboy and his spin offs and some Green Lantern stuff).
I also have Steven King's On Writing (recommended by Grammar Girl for anyone who is a writer) from the library. This book is waiting for me to finish J. Campbell. It also was a requested book that I expected not to come for a month or two at the earliest. And Angie has a parenting book from the library she wants me to read but I haven't had the chance to start yet because of all the other demands.

Finishing Part One of Hero Has a Thousand Faces, I've come to the conclusion that I need to finish up some of these books before starting any new ones. To make this easier, I am going to return Campbell and King to the library and put the books on a "too read someday" list. Then I can focus on getting these other books read without the guilt of seeing all the little stacks that are forming all over the house. Wish me luck!

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