Everyday Canvas

On Books

Prompt: What books are on your summer reading list?

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Books do matter. More than anything. That is, they are for me. They comfort me, challenge me, instruct me, which is why I don’t have a reading list for anything or anytime, except for ~Minja~ ’s Reading Challenges.

Then, I just checked my Goodreads book-reading credentials. It shows me in the process of reading 86 books at the same time. Ridiculous, right? This is because each time I open a book on Kindle and check or read a few pages just to see if I am in the mood for that book, it registers in Goodreads as if I’ve started to read it. I know the control is in my hands, but why bother? Even if it is just a click or two, it is a distraction while I am trying to figure out what to start reading at that very moment.

Yet, Goodreads isn’t so far off. I have several Kindles and an old Nook, and I do buy or borrow print books, too. Still, at any given time, I am not reading more than four books concurrently.

So, if I never have a summer, winter, spring, or fall reading list, it is because I am always reading whatever I wish.

As to Minja’s bi-monthly reading challenge, we only have to say how many books we’ll read at the given time. As to her yearly challenge, I only entered three items. The entire novels of Charles Dickens, which I wanted to read, (yes, all 16 them), for a long time, a three-book sci-fi collection, and Goldfinch by Donna Tart, which I’ve already read in the beginning of the year.

Is it the unseen and imagined world or the real world I am after? I don’t know, but I do like the real world, even these days, although what’s happening to me and the world is rather difficult to handle. Thus, in dealing with the real world, the unseen and the imagined can be a panacea. In short, the right book at the right time, for all relevant reasons, puts me in a happier place and raises my spirits.