The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

I keep book lists of what I have read. Why do I do this? In Year 7 at high school we had to keep a log of all the books we read and when we reached a certain amount of pages then we were deemed to have read enough books for the year. It was a way of addressing a part of the syllabus that wonders if the students are doing enough independent reading. So, I created the list like everyone else. Why do I still do it? Well, the same reason why I didn’t cheat, like I could have so easily and others did, because I like reading.

Reading is one of the most fun and awesome things you can do, and it’s also one of the smartest things you can do. I teach primary school students and I always encourage them to read. Only by reading will you be exposed to new words, and only then can you be expected to learn those words. Soupcon was one word I stumbled across around the time I went to uni. I had never seen or heard the word before, so I had no idea what it meant. So I asked my mother and looked it up, both gave me the same answer. Most of literacy is about exposure, otherwise if you never come across heliocracy, lithe, anachronistic or antidisestablishmentaryanism you’ll never get the chance to wonder what they mean and then quench that curiosity.

So, ever since Year 7 I have detailed all the books that I have ever read. I even total up, at the end of each year, how many books I read, how many pages it all was, and what the average size novel I read for each year was. Then the information is tabulated over the years. From 1994 until 2009. That’s a long time, and a lot of books. 326 books to be precise, give or take a few from one lazy year.

The other day, my brother sent me the paper originals for the first six years of my lists and I finally put them into my computer to line up with the other ones. It was interesting to see what I was reading through my high school years, which these pages covered. I noticed some interesting facts that I thought I would share.

- I have only read two novels that clock in at over one thousand words. One was The Stand, which I read in Year 7, 1994, and the other was Moby-Dick, which was months ago. Many hit seven to nine hundred, but only two cross that line.
- I was capable of reading multiple books by the one author in a row (Stephen King and Clive Barker mostly), whereas now I need to break it up, diversify.
- I read my first Philip K Dick book in 1997. I’ve now read about a dozen.
- I am still impressed with my hit to miss ratio of books I enjoyed a lot, sometimes even noticing stretches where I was rocking it out with quality material. 1999 saw The Handmaid’s Tale, The Silence of the Lambs, Misery, The Solitaire Mystery, Galilee, Vita Brevis, Hearts In Atlantis, and The Wanderers all come in a row, and be bookended by Elmore Leonard. That’s not bad darts at all.
- My record would be thirteen novels in a month. I was laid up after an operation. As much as the operation sucked ass, ‘literally’, I findly remember that summer spent reading a few different things and watching movies.
- One year I only read two novels. I remember I read a hell of a lot of comics that year, and that was the year I also started to take my writing very seriously, so most nights were right at the computer spitting out words, not chewing them up. I now have a much better balance in life.

It was fun to travel back through the old lists. Interesting to see what titles and authors made me think and remember. Smells and feelings completely came back to me.
- R.L. Stine was my early high school transition author to more adult fare. I don’t mean the Goosebumps Stine either, or Fear Street Stine, I’m talking old school Stine.
- I remembered staying up to finish one more chapter of The Stand, only to find out that chapter was worth 70 pages. My mother walked in and told me lights out after the chapter, but she never made me stop reading, she was good like that.
- Christopher Pike’s adult books completely won me over. Did he do any more?
- I used to race home to keep reading the four book X-Wing Squadron series by Michael A Stackpole. Man, I will re-read those one day, for sure.
- The only other Star Wars books I would revisit would be the Tales Books (Mos Eisley Cantina, Bounty Hunters and Jabba’s Palace), and Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and maybe Shadows of the Empire. It’s funny that the two books that come between the original movies are the good ones.
- At the same time I can remember waiting each month for The Green Mile to come out, it was such an experience getting it each month. Much like comic reading, no waiting for the trade on Green Mile.
- I can remember the smell and feel of the main two secondhand book stores where I bought most of the Stephen King books that I went through over those years. Both stores I haven’t been to in a long time, it was cool to think about them once more. I think my life is defined, partially, by the secondhand book stores I have loved, and I do remember them all.
- Last year, 2008, was the first year since the lists inception that I didn’t read a Stephen King book. Though I did read two Cormac McCarthy’s and a Clive Barker, seasoned with tastes of Robert E. Howard and Dashiell Hammett.

It’s been fun to travel to the past, but I will always be much more intrigued with where I will go for the future of my reading. Which made the other present even more relevant, a thirty dollar gift voucher to my local book chain.

Wonder what it’ll add to the list?

Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: books