The Best Way to Choose Your Next Book

I know you have a way with words.

Hi, my name is Siri. I’m calling from Vermont.

Hi, Siri in Vermont. What’s happening?

I have kind of a situation. I am an avid reader. I read every day various formats of books.

It’s really my go-to self-care, but I also make a big effort to read diversely and explore important social issues through my reading.

My to be read list has gotten to an unmanageable point.

Oh boy.

We understand this.

Yeah. And, you know, I’ve,

I looked at a method of kind of paring down some of your reading lists with age and page number,

But I’m fairly young and I want to broaden my horizons and still try a lot of different kinds of books. So I’m, I’m not sure what to do.

Yeah, I could see that. Martha, what’s your strategy? You and I have had more experience than Siri has, but what do you do to manage that?

Oh, this is such a big question. Well, I’m curious about Siri. I mean, how do you read?

I read every morning, usually with a regular book, and then I travel a lot for work, so I also usually have at least one audiobook going.

Okay, an audio book. And what about electronic versions of books?

Haven’t tried any of that.

Yeah, I’m just always curious how people read, because I think that a lot of times I feel like I have the same sense that you do that, you know, I mean, I mean, there’s a reason that there are t shirts out there that say so many books, so little time, you know, how do you make those decisions?

And then I think I get hung up by feeling like I’m skimming, like I really want to get through a book really quickly so I can get on to the next one.

And do you have that sensation as well?

Yeah, this year I felt that towards the end of the year.

Like, am I even giving these books the time and energy that I should?

Yeah, yeah.

I feel sometimes like I’m racing.

And I don’t think that that’s doing the book justice.

Have you read anything by Marianne Wolfe?

No.

She’s a reading specialist, and she recently wrote a book called Reader Come Home, The Reading Brain in a Digital World.

And she offers some reassurance there.

I mean, if you’re having a hard time reading deeply, which is what I’ve started to try to make myself do,

You need to understand that our brains weren’t meant to read.

I mean, it’s an unnatural act, right?

I mean, you really have to discipline yourself to read if you want to read deeply.

Martha, so you’re saying she should add another book to her list?

Is that what I heard?

Yes.

You know, Siri, I once heard this described as reading mortality, the dawning awareness that you will never read all the wonderful books.

And that there will be more wonderful books that appear after you are gone.

But the thing about it is that’s true for all wonderful things.

The animals and people we will never know and the spring meadows we’ll never see and the stars will never count.

And that’s why we have spirituality and religion and belief and hope that there’s something after this.

And I think for me that’s kind of what my reading list is.

It’s this reservoir of things that I have pre-chosen for me that is kind of this stockpile of hope,

The stockpile of wonderful things that I chose for me.

And that it’s kind of predetermined to have a really high likelihood that there’s something in it special for me.

It’s not like when you go to the bookstore and it’s kind of too broad and too inspecific.

My reading pile was chosen by a past me, and it’s pretty good.

And so I kind of treat it like a bookstore or a used bookstore, and I browse it with the same exact attitude that I do a bookstore and shop my own book pile.

Grant, you’re making me think about how there are several people I depend on for recommendations.

Some of them are our listeners.

I’ll get a recommendation here and there from various listeners, and I can usually trust what they’re suggesting to me.

I mean, do you take recommendations from other people, Siri?

It sounds like you’re really trying to have a balanced diet of all kinds of different, you know, eating your vegetables, but also eating things that are really delicious.

Well, vegetables are delicious, but, you know, like treats.

Like, how do you pace yourself?

Yeah, I think that’s also been something I’ve thought about because I do have some great friends and professionals I take recommendations from.

And I’ve kind of sampled my way through so many genres.

I have narrowed it down a little bit to figure out what I like best, but it still leaves me such a broad selection.

Yeah, being a book omnivore is hard, isn’t it, Siri?

Yeah.

Yeah, but I think as Grant suggested, I think you’re on the right track, just reading widely and figuring out what you like and narrowing it down that way.

I mean, there are some kinds of books that I probably won’t ever pick up again in my life, but I’m also learning what I really do like.

There’s another idea I want to leave you with, Siri.

And the idea is that you are curating a list that is yours.

And I don’t know if you share your list on Goodreads or somewhere else, or if you actually have physical books in your house.

But I like the idea that that’s yours, and it’s the Museum of Siri.

And that whatever happens to you or that book pile, that you are making an archive of you.

That is a version of you.

I like that. I like that idea.

Oh, good. I’m glad that if we could help you a little bit, because I think mostly we’re just saying we have the same problem.

You’re not alone.

Yeah, it is very comforting to know I’m not alone.

And, you know, thinking about it like any other experience in life, you just you never can see it all and do it all.

Right. And Siri, happy reading.

Thank you.

All right. Bye bye.

OK.

Thanks.

Bye bye.