What to read, what to read

Like many booklovers, I have a huge pile of books on my shelves (and on the floor, as it happens) waiting to be read, along with a few (or many) books that I have borrowed from the library.  Last night after I finished the book I was reading (Almost Home by Pam Jenoff -- very good!) I went to select my next book and - I was paralyzed with indecision!

How do I choose what to read next?  The book that was recently released and is receiving lots of positive buzz?  The book about a topic currently making headlines?  How about this one -- no, if I bring that to work I'll receive some funny looks (well, I do already, because I READ).  Or this library book that is due back next week - nah, I'm just not in the mood for it right now.

I have some books set aside for upcoming reading challenges and I've thought about organizing the to-read pile by month or something to make it more manageable (that's not the right word - I can't think of a better one though) but of course the pile is not static -- I am always adding to it and the bright shiny new book sometimes moves ahead of all the others who have been waiting patiently to be read.

So what did I decide on?  The book that has probably been on the to-read pile the longest:

The book has long since been released in paperback, but I have the hardcover, purchased during a visit to family in Winnipeg maybe a year and a half ago.

How do you decide what to read next?  Do you have a system?

A book not quite ready for its time

I hate it when I start a book that I have been eagerly anticipating and don't feel pulled in right away.

Cutting for Stone has been on my to-read list for the last year, and when it was recently released in paperback I took the plunge and purchased it (well, it wasn't so brave as that -- not much incentive is needed to get me to buy a book).
I started it the other day and I'm about 120 pages in and -- I'm not sure that I enjoy it.  It's got me just enough to want to continue, but not enough that I want to stop everything else and keep reading.  I might give it another chapter or two before deciding whether to put it aside for the time being; but if anyone has read it -- can you give me a reason to keep on?

Do you have a book that you've been excited to read only to be disappointed with it?

Short books

  In my last post I questioned myself on whether I might read too much since at that time I had read 20 books so far in 2010.  A few days later, I finished two books probably within the span of 12 hours (and that included a good night's sleep) -- very short ones, but extremely strong stories.
  The first book was The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi which was mentioned by Ann Kingman on a recent Books on the Nightstand podcast.  In what seems to be Afghanistan, a young woman cares for her husband who lies in the middle of a room badly injured from a gunshot wound to his neck.  He cannot speak, and as she tends to him she talks to him about things she would never dream of sharing with him if he were well.   He in some ways becomes her patience stone - sang-e-saboor in Persian - a stone believed to take in the hurt and anguish of those who confide in it and which will one day explode with all of the pain it has absorbed.  Beautiful is not quite the word to describe it, but because the novel is short the language used is concise yet extremely vivid.  If you enjoyed The Kite Runner, you will also enjoy this book (in fact, Khaled Hosseini wrote an introduction to the English translation).
  The second book was Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, which is the March selection for my Classics reading group.  I had read a few of Wharton's other novels - The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth - and was surprised at how different this one was.  It explores a completely different "class" of people in a very different setting.  I'm not sure how I feel about it after reading it, but I think it will prompt an interesting discussion.

Have you read any good short books lately?

Do I read too much?

The other night I attended a wonderful presentation at my favorite bookstore, Read Between the Lynes about books ideal for book group discussions. Part of the presentation was some giveaways, and for one of them the person who had read the most books year to date in 2010 would receive the prize; I won the giveaway because I said that I had read 15 books so far this year, and some people were shocked that I had read so many.
When I got home I looked at my 2010-reads list I set up on Goodreads, and found out that actually I have read 21 books so far.
I feel almost embarassed about this now. I know that I read more than most people, but not as much as some. I'm making a more conscious effort to read for quality over quantity, and I feel that most of the books I've read so far this year have been thought-provoking and caused me to slow down and appreciate them. Yet I have so many books on my to-read piles and on my to-read list that if I don't read as much as I do (at my lunch-break at work, in the evening instead of watching tv most nights), I will never get through them all in this lifetime.

Does anyone else feel self-conscious about their reading output?