Talking About Books

I find it increasingly difficult to actually compare books, or even just decide what my favorite is. In the long run this isn't a big deal, but seeing as I work at a bookstore and need to be able to make myself clear, it's a bit of an issue. I'm not sure why I'm having such trouble now, before it didn't take much thought at all, but now it’s actually hard! Partially, I think, it's because I've read so many more books recently than I have before. Indeed, it’s rather sad, but I tallied up the total number of books I've ever read, at least the ones I can remember, and I excluded almost all kids’ books, and it only came up to 211. This is way stupid, but I really thought I read more. Okay fine I'm only 20 years old so I guess that's a pretty good number, but considering I read a fourth of those this past year, it's really distressing to me. Maybe I'm having a more difficult time because in the past couple years I've read so many great books that it's now impossible for me to say. Or more likely I'm just thinking about things way too much.

I don't know why I do it, but I do. There are so many variables to consider, so many differences, such complexity, that I just find it almost stupid to even try. But what exactly am I suppose to do? A customer asks "What's your favorite book?" I can't start asking them about genres, moods, length, and complexity. I'm the one who’s supposed to be making their choice easier. How though? How on earth can anyone, no matter who they are or what they do, compare, in any legitimate way, science fiction and, say, mystery? Or even worse, sci-fi/fantasy to fiction? You can't, you really just cannot do it! Hell it's hard enough to compare books in the same genre! I mean I love Tolkien, but I also love Feist. The two are completely different in the themes and styles--okay so most fantasy authors take a little dip into the Tolkien style, but that's irrelevant here--and yet they are two of my favorite fantasy authors ever. Why? I love them both for different reasons, I can't say I like one more than the other because they're too different! And yet they're in the same genre! I want to make a list of my top ten favorite books, but I just can't! I suppose I could just write up a list of my top ten in each genre, but like I said earlier, picking one over the other is just.. wrong!

Don't get me wrong, I have very obvious favorites when it comes right down to it. For example, Dune is so much better than most sci-fi out there, but can I say it's my favorite sci-fi novel/series? No, I really can't. This is because the very nature of sci-fi, and arguably any genre, is the amount of creativity within the genre. Dune is great for so many reasons, but it's not great for the same reasons as Snow Crash. Indeed, what make them so amazing are those very differences, their originality, and their uniqueness. Another huge factor involved in how I rate books is the feelings I have about them. Now this is completely and utterly subjective, but it still makes a huge difference. I'm not very eloquent, so this is probably going to sound really confusing, but whatever. The mood I'm is what plays a role here. It’s hard to explain, but I can only read certain genres or even certain books at certain times. Tolkien for example, I love The Lord of the Rings, but it's one of those trilogies that I have to be in the "mood" for, ya know? I've heard this at my work before, "I just need a nice easy read" or "I feel like a good trashy romance right now". So maybe I'm not as dumb as I thought.

I find this plays a huge role in when I read what, especially when it comes to non-fiction and literature. Probably 85% of the time I want to read something entertaining or fun, in my case that's science fiction or fantasy. Not that I don't enjoy non-fiction or literature, but it's just not, fun. More and more I'm forcing myself to read literature even when I'm not in the mood for it. This tactic seems to work well because I do genuinely like literature, I just have to get started first. This isn't the case for non-fiction, for that I really have to be in the mood for it, or had to fiction myself out. Though I haven't really tried to force myself to read it, I'm sure if I did it would work somewhat, but I just have a bad attitude I think. I feel that if I don't "want" to read it I shouldn't waste my precious little time reading it, even if it's good or factual or whatever. I have the same problem when it comes to studying; I'm only living for a set number of years, why should I spend 8 hours studying for a test that doesn't matter? It's a bit of a problem, I know. Slowly but surely I think I'm making progress, most of it can be attributed to Kimberley. I find that I'm studying more now--on my own even--and I'm also trying really hard to read more literature stuff, even though most of the time it's rather dry. Although, I have no doubt that no matter my age or maturity level, I'm always going to prefer sci-fi/fantasy to any other genres.

Writing this out seems to have helped clear up my thinking. It really is amazing what the simple act of writing your thoughts down will do to put things in perspective. The brain is certainly a funny thing. I realize now that even if I can't arrange them in a numerical order, the fact I am so "in love" with certain books or series gives me a perfect place to start from. I have these favorites in pretty much every genre aside from non-fiction, which I haven't really read enough of to make them clear. Not only that, but I'm seriously passionate about some of these titles, enough so that with a little background on a customer, I can probably find something that they will like. In the meantime, it might be kinda fun to try and list some of my favorites, and group them by genre if only so I have a reasonable idea of how to answer "what's your favorite book?". Maybe I'll even try and work out some sort of numerical list, or if not a rating system. I've tried the rating stuff before; actually I have a word doc that is a replica of my Year of Reading that has ratings of all the books. It's a simple ten point system, but I find that after each book I read I end up altering many of the scores of the others. This seems to be a bit of a problem, so maybe I'll spend some time this summer and see if I can come up with a more accurate system. Oh and what I'll do is post up various ideas or thoughts on it to try and fine tune it with a little feedback, not that anyone really ever comments :(. I will be sure to start working on that list here shortly, it totally sounds like an interesting and fairly difficult project to wrap my head around, way better than school that's for sure!