Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Sunday Salon: On Saving Books

The Sunday Salon.com

Sometimes I eagerly anticipate a book and then read it immediately (hello, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), other times I crave a book, obtain it, and then I let it set on my shelves to age as if it were a fine wine or particularly delicious cheese.  I'll pick up said book, thumb through it, put it back and then repeat the entire process at a later date.  I may read the book in a week, or a month, or 5 years down the road.

I don't quite understand why I need to save books and I certainly don't understand why some books are saved and others instantaneously devoured.  Of course once I read a book for the first time, I can never again replicate reading that book for the first time.  Rereading, although wonderfully akin to visiting a best friend, isn't quite as magical as that first read.  These saved books I will savor one day and until that I day I have the glorious anticipating excitement of experiencing that first read. 

My Saved to Savor Book Stack:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
No Name by Wilkie Collins
Kirsten Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Trilby by George du Maurier
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot


Authors I haven't yet read:
Anthony Trollope
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Elizabeth Gaskell

Authors I love so much I have to space out the books so I don't read them all too soon:
Elizabeth Bowen
Wilkie Collins
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Rebecca West
Richard Hughes
Iris Murdoch

My fellow bookish folks, tell me what books / authors you're saving.  You just might add to my list!

2 comments:

Andi said...

Yep. I'm the same way. I've saved some of Thane Rosenbaum's books to read at a later date because I don't want to rush through them all at once. Same thing with Paul Auster.

Eva said...

I'm totally saving Wilkie! In fact, I got almost 200 pages into Armadale last week, realised it was my last of his 'big' novels, and decided to save it for a rainy day. :)

I imagine my lists are too long for a comment...maybe I'll do a post about them instead!