I do Not like Yahoo's new "improved" email. They may have four times the space, but it's running four times slower. I hope that's temporary.
LA, I don't think you're a lightweight fluffhead, but I also don't think booklists are meant to be a competitive thing. There are books on that list I'll never read. Some might be excellent but are just something I'm not interested in, and some, I suspect, would suck. There are entire bookcases full of books I've read not on that list and I'm sure the same holds for you and any other reader. I just do lists occasionally because it's fun thinking about the books I've read. The sole advantage to not being a student these days is that I hardly ever have to read anything I'm not interested in -- and if I do, I'm generally getting paid for it.
What I really don't care about is whether I've read more than other people - with a couple exceptions. There are some cases in which I do care just what other people have read. As Maria implies, you can learn a lot about someone from seeing what books are part of them. If I've read something I think someone else would love, it's one of life's great pleasures to recommend it -- and it's an even bigger pleasure to have someone recommend something that I end up loving. And if we both love the same books -- or don't -- or love them for different reasons, we can have all the fun of discussing how and why and whether and therefore.
Posted by dichroic at June 15, 2004 03:23 PMHi - I just came across you via l-empress, since I borrowed the book quiz that she got from you. I've also read a great deal of them -- I'm a librarian -- but I agree that there's no point in it being competetive, or feeling as if I should read everything just because it's on a list. Thanks for provoking some thought, though, both with the list and with your take on it.
Posted by: purple chai at June 17, 2004 05:14 PM