Now I’ve done it. I always worry about reading, what I’m going to read, when I’m going to read it, how what I’m reading will change what I am, but noticing this in the news the other day is just wrecking me:

Math anxiety — feelings of dread and fear and avoiding math — can sap the brain’s limited amount of working capacity, a resource needed to compute difficult math problems, said Mark Ashcroft, a psychologist at the University of Nevada Los Vegas who studies the problem.

“It turns out that math anxiety occupies a person’s working memory,” said Ashcroft, who spoke on a panel at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Ashcroft said while easy math tasks such as addition require only a small fraction of a person’s working memory, harder computations require much more.

Applying this information to my life, with my reading anxiety and all, is sending me into a spiraling ironic vortex. You see, worrying about reading will affect my reading ability, slowing me down, reducing my comprehension, which will in turn make me worry about reading more which will then further reduce my reading ability, pushing my anxieties to exponentially higher heights and so on and so on…

Can I just get a Zen master to hit me in the head with a shovel or something?

The other day I signed up to receive books by email. Yes, by email. Wow, that sounds terrible. But it is not as bad as you think. I now receive fragments every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of Joseph Devlin’s How to Speak and Write Correctly. It’s a fairly easy to use service. Just look at that soft, pleasing front page designed to set the worried mind at ease:

I signed up for a non-fiction, how-to book intentionally. I just can’t imagine reading a fiction book, in parts, in my email. Although, if you read your email in Gmail the contextual ads could make you feel like you’re reading a nineteenth century chapbook. Maybe I should try reading Dickens this way.

Thanks for all of your suggestions, everyone. As noted previously I will now hunt out your recommendations, purchasing the first one I find, and keep you updated on the whole process. Heres the list:

1. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
3. Declare by Tim Powers
4. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
5. Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
6. Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings
7. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
8. Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
9. The Angel of Forgetfulness by Steve Stern
10. Kingdoms of Fairies by Sylvia Townsend
11. Atonement by Ian McEwan
12. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

That’s a pretty good list. The only author I’m familiar with is Borges and that’s only by hearsay. And a few books have already piqued my interest just from your brief descriptions. That’s the thing about recommendations, isn’t it? If someone you know (or, in this case, mostly-kind-of-internet-know) offers up a good book to read you’ll not just want to read it, you’ll have to read it.

If anyone has anymore suggestions add them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Well, that meme from the other day struck a nerve with me. I know its just a meme but it made me realize I’m not reading enough popular books. I’m out of the loop. Out of the zeitgeist, or gestalt or – or – or something German. The fact is, I read like an old man¹. I’m only 29 – I shouldn’t be reading history and theology and classical works all the time. And when I’m not doing that, I shouldn’t be reading best-ofs and extra-credit challenges. I need to cool off the anxious reader stuff.

I need your help. Help me act my age. Help me find a work of fiction from the past 10 years or so, the more recent the better. It needs to be something good, obviously, but not something from straight off of the top ten lists. Maybe something you wish had made it to the top ten lists. You all know what I like to read and my preference for edifying books. If not, check the post labels and blog archive in the sidebar. My favorite contemporary author is David Foster Wallace, if that helps.

Leave your suggestions in the comments to this post. If you’ve never commented on a blog post before just click on the word “comments” in the footer to this post and follow the simple instructions on the comment page. If you’ve never commented on a blog before this is the perfect opportunity. Just leave a book title. It’s easy. No pressure.

I promise I will take your suggestion to heart and actively hunt down your favorite books in the used bookstores of my fair city and purchase the first one I find. I’ll probably even blog about the whole thing.

So leave a suggestion in the comments and help me act my age.

1. My apologies to old men everywhere. Old men look at my life, I’m a lot like you were.

Branding and interface design specialists Information Architects present, surprisingly, seven reasons for re-reading your favorite books:

Books are people
Books are people speaking with signs. Meeting cool people several times is nice.

Good books are friends
Choose books like you choose your friends. Talk to many, stick with the best. A good book can make you happy, get you through hard times, teach you amazing stuff. It can do that every time you read it.

Meeting friends again and again is where the fun starts
Good books are a pleasure to read. Repetition of pleasure is fun.

Good friends are never boring
Do you think that if you read Kant’s “Critique of the Pure Reason” you’d get it all in one go? Kant would not.

Good stories are never fully understood
Do you think that if you read “A Midsummernight’s Dream” you’d get it all in one go? Shakespeare would not.

Good stories gain through repetition
You learn more reading “The postman always rings twice” for the 3rd time than loosing the pleasure of reading over some boring “must read” classic that doesn’t talk to you.

Repetition is yummy
Imagine a guy that eats his favorite meal just one time, because he is “afraid to get bored” or he “doesn’t have the time to eat the same thing twice”. Kids love repetition. Why do you think that is?

In case you’re wondering what this has to do with design you can read the whole post here.

According to the description on the website of industrial design collective Elsewhere their Mazellaneous bookshelf “represents the confusion in our lives by the things we collect and own”. I just think it looks really cool.

King Rat or Of Mice and Men would look appropriate here, and, of course, a history of Minos, wouldn’t be out of place. What do you think?

The Wikipedia entry on French poet Jean de La Fontaine mentions that most French schoolchildren learn his fables by heart at school. It fails to mention, however, the circumstances. A francophone friend of mine tells me that La Fontaine was the punishment for childhood infractions at school and at home. One would have to memorize a fable with an appropriate moral if they were caught lying or stealing or what have you. Can’t say the rhyme – don’t do the crime, I guess. He, of course, hated this and marvels at the cruelty of his parents and former educators. Myself, as a young father, marvel at the genius of this idea. Go figure.

In light of this, I was quite excited when I came across The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, edited and introduced by William J. Bennett, at the used bookstore the other day. The Book of Virtues is a collection of fables, poems and stories, especially for children, but really for the whole family, selected to illustrate ten universal virtues: self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty and faith. Actually, that’s how the book is organized. With only those sections in the table of contents and not the individual stories and poems. I suppose it encourages non-linear reading and subsequently a feeling of owning the book but it’s terrifically annoying when you’re looking for a favorite story.

I think The Book of Virtues is a great companion piece to Bloom’s Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages. Oddly, the two even overlap – both include How Many Books How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Tolstoy. But Bennett and Bloom have very different purposes in selecting their stories. Bloom wants to make good readers, and ultimately, happy, or at least sufficiently satisfied people. While Bennett wants to ultimately make a good country by storying virtue into it’s citizens.

Make that a good American country with virtuous American citizens. At times The Book of Virtues comes across as Chicken Soup for the Conservative American Soul. What with stories of the American founding fathers, excerpts from the declaration of independence and instructions on how to treat the flag. And, of course, like most American children’s literature it promotes a fierce individualism that I find vaguely upsetting.

I’m not exactly sure where Mr. Bennett is at right now and I wonder if his public troubles from a few years ago are what put this fine collection in the literary dumping ground. No matter, it’s mine now. Bad people fall apart – good books stay.

Now, what looks worth memorizing in here…

The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories

Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages

Behold, in awesome majesty, via The Books of My Numberless Dreams, there did come forth, The Book List Meme…Thing:

The bolded books are books I’ve read (and even enjoyed), stricken books I will probably never read, italicized books I would like to read, books with crosses are on my shelf and asterisked books I’ve never heard of. The books listed here that haven’t felt the touch of my cursor and remain unedited I could care less or more about on any given day.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. †The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. †The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. †The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander* (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. †The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones* (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. †The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. †Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. †1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth* (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One* (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True* (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner* (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. †The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. †Bible (more than once even)
46. †Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. †The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone* (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. †Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. †War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. †Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. †One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants* (Ann Brashares)
68. †Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. †Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. †Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. †Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. †Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Hmm. Looks like I should think about reading some more popular books written in the past fifty years or so.

So what are books good for, besides leveling tables and holding open doors? Reading? Well, not necessarily:

I recently had a conversation with Elazar Benyoëtz, a German poet-o-philosopher, about the object called a book. He believes that “people are misunderstanding the function of books; books are not meant, necessarily, to be read”.

According to Benyoëtz, books are potentials. If you wish, they are the early ancestors of Schrödinger’s cat. As long as they are not read, standing still on the shelf or piled up on the floor, they represent a potential parallel world. Once they are opened – well, at that point the potential is gone.

“I find it much more fascinating to write about a book that I have never read than about a book that I have read”, says Benyoëtz, following the logic of books-as-potentials.

Benyoëtz is serious about the impact of closed books, of those potentials, on his existence. The lives of potential-readers are affected by their physical proximity to books, as if those potential-worlds exert their gravitational power from within the cover. “I would have been a completely different writer if I didn’t have those books around me, just as I would have been a completely different writer if I have read them”.

While I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Benyoëtz, romanticizer of the author that I am, he does make me feel a whole lot better about the mass of unread books on my shelves. Of course, thinking of their gravitational power forces a new worry on me: what if they collapse and turn into a black hole?

Wouldn’t you like to pull your favorite book off the shelf, or maybe a cleverly titled one like The Doors of Perception, and have the bookcase slowly swing into the wall to reveal a secret room? I would.

If only there was a company on the internet that could do that for me…

You know, if I had enough money to afford something like this I would furnish my secret room with something nicer than a stacking tupperware container. “And finally here, and I don’t show this to everyone now, is my super secret sewing room.”