Drowning

I used to sit and revel in the sight of piles and piles of books. I had an idealistic hope about reading them and had some kind of mental list of the books that I would read, when and where. I now feel overwhelmed. I am drowning in books. I am still reading at a steady and slow pace but now when I sit in front of my bookshelf of "to read" I feel I am drowning.

This week I bought books. I don't know what or where but I know I did. And I feel silly. Oh, I can remember now. It seems ages ago but it was actually 3 days ago. I found a Jonathan Spence book on Matteo Ricci. Jonathan Spence is an author that if I ever see a book relating to him, I snap up without much consideration. He is the godfather of Chinese history and I spent the majority of my spare time in 2010 sitting on the patio in my bikini reading his Modern History of China drinking black cafetier coffee. As a result I was extremely tanned with this tome being 1000 odd pages long. The book is called the Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci and the idea of this intrigues me, in particular after watching (not fully read all the Sherlock stories yet) Sherlock on the BBC and seeing Cumberbatch portray his memory palace - the place in his mind where he files his vast knowledge. It's likely that Matteo Ricci's will be less exciting than the BBC1 version.

I also bought a Salman Rushdie novel for some other reason. I felt that at some point I should read the Satanic Verses but I've always felt the reviews of all his work were pretty unexciting. I suppose I am more recently being influenced by Hitchens who was a good friend of Rushdies. Oh well, I've bought it now, it sounds interesting. Maybe the furore just made everything sound a bit crapper in comparison to the reactions. In any case, I didn't get the Satanic Verses but Midnight's Children.

45. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci - Jonathan Spence - £1.99 Oxfam

46. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - £1.99 Oxfam

More books bought with only a 10-30% chance of being read any time soon. That's probably too high, more like 5-10%. Need a new bookcase. Need a new flat. Need a library.

Been reading though. Got Filth by Irvine Welsh, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on the go. Some nice contrast there.