I spent almost the whole day on this:
When I was an undergrad, I began accumulating book recommendations from friends, professors, magazines, newspapers, and other sources. Pretty soon I had so many that I set up a spreadsheet to record them. Over the years I added many titles to this list, but removed relatively few. The last time I looked at this list it was so cumbersome and overgrown I just closed the file again. There were more than 300 entries.
Today I decided to weed this unwieldy list of recommendations. The list was like an archaeological study of my “shoulds” of the past seven years. There were scholarly books on it, children’s picture books, yoga books, and cookbooks. It ran the gamut from Let That Be the Reason, which I eventually removed, to Shake Hands with the Devil, which remains. The reason it took me all day to cull this list is that I couldn’t go through more than thirty titles at a time without getting overwhelmed. It was sort of like cutting off limbs all over again, recognizing that even if I did read these books I would never be an expert on karmic traditions, on traditional Austrian desserts, on the psychology of caregivers. It sounds stupid, but at some point in my life I really truly did believe that if I read enough about everything, I’d know everything. (Now you know why Hermione is my favorite Potter character.) Cutting more than a hundred books off my list was my acknowledgment that knowing everything is impossible.
The reading list is still huge, just under 200 titles, and it doesn’t include the shelves of unread books that still reside in my office. I’ll never read everything no matter how hard I try, and in the meantime, I’ve got better things to do, so… until I clear my bookshelves and the titles on this spreadsheet, I will not collect any more book recommendations. I have enough to do as it is.
(And yes, I recognize how totally OCD it is that I made this spreadsheet in the first place. Being excessively informationally organized is as much a handicap as it is an asset.)
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
ahhh! i spent yesterday organizing my own book list (books to buy, books to read, etc.) and reading “the girl with the dragon tattoo” (haha yes). luckily my list is not as intimidating as yours because i’m pretty picky when it comes to books; i’m strictly fantasy and classics w/ the occasional junk food book thrown in (see above ;P).
You’re my second friend who’s reading that book this month. 🙂 It struck me yesterday while clearing my reading list that it’s overgrown for the same reason my activities are so overwhelming — I go in too many directions. ;b
Oh my gosh, I literally gasped when I read your comment about feeling like you could know everything if only you could read enough books. I distinctly remember looking at my dad’s bookshelf when I was in grade school and having this (false) epiphany–I was so excited that all I had to do was read a book about plumbing or woodworking or physics, and I could pretty much start my career as a plumber, carpenter or–ha!–a physicist. If only it were that simple! 😉
Hehehe, yes, exactly!! Before my parents helped me build up a substantial library of my own, I used to lie around the living room and read Better Homes and Gardens, Time, Readers’ Digest, and everything else I could get my hands on, just absorbing and absorbing. I figured by the time I grew up I would know so many things… 😉
i know what you mean about your activities/interests going in too many directions!!! that’s totally me. for some reason i’ve managed to stay pretty particular about books but i’ve still ended up with a wide expanse of them anyway (i don’t mind :] )
Tamara: Speaking of being particular… I just read Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies today and I think you might like it, if your fantasy tastes run to sci-fi at all.