In my recent post about the value of re-reading, I mentioned that I regularly seek out new books and authors. For me, at least, here's how that works.
I have two kinds of reading program. The first kind is related to books I'm writing, or at least thinking about writing; here I might have dozens or hundreds of books and scholarly papers on a project-specific reading list, which I keep adding to as I look at the bibliographies of whatever I've read so far (note: I love bibliographies). I won't further discuss this kind of reading program here, since it's rather specialized.
The second kind is my general program of self-education, which I've been pursuing for decades. Since I'm curious about many different fields of knowledge, my main reading list contains books of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, art, music, poetry, literature, biography, and so on. I'm continually adding to this list as I read other books (see above about bibliographies), see mentions of books and authors in published essays, ask friends about books and authors they like, and so on.
Although I feel no compulsion to read all the literary classics, I do try to expose myself over time to more of the great novelists (e.g., I'm working my way through the novels of George Eliot) and especially the poets.
I also endeavor to learn more about different human cultures, past and present. Often I do this by reading books of poetry and philosophy because I like those genres best - even better is the overlap between the two. Sometimes I read general histories of various countries or time periods (e.g., I would like to read a few good books about the French Revolution). And I'll admit that I have a soft spot for books of mega-history that trace changes over the long sweep of history.
Occasionally I get somewhat obsessed by a topic and read many books about it; for instance, some 15 years ago I read a whole bunch of books about the history and sources of the industrial revolution.
I don't like memoirs, but I do like biographies, with a focus on biographies that might help me learn to become a better person. Right now I'm reading Ron Chernow's biography of George Washington, after which I plan to read the new biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., by Jonathan Eig.
Finally, although it might seem that my reading program is somewhat rarified in its focus on abstract topics, I do also try to keep abreast of current trends; usually this happens through long-form essays, but sometimes I check out books on such topics, too (most recently, for example, Jean Twenge's book Generations). Because many such books have way too many pages (they should have been long-form essays!), I often start with the last chapter and return them to the library if they don't seem worth reading in their entirety.
All this means that I always have hundreds of books on my reading lists (yes, I keep multiple lists). Because I average only about 80 books a year, I'll never get through it all. But who would want to? Reading is one of the great pleasures of life and it's a joy to always be reading.
(Cross-posted at philosopher.coach.)
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