Non-Reading List

Normally, I create reading lists (posted on the blog or not) of books I have read and liked, books I would like to read, books that have been recommended to me, books I love, and so on and so forth.

As I was clearing out my apartment readying myself for the big move to Italy- I found a number of half read books that seemed to have gathered enough dust to grow their own legs and hide themselves in hidden corners on their own. This discovery, the result of an excavation of all my leftovers from the past year and a half, came as a surprise. Before I began the MBA, I can honestly say that I NEVER began a book and didn't finish it. It was almost as if the compulsion manifested itself into an obsessive-compulsive disorder. I mean- in the past, I would lose sleep if I left a book unfinished. Even if I knew how it ended, if I hated it from page one, or if I had a stack of another 100 books to read just staring at me from my bedside table- I finished every book I had ever opened.

Now, however, there has been a change. I didn't realize the severity of it until I discovered a total graveyard of half read novels.

There have, however, been a number of books I did finish. Therefore, this must mean that I am cured of my OCD and I have learned- through no effort of my own- to save precious time and energy by not wasting it on substandard books- since there are so many novels in the world to be read (and now it seems that with the arrival of the e-reader, I am on a deadline as well).

So here is my non-reading list, for anyone who wants to know what books I would return if I could. This isn’t saying that these aren’t good books- they just didn't peak my interest in the short amount of time I gave them opportunity to…being that I was doing an MBA and all…

1.     Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell. I thought, with both Blink and The Tipping Point, that Malcolm actually got to his point, explored it and finished it within the first 20 pages of both of these books. In Outliers, I didn't even get through ten. I would read the back cover, and leave it at that.

2.     Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson. Just see the movie. Much, MUCH better.

3.     Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom. LOVED Tuesdays With Morrie. This one though…not so much. Skip it.

4.     Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov. Just couldn't get through it.

5.     Ex-Girlfriends United, Matt Dunn. Just Awful. This purchase (and the following) were due to the limited selection in the “English Section” of the bookstore in Rome. It’s amazon.com from here on out…

6.     True Love and Other Disasters, Rachel Gibson. Mediocre for beach reading.

7.     Any vampire book written and subsequently published in order to capitalize on the success of the Twilight series.

On the other hand, I have recently acquired three novels that I am truly looking forward to reading;

1.     Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts

2.     The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson

3.     The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson

I’ll let you know how it goes.