We all have them, those books we haven't read. If you're like me, there is a certain guilt about not quite getting to them, or half reading them, then being distracted by another book and never returning to the first one, and there you are, feeling guilty again. I have never been able to let myself become a fully fledged book collector, a person who buys books for the joy and pleasure of the objects themselves. Will these books ever be read? One day, perhaps. But I have never been that person. The luxury of buying books, the ability to buy books seems such a privilege to me that I have always been driven by a little voice saying, "Make sure you read them, make sure you look after them, don't just let them collect dust in a corner." But, of course, the buying has outpaced the reading and here I am, lurking daily past a full bookshelf of books that I have not read. So I figure it's time to do something about it. Of course the obvious question is, what to read first? I've decided to leave that up to chance, as I am overwhelmed by the choice. So I've colour coded the books and devised a simple system to choose one to read - I will pick a random colour and a random number - whatever book that happens to be on the shelf (for example, Green book Number 8) that is my book to read for the month.
So, armed with a pack of Derwent coloured pencils and a pack of cards, I chose at random one colour and one number. This was the result: the first book I will read, Book No. 170, is Lila by Marilynne Robinson. Expect a review soon.
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