The Review of Books I'm Too Lazy to Finish

I have to admit I'm a bit of a shopaholic when it comes to printed material. Books, magazines or newspapers - seems I can't resist buying and accumulating (not to mention committing serial murders of trees) more than I can hope consume at the rate I'm going.

It's funny how even you can be materialistic towards books. Essentially they should be just a medium or vessel that transport the message to the reader; the real physical object, the pages, cover and binding, should not really matter - it's the content that counts.

But I guess publishing is a business not too much different from any other in our captitalist economy. The whole point is to entice people to want own your book (or shampoo or jeans or lipstick). Colors ads, posh packaging, premier shelf placement are need if you want to shift your product in any industry.

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Gosh, I didn't mean to sound so cynical! I still love, love to read - although a combination of my unstable attention span and the oversupply of books has caused me left me with a whole bunch of books I'd started but not finished.

To give you and idea, here an incomplete list:

1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
2. Mad Dogs and Co. by Chart Korbjitti
3. Forbidden Colors by Yukio Mishima
4. Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
5. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
7. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
8. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
9. The Wings of The Dove by Henry James

(... as you can see I kinda over reach with all the Oprah Book of the Month Club-like selections)

As to why I still haven't finished, I place the blame completely with my lazy self. These books are all wonderfully written with engaging plots - shame to me for not sticking with it.

So as something of an atonement (FYI, Atonement by Ian McEwan is the best book I've read this year) I kick off an occasional series of posts entitled 'The Review of Books I'm Too Lazy to Finish'.

Oh and I will try to finish the darn books.

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Next post - a review of:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.