Reading

I’m going to be posting a lot about reading for a while. It’s not the whole story, but it’s a big part of it.

I’ve stopped writing, real writing, because there’s no one left to understand what I’m talking about, how, and why.

The simple answer is that I know more than you do. I’ve lived more, done more, and thought about it more than you have or ever will. More risk, more adventure, more travel in most cases, more crises, more battles, more victories, more defeats. I have lived. Most of you haven’t lived at all.

And it’s a life that begins with reading.

I’m actually going to attempt a list. Which is a more enormous effort than you could ever imagine. It begins by subtracting everything else. Another enormous task. I didn’t ever just read. I physically built a railroad and slotcar world in the attic, another in the dirt pile by the ice house, a realm of  conflict and combat in Little Egypt, a raceway in Cumberland and Salem Counties — V-8s and dual exhausts into the Cohansey Bay — and I broke into all but one of Harvard’s final clubs, not including the one I was a fool president of. And then I had a double major of a career: writer and businessman. Followed by two decades of blogging. Now I’m tired. So what I have left to offer is a list.

There will be categories:

Before and Just After Learning to Read

Children’s Books

Boy Stuff

Book of the Month Club

Books That Made an Early Difference

Books from Adolescence

The Syllabus Files

The Fiction Game

Humor and Satire

History

Archaeology

Philosophy and Religion

Esoterica

Science

Miscellaneous