Checking it Twice

The erudite Jennifer Jordan put it succinctly the other day and I'll paraphrase here but I'm pretty close. I want every book and all the time to read them.

That's my ideal. Then I don't have to make a list. Lists go hand in hand with accumulating books. I have a list of lists of books. I have the keepers, the sellers, the wants, the needs, the read, and the to read, the why did I read that and the unreadable (for lack of time) in my lifetime. The other day I donated about 200 books to a charity. Weeks before that I'd made a list of them which will possibly be merged into some other list at some other time.

Which points out something else about my lists. Quite often they're drawn up but never acted on, or if one or two points are acted on, the list is tossed in favor of a revision. So, most of my lists are in transition and in some metaphysical way, incomplete.

This summer I was able to cross off two items that were probably the most frequently occurring and longest lived points on any of my various and sundry lists. I completed a 1966 and 1967 set of Topps baseball cards. It's so much fun to run across old lists and finally check off, line out, delete, those two items.

In the store the book buyers frequently bring in their lists. I bring in a short in relative terms wants list and some blank paper to create a list to merge into the master wants list and sometimes I bring the needs list. Some people bring in the haves list. I don't want to brag but my have list is too big. That, and I have a pretty good idea of what I do have. I buy duplicates knowing they're duplicates. My intention is to pass the duplicate along to someone else. My Intentions are good my list of friends who read is way to short.

My wants and needs list shrinks and grows depending upon where I'm shopping. I may wander the aisles adding wants but seldom finding needs. At one time or another I've seen all the books I need on sale over the internet. Part of the reason I haven't bought them yet is I'm caught up in the thrill of the chase. It's quite likely I'll break down and order my needs but it's so much more satisfying to come across a long listed book, have it there in hand and then to take it home and by crossing it from the lists complete the little victory jig I started in the store. On the other hand it is nice to get mail which in itself doesn't preclude doing a victory jig and is much less embarrassing.

I thought I'd pad this column a bit by running up a short list and providing my reasoning for the  items therein.

Enefer, Douglas The Avengers Consul 1963 The first and harder to find.
Cave, Peter The New Avengers: Hostage
Cave, Peter The New Avengers: The Cybernauts
Cartwright, Justin The New Avengers The Fighting Men
O Donnell, Peter Modesty Blaise Dragon's Claw
O Donnell, Peter Modesty Blaise Last Days In Limbo
O Donnell, Peter Modesty Blaise I Lucifer
O Donnell Modesty Blaise Saber Tooth. For both Modesty Blaise and The Avengers books it's a case of so close yet so far away from completion. It's either that or I have a thing about female spies. Probably both.

Stine, Hank The Prisoner. This is the tricky book. I've seen it labeled by sellers as #3 and subtitled Who is Number two? or unlabeled and called A day in the Life , or just, The Prisoner. If you're buying it for me just go by the author. I have the other two in the series. It's a TV tie in book based on The Prisoner. I thought that was one of the most intriguing shows on television. A recent Onion column was a hilarious send up on Prisoner fanatics. I'm not that far gone ( I hope) I just want the book.

Bingham, Charlotte Coronet among the Grass. It's my understanding that LeCarre based George Smiley on Charlotte's father. Regardless, she wrote a terrifically funny TV series called No Honestly. This is the second book of her real life growing up. (digression time, like I haven't already. The Good Life, More of the Good Life, No Honestly, TV tie in type books and numerous others are also high priority needs and actually should be on the short list but what kind of short list is 200 books long? (A short list where the long list is in the thousands I guess)).

Hooker, Richard and Butterworth, William Mash goes to Montreal. The best book of the series is the first. M*A*S*H; all the rest are valiant but failed attempts to recapture the wit, clarity, the adventures, the camaraderie and the tone of "Hooker's" wartime experiences in civilian form. But I've got all but Montreal and so it's a need.

Those are the shortest of the shortlist needs. However, were those books to magically appear before me to keep forever, I'd feel contented but the end result would be a revision of the NEEDS list. Wanting can be greedy, some might say sinful but I don't think it applies to need or to books. Ergo it doesn't apply at all to needed books.

Most of my book needs come from not having the full series of some author's work. Ongoing series I'm less worried about than "completed" series where I have some but not all. They're needs in the psychobabble sense of "closure" Maybe that's why my lists are incomplete.

Last week I bought Mervyn Peake's book Gormenghast. I now need book #1 and book #3 to bring about closure. But as I suggested, it's a short lived satisfaction as there are always other books and authors out there. Wait, I'll get my pencil.


Dave