I truly admire people who have tracked every book they've read over the years. I wish I had done so! Last week I bought R.A. Salvatore's omnibus, The Cleric Quintet. I hunkered down, ready to quietly escape, only to experience deja vu as the plot and characters rolled out on the viewscreen of my mind. How frustrating. After some mulling and stewing, I finally remembered the chain of events... of not being able to find one or more of the volumes, and finally giving up. I actually own the 4th volume, after borrowing the others.
The most aggravating psychological thing is, I truly dislike re-reading a book by accident! Now, up until a decade ago, I read Scott's Ivanhoe every two years since first reading it at age 10. And I could sit down today and read it again, with pleasure... as long as it was intentional. So, pooh. I can't seem to convince my mind to shut up and let me enjoy the Cleric Quintet, which, now that I've renewed my acquaintance with it, is a most enjoyable read.
However, I have just located a copy of Salvatore's Icewind Dale Trilogy omnibus, and I know I haven't read that one (those three?).
I love the omnibus collections now. I find an omnibus to be a book of a reasonable length-- I can't finish one in a day or two, which is always a plus with me. And I don't have to go searching for the next one in the series-- i.e., including waiting for mail...
And here's a plug for LibraryThing (and other such collectors) and the mobile web: I can at least look up what I've cataloged so far to see what I own by the author while I'm wandering the shelves in quest of another good read. Off and on I've tried to keep lists of my reading... annotated bibliographies and such grandiose schemes... I suppose I should just stick with a straight list, instead.
So now I'm off to buy the Icewind Dale Trilogy...
