What I Am Reading – A Return to the Stack, 2012

What I Am Reading – A Return to the Stack, 2012

So again I stare into the infinite vastness that is The Stack.  Its promise is sweet, seductive, and inviting, much like Satan.  Its allure is not un-like Eve and the apple in Eden with just as much as the promise but with nowhere near as much as a threat of expulsion.  Much like the apple that doomed humanity to sin, it also contains the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  For a book is a guide to a writer’s soul, their passions, perspectives, and their interests.  An accumulation of books in A Stack is in a way a parallel to society’s soul, passion, and interest but with a greater scope, voiced by the writers individually and housed in perspective.  This is the power of books and a reader’s sword the knowledge of passion and interest, their armor the wisdom of perspective.  Perspective is not to be overlooked as the world’s inhabitants rarely agrees with one another because they each possess an individual perspective built from the experiences they have encountered.  Perspective allows its wielder to assess, address, and understand a conflict without being directly involved or invested.  A person’s ability to asses a situation and understand all of the emotional components between all parties should never be overlooked.  The wisest men throughout history have been able to master this notion of perspective and provide insight to those in need, be it the many or the individual that would seek their council.  A perspective cannot be taught but it must be learned none the less.  The only way to learn it is to expose yourself to others perspectives while completely removing your own, and this is what I aim to do when I read a book.

Perspective can be gleaned from any book of any genre and should be acquired from a healthy mix, less the perspective be thwarted by consistency.  After all, variety is the spice of life and a consistency provides no new experiences.  Each genre is a map point for the reader to visit, a light house of interest that steer the reader away from the rocks of consistency that would otherwise see you to a life of mediocrity at the bottom of a tumultuous sea.   Even the most obscure of genres provide an insight, for perspective is not limited by the standard stereotypes that require a person to actually experience an event to garner its insight.  In a way there is much an insight in a fabricated experience as the experience itself.  Furthermore, in the instances in which a fabrication is used as the tapestry of the story, one could say that the point is then embellished and made more important because the tapestry is in essence designed to showcase the point, the challenges, and accomplishments or failures of the perspective.

Once again this year I am attempting thirty books, thirty perspectives, thirty insights, and thirty tombs of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  I originally thought to increase the number to thirty-five, but I came off the failure of thirty books last year and decided that it would be best to accomplish the goal before raising it.  After all, how can anyone attempt a marathon when they have not met their training goals?  Worst case scenario I exceed my goals and continue down the golden pipeline, it is not as if I must stop at thirty and choose wisely what tombs I devour for that thirty.  I am free to consume whatever I want.  Why thirty you say?  No rhyme or reason, it was a completely arbitrary number to be wholly honest.  It seemed reasonable last year, and is only 2.5 books across a 12 month calendar year.  A number I find easily manageable if in concept and nothing else.  This year I have also added some stakes to the whole thing and have decided that if, and only if, I complete thirty books will I buy an E-reader for myself.  At that point, let’s face it, I will have proven its worth and demonstration of use before I even bought it, unless of course I hate it, which is always a possibility with anything synthetic.    

Wish me luck.