I don’t actually have a nightstand. I have a fairly deep window sash, upon which live my lamp and probably some spiders, and I have a portable air conditioner that cautions “Do not place items on top of air conditioner,” upon which I compromise by only putting items on it when it’s not shuddering from overuse.
Generally, though, whatever book I’m currently reading is either in my purse or on top of my bed, and the books I’m also reading or am about to read or am going to read eventually are stacked in two piles next to my bed.
Deciding which books to read next falls on a number of factors, mainly 1) which is due back at the library next 2) can I renew that book or is it on hold 3) is it too heavy to be a subway book 4) what do I feel like reading. Sometimes I don’t take books with me when I go to pick up holds from the library, but then, absent of other books, I start the new library book while on the train, and that’s how I find myself in the middle of several at once.
Right now:
I just finished The Assistants by Camille Perri because it’s due in three days and is very zeitgeisty so there’s a long waiting list. I had a suspicion it wouldn’t take too long to read; next up in its stead is The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, which also can’t be renewed and is due imminently.
I’m in the middle/beginning of two nonfiction books: Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen, which my dad recommended and which I’ve been reading sideways and slowly when I go to bed because a) it’s too heavy for my purse and b) no one is waiting for it so I can continue to renew it. I’m about 70 pages into Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Gene (that one is also due and cannot renew, but I have ten days left to tackle it…)
As a side note, did Siddhartha Mukherjee become a father between writing The Emperor of All Maladies and this new one? Because it is already FULL of Dad Jokes. (“He couldn’t visualize whirled peas…” Mukherjee says of a non-Mendel scientist.)
I’m also technically in the middle of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, but I think I might abandon it. I read the first 200 pages last summer and then got bored and if I wanted to give it another go I would need to start over. I liked The Ocean at the End of the Lane but American Gods just never caught me.
The rest of the books lying in wait:
Pacific by Simon Winchester (also a Dad recommendation, also a library book, but not one that’s in danger of being recalled)
Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart (loaned to me)
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (also on loan)
A Strangeness in my Mind by Orhan Pamuk (given to me by a student’s parent)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (found ON THE STREET, in perfect condition!)
Upright Beasts by Lincoln Michel (friend and former classmate)
Man v. Nature by Diane Cook, (same!)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (my prize from last year’s office book exchange)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (my prize from last year’s family book exchange)
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley (borrowed from my roommate)
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum (borrowed from a friend)
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (borrowed from a different friend)
Yes, I do knock them over frequently. No, I’m not going to have room on my shelves for the ones that are mine. It’s okay. They like where they live.
