fiction files redux discussion

I came across this link by reading The New Yorker's Talk of the Town 2011 edition. I'd post the piece talking about it but it's locked on the New Yorker website.

http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library/l...

Art Garfunkel has been recording each book he has read for the last 40 some years and has posted it to his website. It's a remarkable list, and thought it would be interesting to share, and interesting to discuss.

In the article he says that he tries to avoid fluff and that he avoids post modern fiction like Pynchon and Barthelme.

So what do you think? Do your tastes align with his, do you keep track of your yearly reading? If so did you do it before Goodreads?

Wow. Wow. The way I remember books is by what's in them.

Writing it down might be a good way to remember what's in them and what I learned by reading them... this is ridiculously organized... maybe if I bought a nice leather-bound blank book... :)

But I love the list. I mean, I could use a list like this and just go down it.

He read I Feel Bad About My Neck? I was thinking would save that one for when I do actually feel bad about my neck.

I do not share AF's taste in literature.

I used to think that I knew what I had read, until I started using goodreads. It's amazing how often I see a book on someone else's list and go "oh wow, i'd forgotten about that one."

My tastes are pretty far afield from AG overall.

I've kept a pretty elaborate and detailed reading journal for the last 12 years. When I joined Goodreads, I thought I might fold my journal into the site, but it became too tedious to keep up with my journal AND have an edited version for Goodreads. My journal is filled with personal injokes and references for my own writing, and is definitely not for any audience other than myself.

I never kept a book journal before goodreads. My overflowing bookshelves have kinda acted like my journal over the years. You can look at my shelves and know what I've read even going back to my favorite childhood storybooks, which I still have. Someone bought me a movie journal once, which I thought was a lovely idea, but I'm so lazy...I've never written in it. As for Art, he has a fun and eclectic reading history.

Patty wrote: "I do not share AF's taste in literature.

"

Ha! I just noticed my typo. That's AF for Art Funkel.

Ha Patty! We knew what you meant!

"Post-modern." Oh, that word!