On GONE WITH THE WIND

February 5th

On GONE WITH THE WIND

“You know a movie is good because they don’t say the name of the movie in the movie. You don’t hear ‘This truly is Gone with the Wind!’” – Dylan Gott

I spend a large amount of time making projects in my mind and then worrying about if I will follow through. I can’t remember when it was I made a list of the books I had to read – as long as I can remember, I’ve made a list of books to read of varying scope and ambition. Now, I have a long list of books that I’m getting through of books that I already own, which is actually several lists: A list of books that I received this Christmas that I should read right away because I am excited about them Right Now!, but I can only start that list when I am finished reading the Two Noble Kinsmen, the penultimate piece in my project to read the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This project was started in 2003, after I graduated university, because my mother gave me a book about Shakespeare’s plays, which would not have been very interesting if I didn’t read all of Shakespeare’s plays along with it. This mini-project (The Shakespeare Project), is part of the larger project to read all the unread books I own, which I think started in 2003 as it featured many of my school textbooks. Technically, the project to read all of the books I got for Christmas 2008 should take precedence over the Shakespeare Project, which is part of the 'read all the books I already own' project, but a new rule was instituted at some point that I can’t start a new book while in the middle of an old one, because I found myself leaving books in the middle and not returning to them for several years, which meant that I had to start them again.
These projects only cover, of course, the books that fall under the category of Portable, and I am able to carry around with me and read on the train or subway. I have a different set of books that are non-portable, which consist of the textbook-sized books that my mom likes to give me for Christmas every year. These books I read at home, often just before bed, with a reading light because my wife is sleeping. Having finished National Geographic’s Visual History of the World (Christmas 2005) last February, I moved on the HUMAN (Christmas 2006). Finding it a bit of a slog, I decided to read alternate sections of HUMAN with GOTHIC (Christmas 2007). Now it’s moving along a lot quicker. When I finish HUMAN I can alternate GOTHIC with 1001 Days that Shaped the World (Christmas 2008). I tell my mother not to buy me these books, because I’ll only try and read them, but she does not listen to me.
If I ever finish my List of Books given to me for Christmas 2005 thru 2008, portable and non-portable, and the List of Books I own but have not read, then I will know that it is time to delve into The Big Book List, which I have assembled over the last few years and last year put into electronic form. On this list are all the winners of the Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, the Pulitzer Prize (Fiction [including Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind] or Drama), the Governor General’s Award (Fiction or Drama), the Nobel Prize, all 50 books on the Globe and Mail’s 50 Greatest Books list, all the books on the Globe and Mail’s Buried Treasures list, all the books listed in Harold Bloom’s 100 Geniuses book, and all the books Yann Martel has been sending Steven Harper. Speaking of Yann Martel, I started this list of lists when I read Life of Pi (given to me by my mother, of course) and learned it had been awarded the Booker Prize. A prize? I thought. For books? What a novel idea! What other books have won this prize? What other prizes can books win?
I also have books that I have set aside for reading on the toilet, books that I read whenever I am killing time in a bookstore, and sometimes a book appears and I have to drop all the lists and just read it. I long for books but remember that I must be disciplined and stick to all my lists that I have tried to use to accommodate all my reading desires. For it would be terrible to have to accept that I couldn’t read my entire list, even though the evidence suggests that the list is growing faster than I have time to read. I recently have had to come to terms that I will never complete my project to visit all of Toronto’s subway stations, draw a map of their floorplans, take 3 pictures of them and rate them on a scale of 1 to 15. After all, I have at least two jobs and a career, plus two separate Oscar projects (To watch all the Best Picture winners [including 1939’s Gone with the Wind] and at least one best acting winner from each year, and also to watch all the Best Picture nominees the year after the are nominated.) No wonder I get stressed out sometimes. And I have so many other projects I haven’t even mentioned, ongoing, abandoned, in the conception stage. Sometimes I wish I could harness this power for good, not evil. This writing project is an example of that – how can I not get better at writing by writing 500 words every day? But it is a struggle, and I think overall it is counterproductive to restrain myself so. But the pleasure I get when I finish a book, and realize that progress is being made, that the system is working, and I have the comfort of a thousand books to enjoy still ahead of me, that I can compare the 2002 Giller Prize winner with the work of the 1902 Nobel Prize winner, ah, it’s a huge, nerdy, rush.