Lists

Mmm ... books ...

Ko-Ko: 'I've got a little list, I've got a little list ...' ('As some day it may happen' from The Mikado.)

I think it's great to keep lists. I didn't used to, though. Oh, I keep 'to do' lists. I'm a veteran of those. It's the only way I keep myself organised. I have many, many 'to do' lists: daily, weekly, monthly, by theme, college-related, home-oriented, things to buy or see or read, people to send flying monkeys after ...

But my long-time friend James introduced me to the idea of keeping lists about books that I've read. I resisted for a long time — partly because he's a voracious reader and I felt intimidated! — but then I embraced the idea, and I haven't looked back.

I then extended the concept to lists of movies and TV shows. And when I was finally going through my theatre programs list several years ago, I put together my theatre-viewing lists over the last thirty years or so, too. I can't tell you how happy I was to finally have all of my theatre programs, divided up by year, in magazine stands on the shelf. Ah, the life of an obsessive-compulsive.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. So, each year now, I keep a running tally of all of everything I 'consume'. I thought I'd share my current list totals with you for a chuckle. I'll pop back at the end of the year with the complete totals and we can compare and contrast then. I might even put up the full lists of all of the titles, too.

Books read: 35. This includes 5 novellas and 19 books I've read for college.

Short stories read: 10. I added this list in 2012 because I'd started reading individual short stories for college.

Movies viewed: 25. This includes 10 at the cinema.

TV shows followed: 5. This list is fairly lean this year. Because I've been studying, I just haven't had the time to watch TV. Indeed, my TV often remains off for weeks and weeks at a time nowadays. (Thank God my mother keeps me up-to-date on current affairs.) I have a long list of TV shows I want to catch up on.

Theatre attended: 28. I would love to have gone to more theatre this year, but I just didn't have enough time. And living on Austudy and savings this year hasn't help. I still have a couple of more shows to looks forward to this year, though.

When it comes to books, please pop over to www.goodreads.com and have a look for me. I've become a big fan of theirs in recent months. I've listed all of the books that I've read this year, along with a one-to-five-star rating for them, as well as the book that I'm currently reading. It's a fun website, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and their reading habits. Think of it as a 'Reader's Facebook'.

What are you reading at the moment?