Moby Dick and anything by William Faulkner seem to pop up quite often here, along with another one of my own (perhaps) shameful reading omissions, Charles Dickens.  The great Russian novels are well represented as well, especially an imposing Big Three I’ve started and never finished myself: War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, and Crime and Punishment. 

Surprisingly, many commenters cop to never having read Lolita while on the other hand greatly enjoying Reading Lolita in Teheran.  Hemingway and Steinbeck are quite well represented on the list as well, and they also appear along with Ayn Rand in more than a few comments in regard to “Books I’ve Actually Read But Wish I Hadn’t.”

Before I end up feeling too guilty on this topic, though, I like to remember the immortal thoughts of Mark Twain:  “A classic is a book that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read.” 

Commenters also note a few interesting websites where readers can trade unwanted titles with other readers, like bookins.com, paperbackswap.com, and the very nicely designed bookmooch.com.

I thought this book-recycling project sounded like a really cool way to connect with family members who would likely end up with a book they would never have ordinarily picked up.  In the best of all possible worlds, maybe families who don’t have much to say to each other (or have a few too many un-civil things to say all the way through Christmas dinner) could at least talk about good books and their reasoning for picking out their particular titles.

The anti-consumerist aspect of it appealed to me as well, as I genrally try to avoid coming within a three-mile radius of a shopping center from late-November to January.  On the other hand, this book-exchange idea would present me with a couple of serious problems.

First, I’ve gotten to the point where I almost never actually buy a book.  Even if the library system doesn’t have a title in its collection, the surprisingly speedy “Inter-Library Loan” option allows patrons to request just about any title for library staff to track down from other libraries all across the country.

I’ve also found that I’m especially compelled and driven to read library books because of the finite nature of the loan.  If I buy a book, it can sit on the shelf for years, decades even, and I won’t necessarily feel like I have to read it.  With library books, on the other hand, I can renew it for up to six weeks but I know I’m eventually going to have to give it back.  This really works as a serious motivator to either put down a book I’m not enjoying or power all the way to the end of a great read.

Finally, I’m a lot like a struggling Little Leaguer at the end of a season-long slump when it comes to reading.  I mean, I just love to have that trophy at the end to keep on the shelf.

There’s a painfully true Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George argue the merits of keeping books they’ve already read, and I definitely fall into the mildly shameful category of people who have to keep them like the antlers of some big game hanging on the wall. 

If, for example, I ever finished James Joyce’s Ulysses (hell, if I ever got through the first chapter), there’s no way I could give that book away to Cousin Cletus at the Dirty Santa exchange.  I’d prop that baby up on the coffee table as a permanant conversation piece to brag about endlessly to anyone unfortunate enough to ask me what it was doing there.