Last night at the cocktail hour for Briane’s wedding (which was wonderful), I was chatting with somebody who highly recommended the book version of A Beautiful Mind, about Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash. He won the award in Economics, since there is no prize for mathematics. According to legend, the pre-eminent mathematician at the time the awards were instituted was an obnoxious jerk whom nobody liked, and Nobel would be damned before he gave that person an award. Hence, no mathematics prize. Nobody knows for sure whether that story is true or not, but it makes for good conversation among disgruntled mathematicians.

Anyway, I came home today and added that book to my Recommended Reading list, then immediately I began laughing. I actually have 8 recommended reading lists, by categories, with total numbers listed for each category. Here are the totals:

Science Fiction: 296
Fantasy: 123
Historical Fiction: 366
Nonfiction: 193
Series books - Fantasy: 127
Series books - Historical Fiction: 248
Series books - Science Fiction: 296
Graphic Novels: 35
Total recommendations 1,684

That is a heck of a lot of books to buy and read, especially when you consider how many books I have already bought and have not yet read:

Fiction: 415
Nonfiction: 118
Total books to read: 533

I am currently reading books at about a rate of slightly less than one book per week. So for me to read all my current books, then buy and read all my recommended books (assuming no other books join the wish list, a vast stretch of the imagination) would take me approximately 42 years). That is highly unlikely to happen.

Too many books, too little time. *sigh*