Weekend reading stack

Other than those shown in the picture on the right, there are about six or seven more pocketbooks (not including other paperback and hardbound volumes) in my reading stack these past few months.  But chose to focus today on reading just these six titles, dusting off each one with my flat horse-tail paint brush before finishing at least ten of its pages.  For some titles, it would be my second or third attempt already to read the entire thing, having stopped at some point before (in one case, way beyond the volume's midpoint) and, while bookmarks were left in place, having completely forgotten what the initial chapters or sections were all about.  And thus the need to start from the beginning.  For Anderson's first book in his The Saga of Seven Suns, this would be my second time to read it, as it has been quite a while since that first reading, and I found it simply impossible to go through the second volume in the series without a proper review of what has gone on before - how humans have colonized worlds beyond Sol's system with help from the Ildirans, used this alien technology to turn gaseous planets into new suns, and ignited conflict with such worlds' previously unknown inhabitants.

Needless to say that not all of the volumes in this reading stack require the same focus or concentration.  The collected works on Marxism, edited by Arthur P. Mendel, Nietzsche's The Gay Science, and Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World all demand to be read slowly, with some lines requiring a repeat scan so as to get a good grasp of their main points.  While for some titles, like John Gardner's The Sunlight Dialogues, and Twain's short stories, light reading would suffice.  A whole morning could go by with just one pass through a reading stack like this one, with short breaks only to get a glass of water or a shot of black coffee, or have those quick toilet breaks.  Gets the mind off from that work day routine of poring over one's emails or writing tasks, or attending all those online meetings or calls.  With music - Jesus Christ Superstar, Portishead, The Cure, Led Zeppelin, Incubus - playing on the background and providing some kind of white noise to block off all these other sounds from the surrounding and the frequent stray thoughts. 

One takeaway from today's readings: Nietzsche's point about how individuals nowadays seem to be losing the capacity to shape their characters into strong "stones" (or "wooden iron") that could help build society's "edifice" (perhaps similar to Marxists' concept of the "socialist man"), and the imagination to conceive of such projects that extend well into the future and point the collective or spirit of the age into ever new directions by always positing the exceptional (i.e., the great "architects").  There is instead this belief in one's capacity to play just about any role like an actor, to re-invent one's self quite easily, and enchant everybody else with their artistic acts.  Reflected afterwards on how this whole life may have veered towards the tendency to play accidental and transitory roles (e.g., pretending to be competent or being an expert in some areas, to be able to immediately talk about, perform tasks, or take on jobs, etc. about such things).  Definitely had a hard time thinking about what long-term character-building projects these past five decades or so have been devoted to, or are on the agenda for my remaining years on the planet.