My "to read" list looms ever larger

My "blog plan" for today was to trim and update the list on my "to read" page. Trimming isn't much of an issue since I merely needed to go through and check that I had removed from me "to read" those books that I had recently reviewed.

What rattled me was the fact that in the time since I first posted my "to read" list my meatworld "to read" list has at least doubled in size despite the fact that I have been steadily working away on it every day.

How could that happen?

Some of the reasons are obvious:

1. People who respond to my reviews give me wonderful suggestions of other books that I might find interesting.
2. People who respond to my reviews ask me questions about the book/author in relationship to another book/author which fuel my interest in those books/authors.
3. Authors I follow publish new books (yeah!!!!)
4. I find out that authors I already liked had written books I hadn't known of (sometimes writing under another name.)
5. I read book reviews which lead me to read the book reviewed, works discussed/referenced in the reviews and sometimes books written by the reviewer.
6. I read the LibraryThing recommendations (which based on the books in my library.)
7. I read books that are rated highly by LibraryThing friends
8. I read books that are rated highly by LibraryThing reviewers whose past reviews led me to books are ( now value

People to blame for the fact that my "to read" list just keeps getting longer:

1. John Scalzi, who not only writes books and stories I have enjoyed, he uses his own website, Whatever, as a platform to allow writers to introduce Scalzi's community to one of their books. The Big Idea posts are written by these authors (not Scalzi himself) and usually include a description of the book, an explanation of "why the book was written"/"how the author got the idea" and a link to a free-sample of several chapters of the book in question.
2. Jo Walton (directly) has introduced me to many wonderful books through her reviews at Tor.com.
3. Jo Walton (indirectly) has added to my "to read" list by changing the way in which I read and the way I write reviews of the books I read. I can't claim to write as well as Walton nor to have as much insight as zie does--but I do try to make the effort to do both. Therefore I can't always simply sit down and quickly type a review of a book I read years ago without any conscious intention of reviewing it.
   
   I may have well remember a book that I first read several decades ago, however, in the intervening years I have read many books as well as many book reviews. I have had life experiences and academic training. To do the book justice and to do the book review justice I have to sit and read the book again. So many books on my "to read" list are actually on my "to reread" list. Indeed many of the books on my "to read" list move immediately, once read, onto the "to reread" list because I feel they need repeated readings before I can write a good review.

I have already reached the point of realizing that even were I to live as long as my parents (mom to her mid-nineties and dad working on his late nineties) and even if I, like my father, never go a week without reading at least four books I will never finish the "to read" list.

And that is a thing of joy for it means that reading a book (and crossing it off my list) does not diminish the number of books left to read. I need never fear that the day will come that I will run out of things I want to read.