K has a shelf of 91 unread novels. The books are ordered alphabetically by the name of the author. Here are some of the books on K's shelf: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Berlin Novels by Christopher Isherwood, Under the Net by Iris Murdoch, Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth, and Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.
If K wanted to, he could re-order the books according to when he purchased them. He knows why each book attracted him, and why each has not (yet) been read. Take Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence. It was snapped up as soon as K had finished Lady Chatterley's Lover. Browsing through Lawrence under 'L' at the book store, K read on the blurb of Women in Love that it is considered the author's masterpiece.
The same principle of purpose follows for most of the other 90 unread novels. The Remains of the Day followed Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Libra followed Don Delillo's Underworld, The Swimming Pool Library followed Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. One of K's greatest frustrations is that he tires of a writer's style very quickly. That is not to say he has no wish to revisit the oeuvre of the author at a later date, but K has never read two books by the same author consecutively. Which begs the question, why must K immediately possess Women in Love after Lady Chatterley's Lover, Libra after Underworld. K cannot quite fathom the reason himself.
K despises his own literary tastes sometimes. He is well-read but he knows he is something of an elitist snob. He reads masterpieces. He reads Booker Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel prize winners. He has no sense of adventure. He couldn't tell if a book were good or bad without a critic's review, and even then, K only goes by the New York Review of Books or the Washington Post, sometimes The Guardian.
K convinces himself he is a busy man and the reviews and awards help "distill" the bad from the good, but still, K wishes he has a mind of his own or at least the time to develop such a mind. Today, K begins to read Home by Marilynne Robinson. He read Gilead in 2006. It won the Pulitzer Prize. Love, K
