You may have already seen my Reading List for 2022, here’s how 2032 is shaping up.

Once upon a time I was a conscientious book shopper. Despite considerable temptation, I would resist buying new books until I had finished the ones I was currently reading. My TBR pile, therefore, did not get too out of hand.

Then came the GFC and the large bookstores began a massive clear out of stock and I went a little crazy and have never really stopped buying more than I can read. I try to nullify the guilt by telling myself that book-buying and book reading are two separate hobbies!

Years ago, I asked myself the question, if I was to read, say, 15 books a year, in the order I purchased them, how long would it take to clear out my current backlog? I never got an answer; it stretched so far into the future I didn’t really want to think about it!

Here’s a peak at what my TBR pile for 2032 – ten years from now – would have looked like if I’d followed this system.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

A Most Dangerous Book by Christopher B Krebs

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

The Jesuit and the Skull by Amir Aczel

A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul

What is this Thing Called Science? By Alan Chalmers

I Want My MTV by Rob Tannenbaum

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

Paradise by Kevin Rushby

Cannae by Adrian Goldsworthy

The Sea by John Banville

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma by Jeremy Bernstein

So, if I was assigning 15 books a year, how come there are only 13 on this list? It’s because I have jumped the queue and read a couple from this year already. Fortunately, I have been enough to eat into my considerable backlog. I wonder, by the time 2032 comes around, how many of the above I will have already read, how many will be left and how many I may decide to set aside and never get to?

I doubt if Tina Fey’s book will feel very relevant or current in 2032! If I am going to read it, I should read it much sooner. Most of the rest of the books on this list are books that I am very keen to read. There are Booker Prize Winners – The Sea and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. There are some non-fiction on obscure but fascinating subjects – like A Most Dangerous Book and The Jesuit and the Skull. And there are also novels by acclaimed writers – Adiche and Naipaul – whom I have not read any of their work.  So, I don’t think I will drop them. I have high expectations for Adiche and a sneaky feeling I am going to love her work. Similarly, I am curious about Nobel prize winner VS Naipaul.

There are some I am less keen on than others. If there was one book that I may leave behind it might be Tannenbaum’s on MTV, but I am very stubborn about dropping books and I have enjoyed books on the pop culture of my generation.

Whatever my Reading List for 2032 looks like, I hope by then I would have knocked off most of these by then!