Lists for the AR

I do lists. I like my lists. They help me organize my life and time. They keep me from repeating mistakes and help me make my life seem fuller.

I keep a list of all the books I read or listen to. I read more books than I listen to, but I have to do something while I drive and while I clean and cook. So I listen to books.

I have this wonderful list of every book I’ve read in the past four years and five months. I wish I had started this list sooner. I would love to know every book I’ve read. But thankfully, I have this huge empty space where I can pretend I read all the classics. A classic is a book that everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read.

Then there are my favorite authors. I have lists of those, too. Because I am AR (anal retentive) I hate to read the books in a series out of order. The library, in a fit of helpfulness, puts them in alphabetical order, so the only chronologically ordered books are by Sue Grafton.

I keep my lists coordinated, checking off the books I’ve read on my author lists to make sure that I can get the next book in the series in the right order. Otherwise, I know things that I’m not supposed to know, and that ruins some of the joy in reading the books.

I know some people who make out grocery lists and will NOT buy anything not on the list. That seems too rigid to me. I make out the list to keep me from forgetting what I think I absolutely must have. But if I think I want green grapes and red grapes are on sale for half the price, then I change my mind. My lists are written in pencil, not carved in stone.

I have lists of passwords because everything online needs a password to access it. I hate that. I have me favorite passwords, of course, and then I have my this-is-just-an-annoyance-password passwords. I enjoy using BugMeNot and not having to create a password. Why do I have to sign up for every stupid thing? I know it is so that every stupid place can email about their fantastic opportunities whereby I can spend money for crap I don’t want. But I delete the spam without reading it anyway. That or I have an email account that I never use for real and just have my signup spam go to that account.

Which means I have more passwords because I have to have a password for the extra email account so that I don’t have to look at all the mail I have to sign up for when I want to access a site that requires a password.

I have lists of what I’ve done. I have lists of what I intend to do. Lists and more lists. They help me with the patterns of my life. They keep me from spinning totally out of control. That’s my reason for keeping lists.