What Am I Actually Reading?

I've basically given up on my main reading list and likely will not return to it for some time (maybe a year or more).  Looking over my current reading, it breaks into three categories: poetry, random short books I plan to give away and stone-cold classics.

I'm not sure if I ever will pull together an anthology revolving around transportation poetry, but it's not a terrible dream.  I do, however, need to find a place to keep track of the poems I stumble across, or this will just be too frustrating (when I forget where I located them...).  Anyway, at the moment I am alternating between reading Kenneth Rexroth, David Ignatow and John Berryman and more contemporary Canadian poets (generally published by Talonbooks, House of Anansi or Brick Books).  As it happens, Brick Books is running a sale on their ebooks, probably running through April, and I picked up Grey All Over by Andrea Actis and House Dreams by Deanna Young.

Mostly I am trying to get rid a lot of books; thinking of books as disposable probably unintentionally leads me to value them less.  A while back I read Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, which I didn't like at all.  In fact, it led to a bit of an internet spat, which I really don't engage in often, and I may or may not go into this at more length.  At any rate, I couldn't wait to get this out of the house.  I'm not really digging Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that much either, as it is frankly so predictable and a bit too long.  I'm not as far along, but The House on Major Street is better, though arguably Leon Rooke was shamelessly cribbing from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (though clearly one should only steal from the best...).  Other books on the stack are Tibor Fischer's The Collector Collector, Atwood's Payback, Risk and Culture, John Williams's Stoner, William Trevor's Mrs. Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel  and David Lodge's Therapy (though apparently I'll need to get familiar with Kierkegaard before tackling the Lodge (!)). But at least I am making some progress in getting books out of the house.*

Naturally, I rebel a bit at this and long for some "quality" reading.  I have finally returned to Don Quixote.  Not sure what will follow after, though lately I have been drawn to Lowry's Under the Volcano and Joyce Cary's 1st trilogy and the newish translation of Crime and Punishment.  Other books that fall into this category (but are so long I may hold off a bit) are Grossman's Stalingrad and Life and Fate, Tolstoy's War and Peace, Perec's Life: A User's Manual and rereading The Brothers Karamazov.**  I guess more than anything, I am trying not to put off these books indefinitely, but it is harder to find time than I would like, especially without reading on the train or while on a stationary bike at the gym.  

* While there is definitely less pressure, as there is no decluttering benefit, I probably should also come up with a list of my highest priority e-books.  I could create a folder on my Kindle, but I can list them here as well.

** I guess it is only half rereading if it is a different translation, right?  That is sort of my reasoning with Don Quixote, where the new translation is definitely better, even if I find the character wholly exasperating.