Reprieved

I rid myself of another large carton of books. Mysteries by Ruth Rendell and Edmund Crispin. The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott. I received, much to my astonishment, sixteen dollars, with which I purchased "The Judgment of Paris" and "Alfred Kazin's America". I then began emptying another carton onto the living room floor to sort. After close consideration I have decided to keep a dozen books which I have had for many years but have never quite gotten around to reading:
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimares Rosa- apparently Brazil's answer to "Ulysses"
Natural History by Joan Perucho- a sort of literary vampire tale
Dog Years By Gunter Grass- even understanding that I have still never finished anything by Grass
Essays by Leon Edel
A book on the English Civil Wars, "War Without an Enemy"

and several others I am anxious to read: J.G. Farrell's Singapore Grip, Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons.

A few have a probational period until I have the energy to open them: Nancy Lemann, Carson McCullers, Glenway Westcott.

And some have exhausted my patience and appear overweening and unforthcoming:
Daniel Martin by John Fowles, Emily Holmes Coleman's The Shutter of Snow, and B. Traven's The Night Visitor.

And in a postscript.... I found a hardcover set of "The Raj Quartet" and bought it... and have found the Farrell to be an unprofitable read.