Writer’s lowdown on lists a bit on the abrasive side

I should start this review with a disclaimer that I am a compulsive list-maker. My to-do lists are updated every few days, and include domestic and work-related tasks (carefully separated), but my list-making doesn’t stop there. I keep running lists of books I’ve read, want to read, and need to read (the last two are not always the same). I also make lists of activities I want to do with my children, goals for the year, menus I want to prepare, and once I kept a list of how many times I needed to wear a jacket during the winter months here in the Rio Grande Valley because I wanted to be certain it was less than 10 times, although the past few weeks would have smashed that theory.

Certain people have raised an eyebrow at my list-making, hinting at disapproval or, at the least, mild puzzlement. Rarely have I shared my lists with others without reluctance. With the publication of To-Do List I know that I’m not alone. There are hundreds of thousands of fellow list-makers in the world who are even more dedicated and fastidious about their lists than I am.

Sarah Cagen, author and blogger (www.todolistblog.blogspot.com), is herself a longtime list-maker and sought to collect lists from others. She posted an advertisement in a magazine nearly a decade ago and has culled through the thousands of responses to pick one hundred lists included in her book. The lists range from the predictable grocery lists (albeit from a highly organized accountant who includes when exactly to purchase fruits and vegetables in season) to the insightful plan for starting a new church (bookended with “pray” at the beginning and end).

Cagen has found some order amidst the range of list-making. She categorizes them into subject headings, such as “daily,” “ideal mates,” “relationships,” “sex,” (the last three are not always the same), and “happiness and hates.” Before each section, the author expounds on the relevance of list-making to the particular topic and exhorts readers to consider each list on a personal level, making suggestions under the subheading of “DIY list-making” on how to improve our own list-making.

Her common theme is how much our list-making is a window into ourselves.

“Our lists reveal our secret selves. They show us as the hilariously imperfect works-in-progress that we are every single day. We’re all figuring it out as we go along, and we’re all much funnier, more neurotic, and idiosyncratic than our finished-product versions of ourselves suggest. The evidence is in our lists.”

Like Postsecrets — the Web and print phenomenon of individuals sending in their personal secrets on postcards to Frank Warren, reviewed here in The Monitor previously — To-Do List allows us to connect with others through the Internet and the printed page. Unfortunately, Cagen deems herself both collector and critic, sharing a pithy, one-sentence caption underneath each included list that too often seems demeaning and judgmental. To one list titled “To Do Before I Die,” Cagen writes, “One list, eight careers. Good thing she’s only twenty-nine.” After a list of former lovers made by a young woman who suffers from bipolar disorder, Cagen tries to be cute and writes, “Hey, I slept with “Young Punk Glasgow” too!”

The lists themselves are intriguing, but when Cagen tries to both enlighten us as to the importance of lists and entertain us with her witty observations of others she comes off as condescending and contradictory. The best lists come straight from our heart, without a need to justify or explain their worth or their content. Cagen should recognize that.

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Martin Winchester is a book critic for The Monitor. He is an English teacher at IDEA College Preparatory in Donna. Send comments to mwinchester@ideapublicschools.org

Sasha Cagen

To-Do List

PUBLISHER: Fireside Books

PRICE: $16

PAGES: 241

Rating: 2 out of 5