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I think there's a dividing line between plot-driven and character-development driven works for lack of a better word. I think plot driven stuff should pretty much follow very common heuristics (the horror story, the heist, the serial killer novel...look at 20ish from each genre and you'll see very common structure) and only deviate ever so slightly. King follows this and an excellent book that goes into more detail on it is "The Story Grid" (teaches you to become your own editor, uses Silence of the Lambs as a running example)

My high school had it as required reading (over summer vacation). I was never a big reader to begin with so this book along with others (Jude the Obscure, A Separate Peace) have always been in a bad light for me in my mind (I guess having a book that I would tested and grilled over first thing in the school year does that). However, as an adult I found reading books such as IT, Silence of the Lambs and The Grapes of Wrath really entertaining. When I have some time I think I'll give this classic another try.

This is probably different for different cities & cultures but where I live there are a lot of small book shops. Both for second hand and newly printed.
People also tend to leave a lot of books on the street to take.
I recently found Dark City, Silence of the Lambs and The Dean(?) in his domain on the street. All in good condition and I enjoyed eating them.

I really don't understand why everything needs to be tracked.

Reading for me is a journey for its sake, the destination is not interesting.

I read the Meditations in secondary school, high school, but it was the Penguin Classic edition I think. I am reading it for a fourth time, a new translation by Gregory Hays that is wonderful. I grew up poor, but went to a Jesuit high school, took Latin for two years, and I've found Stoicism appealing, because it tied in with my family's spartan lifestyle. We didn't have a phone until I was 12 or 13, and a TV until I was 8 or 10 I think. Minimal furniture, hanging clothes out the window, etc. I can see how it appeals to those say in Silicon Valley, as an alternative or contrast to their materialistic, high-tech world, a refuge. I am not discounting that it appeals to them or anyone for that matter, simply because it has a lot of truth or substance to it. I consider part of my life as stoic, and part of it along the lines of romanticism. I've considered learning Koine Greek to read it, and others, in their original language.

As a side note, my second reading was provoked by the movie "Silence of the Lambs", where Hannibal Lecter coaches Clarice to, "“First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius." ;)

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

1. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

2. One L by Scott Turow

3. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

5. Believer: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod

6. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

7. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy

8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (re-read)

9. I, Claudius by Robert Graves

10. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

11. The Fear Index by Robert Harris

12. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (re-read)

13. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (re-read)

14. Hannibal by Thomas Harris (re-read)

15. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (re-read)

16. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (re-read)

17. Claudius the God by Robert Graves

Re-reads take hardly any time at all, so I'm not sure whether to count them. If you're not, then 11 books read so far.