I love to read them, I love how they feel, I love to turn the pages, I love to own lots of books and be in rooms with the walls covered from ceiling to floor in them. I love to feel utterly suffocated by them, the best kind of claustrophobia. All those pages, all those words.
I love to own books that other people have owned. I like to know I'm reading a book that someone else has already loved (or not, I suppose), whose hands have turned the very same pages in the very same desperate anticipation (or not), books that have likewise sat on other peoples' shelves patiently waiting their turn at the party.
Here's my problem, though. I have too many books. Well, perhaps not too many, just too many I haven't had the time to read. If I had to estimate, I would say that I accumulated roughly 23 books in 2008. I received 8 books for Christmas (one is a first edition of a book I've already read though), purchased only four for myself this whole 2008 (quite unbelievable, actually), borrowed only one from the library, and "acquired" approximately 10 others, mostly passed on to me from my Dad after he's finished with them, but also including those loaned to me from friends.
Twenty-two unread books in, only 9 consumed in 2008. You can see my mathematical issue. At this rate, I will never have read all the books that I own and that is a little unsettling to me. For a while now I've been thinking that if it's in my "library" then I should have read it, or at least be intending to. I suppose there are some books I'll keep even though I never plan on reading them (or ones I've tried to, unsuccessfully) just because I like the way they look or they're signed by the author. But for the most part I want to be able to pull any book off my shelf and say fondly, "Oh yeah, I loved that book [Andromeda]," or "Damn, that book infuriated me [Cold Mountain]." Either one of those statements is so much better than, "I duh no, haven't read it yet."
Obviously, I need to set up a strategy for 2009, one that I can stick to. Either fewer in, more out, or both. Hmm, fewer in...not a happy thought but perhaps a necessary sacrifice. More than doubling my consumption...a challenge, but not wholly implausible. To make any headway though, I've got to dip into the ones already sitting on my shelves.
I think I can reasonably read 1.5 books per month capping me out at 18, maybe squeezing in one more for good measure so 19 total. Here's how I'll break it down:
7 - received this Christmas
3 - purchases in 2009
2 - library borrows
4 - from my stacks
3 - friendly acquisitions
In theory, I will read everything "new" that comes into my possession, as well as rescuing four lost souls from the dusty confines of my various bookcases. Anything above and beyond is gravy.
If this goes anything like my dedication to posting on the blog 12 days in a row I'll be off the wagon in no time.
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