This month’s prompt is all about the perils of being a book hoarder. And, well, I happen to know some things about that. Coincidentally, this month I’ve actually made a big effort to get rid of books I didn’t actually intend to read — books I read years ago and won’t reread, books I own multiple copies of, unsolicited ARCs that are just not genres I enjoy — and all that hauling around of book boxes did pull a muscle in my shoulder…
But also, there’s the whole issue that I have literally about a thousand books owned and unread. Someone counted them a while back, I’m not kidding you. I get stressed, I buy books for comfort… and then I reread books I already own because it’s more comforting to know the plot and characters ahead of time! And it’s actually a little bit stressful having such a big, big pool of books to choose from. I already have problems making decisions, and now. Well. It’s at peak levels.
One thing I am doing to get over it is monthly TBR lists — picked somewhat randomly from my backlogs. Usually I’ll pick a category (like, “oh, I’ll tackle some of my unread comics”) and find some books to fit it, and try to use that as motivation, to cut down on the problem of choice. It’s working reasonably well in September, but I gave myself August as a month off because I’m fickle and sticking to a list stresses me out… And I can be pretty enthusiastic about the set-up in the last week of the month, and then go off it on the first. I have a list drafted now for October, but I don’t know how the actual list is going to resemble it.
(You can, uh, see the problem with the fact that I keep masses of lists about books.)
Anyway, rambling done, here’s my general updates on the #ShelfLove challenge and my New Year’s Resolutions. The colour scheme should be familiar by now…
- 47/51+ already owned books read from prior to 2015 (last one recorded: The Martian, 21/09)
- Spent: £21 out of ~£30 budget (budget is 10% of my income) for January
- Spent: £20 out of ~£25 budget for February
- Spent: £22 out of ~£25 budget for March
- Spent: £15 out of ~£16 budget for April
- Spent: £45 out of ~£30 budget for May
- Spent: £18 out of ~£40 budget for June, plus stuck within holiday budget
- Spent: £45 out of ~£50 budget for July
- Spent £51 out of ~£60 for August
- Spent £30 out of £40 for September
Not such good pay so far this month, alas, but the total might go up.
Here’s my more general progress on resolutions:
- No books impulse-bought (I’ve made a couple of impulse purchases)
- Read every day
- Bed before midnight
- Up before ten every day
- Only bought one book from a series at a time
- Posted to the blog every day
- Commented on at least one other blog every day
- Tithed 10% in every month so far
- Done 6o hours volunteering total
- Reading/reviewing books from NG/etc (67% ratio; steady progress)
So not so bad! Especially that leap of eleven books from last month’s check-in, when it comes to reading books I’d previously bought.