Have I mentioned that I love to read???
And that I love books???
I am actually on a book buying "diet" - notice I did not say "fast". If you have had opportunity to visit my home, you would agree that I have quite a few books (and when you add in those belonging to my husband, well........).
Anyway, for a number of years I have frequented several local library used book sales on a regular basis and usually left those sales with a bag (or two) FULL of wonderful books.
Several weeks ago I realized that if I did not slow down on book buying I would have to:
- Buy a library to house all my books;
- Read continuously for 3,249 years in order to read everything;
- Install steel beams in our house to hold the weight of my ever increasing collection;
- Stop feeding the cats because the cat food budget was spent at book sales;
- Stop feeding my husband because the husband food budget was spent at book sales;
- Stop eating chocolate because the chocolate budget was spent at book sales!
HOLD ON!!!!! I can't stop eating chocolate!
So, the only thing to do was to put myself on a book sale diet. I can happily report that I have not been to a library book sale in several months and I can now even read about these sales without hyperventilating and salivating excessively!
Again, notice I said "diet" and not "fast". I may still buy a book (notice I said "a" book instead of a "bag" of books) every now and then. In fact, I was in Goodwill last week and found a Rick Bragg book that I have never run across before - a compilation of his newstories. So, I bought - let me also mention that it was priced with a blue tag and all blue tags were 50% off last week! Bingo!
How long will my book diet last? Good question! Maybe when I start seeing some available space on my bookshelves?
I'm not a book hoarder (I don't think). Once I have read a book, it usually 1) gets passed on to a friend to enjoy; 2) gets sold on Ebay; 3) goes *back* to Goodwill; or 4) stays in my library if it is a book/author that I want to read again at some point. Here is my guess on that breakdown:
#1 given to a friend - 35%
#2 sold on Ebay - 15%
#3 donated back to Goodwill - 15%
#4 kept in my "library" - 35%
I do keep track of the books that I read througout the year. When I finish a book, I make note of the title and author on my calendar. I have kept a "Books Read" journal for about 20 years which I try to update on an annual basis using the information noted on my calendar. I also keep track of books electronically. I was using Shelfari but have just recently switched over to Goodreads. I like the electronic version especially for keeping a list of books "to read".
Here is the list of books that I finished reading in 2012. You'll find a variety of subjects/genres on this list. One genre that I totally neglect is poetry. Maybe this year I will read through some of my poetry books (I know I have Emily Dickinson, Robert Browning, Robert Frost and *many* more).
So, here goes........
- Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages by Michael Popek
- C. H. Spurgeon - Beside Still Waters: Words of Comfort for the Soul, Roy H. Clarke, Ed.
- The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Tending Your Garden: Wisdom for Keepers at Home by Denise Sproul
- Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
- Wise Counsel: John Newton's Letters to John Ryland, Jr., Grant Gordon, Ed.
- Lives of Mothers & Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro by Sheila Munro
- Life as a Vapor: 31 Meditations for Your Faith by John Piper
- Gardening Letters to My Daughter by Anne Scott-James
- Blue Hills and Shoofly Pie by Ann Hark
- Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
- The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
- Life with Mother by Clarence Day
- Carrot Cake Murder by JoAnne Fluke
- The Winter Garden by Johanna Verweerd
- Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper
- A Small Country Living Goes On by Jeanine McMullen
- Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in my Father's House by Miranda Seymour
- The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow
- The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
- Letters to Anna: The Civil War Through the Eyes and Heart of a Solier by James R. Knight
- Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
- An Unknown Woman by Alice Koller
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
- Seabiscuit: An American Ledgend by Laura Hillenbrand
- A Gift from Brittany: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the French Countryside by Marjorie Price
- The Law of Kindness: Serving with Heart and Hands by Mary Beeke
- Letters In a Woodpile: Essays from NPR All Things Considered Commentator by Ed Cullen
- Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
- A Guide to Writer's Homes in New England by Miriam Levine
- Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
My favorite? Without a doubt...."Seabiscuit"! I also enjoyed "A Small Country Living Goes On", "The Cross of Christ", "Gardening Letters to my Daughter", and "A Separate Peace".
Which ones did I finish only because I hate to NOT finish a book? "Library: An Unquiet History", and "An Unknown Woman". And had I not visited Florence, Italy last year and seen the Duomo, "Brunelleschi's Dome" would have been a difficult book for me to finish.
How am I doing in 2013? With five weeks under my belt, I think I have finished 5 or 6 books, three of which were probably started at the end of 2012. Without further ado I better bring this post to a close and head to my favorite reading nook!
