My problem is threefold:
- I had a problem with paperbacks that I never waited until I was ready to read a book before I purchased it. Consequently I have a large number of books I have not read. This includes whole series (eg. Dark Tower).
- Once I bought a Kindle, all the books were about 1/3 the price of paperbacks (in Australia). And a massive number of works which were free or a negligible price. I went nuts and bought/downloaded more books than I currently have in my library.
- I started an independent authors review site. Now most of the books I read are given to me by authors for review. This doesn't actually add to my number of unread books necessarily as I consume at a 1-to-1 ratio. However, it leaves me with even less time to make a dint into the problem caused by the first two points. But it does leave me a massive backlog of correspondence and samples to go through. I usually get at least one request/sample a day and I usually read about 1 book a week.
I've decided that next year I'm going to continue to allocate 3 spots a month to independent authors for my review site and the remaining time is going to be spent trying to read books I already own. No book clubs giving me ideas to read books I don't have; no e-library card to open up another avenue of reading; no scouring around looking for freebies or cheapies; no more buying a book just because I love the author - sorry Neal Stephenson. My purchases are now only going to be made if I'm going to read the book NOW, or if I'm purchasing an e-copy of a paperback I already own so that I read the book NOW.
Then there's the other side of the coin - time to read. And so I add this little nugget to my resolution for next year. No ridiculous time wasting on the internet. This site is OK, but the amount of time I waste surfing around, doing the You Tube shuffle, playing Bejeweled Blitz (or all utter time-wasters) is obscene. The time would be better spent reading and so it will be - next year.
How long with this all last? Hopefully all year. You never know - I started a health kick this year and joined a gym and got a personal trainer. Still going 7 or 8 months later. So maybe I have some self-control afterall. I'll let you know next year.
