Confession of a Book-Shopaholic

Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have always been a hoarder, and have often been called a great beginner and a lousy finisher. This, however, goes beyond the pale of even the depths that I could imagine sinking to. I have 40 books lying around the house that I paid for, but haven't read. My face - it is far too unworthy to be palmed.

Here's how it works: a book piques my interest, so I pick it up. Used to be, I bought compulsively in bookstores - these days, the Kindle and its squadron of cross-platform apps makes it easy to buy books impulsively and compulsively. Once picked up, if the book doesn't immediately grab me, or if my busy life intrudes, I tell myself I'll put them on a shelf just there. I promise to come back to them eventually. Turns out, I don't very often...

To find 40 abandoned or unread, definitely neglected books on my physical and virtual shelves was, as you can imagine, a deep shock. This then, is a public shaming (or as indirectly public as I dare make it). Let me regale you with the tale of how I got here, how I discovered my problem, and what I intend to do about it...

A Sordid Tale

The tale begins honorably enough. For 2013, feeling like I haven't read enough diverse stuff of late (I read 68 books in 2012, but mostly graphic novels). I set myself a reading challenge, using a handy tracker on Goodreads (now also a widget on the right hand side there). The goal (initial baby-step) was to read 30 books this year. When I seemed to be doing OK against that in late July/ early August, I upped the goal to 40. Yesterday, I hit 31 books, mostly thanks to reading 5 graphic novels in quick succession. (Yay me!) I'd bought most of them this year for the challenge, mostly on the Kindle.

A third of the year still before me, I decided to see how I could up my goal to 50 (as I'd always hoped to) and come up with a realistic plan to get there. With a smattering of graphic novels, and some unlikely ones, I'd make it a great finish. Of course, I already had a list of 18 books I wanted to buy (and several already bought and awaiting my attention in the cloud). For some reason I thought, I'd also go back and inventory these old friends of mine that have been eating dust on my shelves for far too long... If I could pick up a few abandoned books from yore and make myself a prioritized list of 19 books to read to get to 50 - hey, I'd complete the personal challenge in style.

This is when the hammer fell. As I looked through my various virtual drawers and physical shelves, I began to get a squirmy feeling in the tum - like a mini-Ourobouros wriggling about. In summary, I had...

40. Unread. Books.

Not bad books either - some of these are established classics; certainly, all are respectable books by any standard that I could apply. I have not even counted the crap-fest that was Meluha (summarily abandoned) or the Hunger Games trilogy (movies are better), or such. I speak only of books that I should/ must read.

Shakespeare said "Neither a borrower nor a lender be", and I'm aghast to report at least three of these are books I borrowed from a dear friend years ago, and haven't even had the decency to read as yet. The Bard, he berates from the beyond.

Here's the full list:

1. Austerity - Mark Blythe
2. Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett
3. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
4. Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna - Umberto Eco
5. The Player of Games - Iain M Banks
6. The Information (audio) - James Gleick
7. Manias, Panics, and Crashes - Charles Kindleberger
8. Empire - Niall Fergusson
9. Collossus - Niall Fergusson
10. Furies of Calderon - Jim Butcher
11. The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
12. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
13. Old Man's War - John Scalzi
14. Team of Rivals - Dorothy Kearns Goodwin
15. Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
16. Christianity: The First 3000 Years - 
17. Mongoliad 1 - Various
18. Mongoliad 2 - Various
19. Mongoliad 3 - Various
20. The Forever War - Joe Haldemann, John Scalzi
21. Unfinished Tales - JRRT
22. The Children of Hurin - JRRT
23. The Prize - Daniel Yergin
24. The Books of the South
25. The Return of the Black Company - Glen Cook
26. Many Deaths of the Black Company - Glen Cook
27. The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
28. At Home - Bill Bryson
29. A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
30. Neither Here, Nor There - Bill Bryson
31. Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
32. Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
33. Theories of Everything - John D Barrow
34. Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
35. Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
36. Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
37. The Sane Society - Erich Fromm
38. Book of the New Sun: Vol 1 - Gene Wolf
39. Book of the New Sun: Vol 2 - Gene Wolf
40. The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M Auel

The Pledge

So what is to be done? I know - it's mandatory these days to address any problem with 12 steps. For this problem though, I have just one - a pledge.

"I solemnly swear that I shall not buy or borrow another book until I have given every book in the list above a decent shot at being read cover to cover."

I do not say I will (or can) finish them all - let's face it, I'm sure I abandoned several of them for good reasons. They will all get another honest attempt at a read however, before I get to pick up any new books. Some of these books are actually the first volumes of a series - and the latter volumes are not on the list. Any such go to the bottom of the list, because I cannot resist picking up a series and finishing it if the first volume shows any promise.

As for that 2013 reading challenge, I figure if I can even halve the list above, I'll be in a good place. Ergo, it gets upped to 50 forthwith/ I shall abandon my current read-through of the DC Comics Chronology (that list was books I haven't yet bought).

Apologies to Amazon.com in advance - one of your most frantic (no other word describes it) customer is not going to be spending for some time to come.

Onward then - to redemption!