It's not that I buy too many books, it's that I read too slowly...

I was looking over the stats on my book collection over the last year. Specifically how many books I own verses how many I've read (or not-read). For most of the year I've been right around the same percentage. Since I started the year with having read only half the books I own, that means that I'm buying them twice as fast as I'm reading them.

For the year I've got:
Read: 28
Bought: 62
Total: -34
(to steal a line from kbuxton's book log - Mike is lacking in willpower)

Currently I've got about 715 books I've not read yet. I'm going to set a goal for myself: by the end of 2005 to reduce that number down to 680 (about where it was at the beginning of 2004) or less. This means that over the next year I've got to read 35 books (easy if I set my mind to it), plus a book for every book I buy during the next year (much harder). It means only buying those books I know I'm going to read right away like Pratchett, Bujold, Brust, Fforde, etc. It may mean reading fewer comic titles - they take up time I could use to read books, besides it is time to trim some titles anyway. I could also get rid of some books that I think I'll never get around to reading, but I already did that once a few years ago so I don't know how many more I'll find.

Well, at least it's something to work towards :)

It's not that I buy too many books, it's that I read too slowly...

I was looking over the stats on my book collection over the last year. Specifically how many books I own verses how many I've read (or not-read). For most of the year I've been right around the same percentage. Since I started the year with having read only half the books I own, that means that I'm buying them twice as fast as I'm reading them.

For the year I've got:
Read: 28
Bought: 62
Total: -34
(to steal a line from kbuxton's book log - Mike is lacking in willpower)

Currently I've got about 715 books I've not read yet. I'm going to set a goal for myself: by the end of 2005 to reduce that number down to 680 (about where it was at the beginning of 2004) or less. This means that over the next year I've got to read 35 books (easy if I set my mind to it), plus a book for every book I buy during the next year (much harder). It means only buying those books I know I'm going to read right away like Pratchett, Bujold, Brust, Fforde, etc. It may mean reading fewer comic titles - they take up time I could use to read books, besides it is time to trim some titles anyway. I could also get rid of some books that I think I'll never get around to reading, but I already did that once a few years ago so I don't know how many more I'll find.

Well, at least it's something to work towards :)