A Dubious 2022 Plan
for books and reading and librarying
.
Last year, in frustration, I declared I would only read books I already own. I don't think I did well, but let's check the math, shall we?
Of the 131 books I read last year (this includes books read more than once):
42 were books I owned prior to January 1, 2020
60 were library books
6 were books I picked up for free
including 3 from an author or publisher
and 1 as a gift3 were borrowed from my mom
4 were read online
and 12 I purchased in 2021
Which seems to add up to 127, so I screwed up somewhere. But these numbers are good enough to prove I failed at my goal.
Perhaps even more telling is this information accessible from the library's website right now, the books I have checked out:
I'm not equally serious about reading all of these (not to mention the three books I have out on interlibrary loan or the fifteen books currently on hold). For instance, I really want to read Ishmael Reed—but none of the books at my local library were top of my list. And I'm about a third through the religious book (heard about here); if I owned it, I would eventually finish it, but I don't and I got the gist so it'll probably go back before I'm done.
The thing is, I just really want to read the books we own. So I'm going to try and at least read MORE of my own books than I do library books in 2022. Should be manageable, right? I mean, I just used giftcards to get these three on Barnes & Noble's 50%-off-hardbacks sale and I'm excited to get past the second page:
Wish my self-control luck!
Derned temptatious libraries.....
I feel your pain. Coming from a family of bibliomanes, it is part of my genetic makeup to buy books by the heap and "get around to them someday." Plus the fact that my hometown library recently discontinued both late fees and due dates; now I treat the library as some sort of extension of my own bookshelves.