NEW YEAR’S EVE THOUGHTS: ON BOOK BUYING, PURGING, & A CLEAN SLATE!

Good morning, and welcome to the last day of 2014!

Isn’t this the day when we gather our thoughts, study our numbers, and evaluate what we have accomplished?  Or it could simply be a day when we grab another cup of coffee and smile with gratitude that another year is just ahead.  A blank slate, if you will.

Tomorrow I will be featuring my First Book of 2015, in Sheila’s event, here.

 

 

I participated last year, and I have already sent in my photo…the one that Sheila will put into a collage of all of us reading our First Book.

I am tempted to talk about it now…that’s how impatient I get.  But no, that will be later.  Maybe late tonight.

Meanwhile, I have been studying some numbers over at Curl up and Read, where I document my reading by listing books, titles, links…and numbers.  I launched that blog in 2009, when I had 166 unread books on my stacks.  While I haven’t yet cleared out all of my stacks—I keep adding to them!—I did deal with the older books that were sitting there, in one way or another.

Yes, I did some purging this past year, from books to collections, and it was a grueling process.  But I felt a sense of accomplishment afterwards, and my goal—or resolution, if you will—is to make it an ongoing process and avoid the huge piles that have to be sorted in a frenzy.  Here are some recent book donations, below:

 

 

 

However, before I get off track, I was updating Curl up and Read, getting ready for the New Year, which involved adding pages and deleting others.  And I noticed my Book Purchases for 2014.  That stack needs work! 

Luckily most of those books are on Sparky, but that means, sometimes, out of sight, out of mind.

I purchased 151 books in 2014!  And, like I said, many are e-books.  But wait for it….I have only read and reviewed 56 of them so far!

There was a trend throughout the year.  I started out moderately, but by November and December, I was downloading and buying like crazy:  18 purchased in November and 11 in December.  May was the other high month with 16 purchases.  Do I suffer from Compulsive Book Buying Disorder?

 

 

 

Okay, I can get this under control.  I am not signing up for any challenges to help me with this, as during the past year, I worked to get 32 or so books off my shelves (from previous years), but kept adding to my shelves.

I just love adding books!  I see them on blogs, I find them on Amazon, and CLICK!  It’s all over.

I do try to get freebies now and then, but I have less than 20 books acquired that way, and they are not reflected in my Book Purchases numbers.

I could stay off of Amazon…no, that won’t work.  LOL

Any suggestions?  What works for you?  Are you able to postpone gratification and wait for the books to come to the library?  That seems the sensible thing to do.

I would love to hear your thoughts.  And, by the way, have a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

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