Books and Minimalism

I'm tired of stuff.

There is a global battle against clutter and I'm a willing participant.  Over the past couple of years I've donated, thrown away, and given away more things than some people own.  The number probably approaches 10,000.

One thing my younger self couldn't imagine parting with was books.  But we don't live in a house with a library or extra bedrooms.  We live in a cozy 830 square foot house that contains one bookshelf.  And I'm pretty happy about that arrangement.  I have the advantage of indulgent parents who let me keep things in my old bedroom at their house, but I'm even purging things from there.  So the former book hoarder is now ridding herself of books left and right.

If it's a book I don't love or can easily replace I get rid of it once I've read it.  My friends and coworkers are probably tired by this point of me giving them things, but that's their problem.  Every time I finish a book and pass it along it makes a little more space in my life.  And I love that.

New Page!

Top righthand side of the page, you will now see a list of my blog's pages. As of today, there a 2 whole pages. "Home" will take you to the main page and "About me me me!" gives you more information about who I am and what I'm about. Please read it if you don't know me or if you do and have forgotten who I am. I won't hold it against you as long as I never find out. One day, in the fullness of time, I will add some pictures of me, my dog, my books, but most importantly: me with Jenna Marbles-esque eye makeup, reading books in vintage-style dresses. What can I say? I know what I like.

Too many books!

I'm sure I've said this before, but there are too many books and not enough time to read them! I sincerely hope that Heaven has a giant library because there's no way I can read everything I want to before I die. My list of books to read on Goodreads is well over 100 and that's with me really restraining myself.

And it's not just books I personally want myself to read. There are the books I need to read for my book club, most of which I'm actually looking forward to. There are the books friends tell me I need to read (I never read The Giver as a kid and so I've been instructed to do so by my friend Angie). And then there are the books I started reading and refuse to give up on now even though they're terrible. So what if I only read a couple of pages a week? I'll have it done in a year or two, tops.

It's a delightful problem to have, but a little frustrating because I know I can't possibly get to all the books I want to. Even if I quit my job and read in a cardboard box, there aren't enough hours in the day.

One of my goals is to at least read every book I own. Ok...maybe not every book I own because I still have tons of books in my bedroom at my parents' house and a collection of nautical books in our second home. I'll read every book at my house for starters. Ok...maybe not every book at my house because some of them aren't even mine; they belong to my husband. So I just need to read the 100 or so books that I own and that are currently in my house. In addition to the book club books and the ones I can't resist downloading onto my Kindle because they're free. In other words, I might read all of them by the end of the decade if I'm lucky.