A New Year In Books

Like most avid readers, I have an impressive TBR pile. This has only been exacerbated since the advent of e-readers, of which I am an unabashed fan. My Kindle currently holds hundreds of books, about half of which I haven’t finished. By contrast, my physical bookshelves hold about 150 titles, most of which I have completed. (Why is it that I have read more of the cloth books than the electronic ones? I would guess it proves the out of sight, out of mind theory. It’s easy to forget the content on my Kindle.) I pretty regularly scroll through the e-stacks, surprised that I own a copy of certain works. One of my favorite mental games is trying to figure out what compelled me to buy some of these books. I have a thick tome called The Portable Atheist. What made me to think I would relinquish 14 hours of my life (530 pages) to this topic? I was also being fanciful when I purchased a copy of The Mueller Report (736 pages). I did get about 25% of the way into it, but I think it’s fair to say it is the opposite of a desert island read. Other, longer books I’m more certain I will get to someday. I have been meaning to read The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver for fifteen years. You can double that number for Rebecca by du Maurier. Nothing beats The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton. A friend of mine recommended it to me in middle school. I still haven’t gotten to it, but all three of these titles seem more likely than some of the others. This new year, 2020, I plan to tackle my real and electronic stacks of books. In fact, the goal is to see how long I can go without buying a new book. (My guess is 45 days.) In the meantime, I’ve got plenty already to distract me. First up: How to Find Love In A Bookshop by Veronica Henry.