No one responded to my giveaway of Heather Gudenkauf's novel One Breath Away. So--that means I will gift this novel to someone in my family and friends circle.
What the heck? I guess I will have to think long and hard about trying that again.
August is here, and I am at 91 books towards my goal of 125 for the year. It helps to have a few days off, hot weather, and central air. Kept me reading this past week and making inroads in my gigantic piles of books.
But not enough.
Somehow I think moving piles of books around from one spot to another will make them shrink. This is not working. They are still the same size.
While I'd like to make a firm plan that I won't read anything new in the bookstore, this would last about halfway into tomorrow, when I see some great new reads at work. Instead, I'm going to make about 75% of my reading for August come from those piles on the floor, those double and triple stacked rows on the bookshelves. Uggh.
And you probably wonder where I get all those books I have all over my house.
I buy them.
A few are ARCS, but mostly (90%) books I have bought. So while I am appreciative of getting ARCS (saves me some money!) and love getting books from Netgalley and Edelweiss, I do spend an awful lot on books. I like to own them. I don't like to borrow from the library, and I don't like to borrow from friends. An employee discount comes in handy! I don't get too many books as gifts. Pretty much none. My wonderful Bud does give me gift cards to B&N for special occasions, so that helps. If I get an ARC for something that I won't read, I leave it for others to enjoy. When I'm done with an ARC, if I don't want to keep the book on my shelves, I take them to work to pass onto other book lovers.
But I still have a lot of books. I think I may adopt the rule of: For every one that comes in, I must take one out. It may very well kill me, but I have to try!
Here's to August and another full month of reading. Tomorrow night at my B&N we are welcoming author Tracey Garvis Graves, author of the very enjoyable and hard to put down On The Island. Looking forward to meeting her and telling her how much I enjoyed her novel. If you haven't picked it up, do it! It's a quick read and really sucks you in very quickly.
I am hoping to reach my goal of 125 books by November 1st so I can give NaNoWriMo a shot! Can't wait. How is your reading goal for the year?
since i quit blogging, i quit counting books, thanks to catching up on my reader i quickly counted my books after reading your post, i am at 99 ytd, with just a smidge left of a great book i can't seam to sit down and finish... frankly, i am surprised i had that many, i have many dry weeks, i splurge at the beach and read 1-2 books a day, i try to stay for a several weeks, to a month at a time, but when i come home i may not have time to read for weeks... i guess it all averages out in the long run, but when i don't read every night i just feel out of synch with the world...
ReplyDeletefelt guilty about you talking about reading from already owned books... i SHOULD be doing that too, but last night i went on a bender at amazon and my library and bought and/or ordered at least 30 new books... i go in spurts, seems like for every 10 i read, i grab 15 new ones... i find a night selecting books just as enjoyable as reading them... i can get lost at amazon for hours on end, all the bookstores in my town have closed down, i miss seeing them in person these days, but amazon is still rewarding when the tangible fails. i always find so many more books when i can walk the aisles, i feel deprived just searching best sellers online, i like to find the obscure little neglected books, and face it, covers sell!
you work in such and ideal place of nonstop pleasure. i enjoyed on the island too, how great you have authors popping by too, really keeps you in the pulse of the pages ;-)
you must spend a fortune on books, unlike you i maximize my library, i read to fast to afford my habit on a daily basis, my new thing is i will only buy books i can't get at the library, trust me i am queuing up for every new book now before my library has barely even placed them on order, i love getting expensive books for free! as my husband reminds me, our property taxes are astronomical, these books are far from free, so let me at least get something from our taxes to feel good about! i will only buy used books lately and kindles if over 450 pages or under 7.99... with that said, i have at least 300 books to be ready at any given time at home to pull from, and yet last night i was busy adding more and more to my tbr piles.... its not like i don't read, i read about 175 a year, but you can see i still shop for twice that a year!
lets toast to good books, i know another addict when i see one :)
I'm glad I'm not alone in my addiction! I figure buying books from my own bookstore not only keeps me employed, but keeps a valuable asset in our community! There really is nothing like working in a bookstore and I'm very blessed to be there. If only authors would let all of us readers catch up!
DeleteGreat job on coming close to your reading goals!
ReplyDeleteI have a ton of books on my TBR but can't seem to break my addiction to buying them.
It truly is an addiction, isn't it! But I guess it's better than having a closet full of purses and shoes :)
DeleteHey Sue. It's been very hot here so I've been reading like crazy. Just finished The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark which I think you recommended. I loved it. In October most of my sister-in-laws are coming for a visit and I thought it would be fun to read and discuss a book. Is there anything you would recommend? I was thinking State of Wonder by Anne Patchett or True Sisters by Sandra Dallas. Both would make for an interesting discussion. Hope your summer is going well. My mom and dad are fine. My mom has joined a reading group and gets together with the ladies in their development for a monthly bible study and a weekly game day, which she enjoys.
ReplyDeleteHi Dawn!! Great to hear from you--say hi and give a hug to your Mom. I think you should read True Sisters--it is wonderful and I think it's Sandra's best novel to date.
DeleteEverything here in Iowa is brown and the corn is mostly dead. We are all looking forward to Fall!