At the start of the year I counted all the books I had to read and the answer was 42. And while this may or may not be the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything, it is certainly a lot of books. Especially since this number only includes the books I have recently acquired and not those dusty tomes that take up precious bookshelf space, which I gave up on long ago.
This collection came about because I felt like reading a graphic novel one day, so with the stellar Australian / American exchange rate, I bought a bunch from Amazon. Then I started working in a bookshop which is a mistake if you like books (and obviously you wouldn’t be working in a bookshop if you didn’t). Not only do you have access to free books from a limited selection of damaged or pre-release books (called readers), you are also continually faced with practically every book you’ve ever wanted to read. And this, combined with a 25% discount makes for a packed to overflowing bookshelf. Or, in my case, a suitcase full of books hidden under the bed because the shoddy Ikea bookshelf won’t sustain the weight.
I felt it was important to have this as a resolution, and probably one of the few which will be ongoing for the whole year, as life often gets in the way if reading isn’t actively prioritised. Although, I suspect my motivation is more because the other girls at work seem to read every second of their spare time so they’re more likely to read 42 books in a month, unlike me who whiles away most of my spare time watching my favourite TV shows or using Twitter. This makes them perfectly capable of recommending you the perfect children’s or paranormal romance (ie. vampire) book (which, let’s face it, are the biggest selling categories of books) while I am pretty much incapable of recommending anything since my taste is rather eclectic and most people don’t need help in choosing a ‘classic’ to read.
Really, I should be trying to read about six books per month but three feels like more of a comfortable number, less than one a week, although I will strive to read as many as I can. Luckily, since graphic novels make up a sizeable portion of my collection, I am going to allow them to count towards the total, even though they usually take less than a couple of hours to get through. So with that in mind, this month I have managed five and here they are with a little review of each.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney. The 4th in a cute series of
- books aimed at primary school aged boys which combines ‘handwritten’ text and sketches to detail the misadventures of Greg, the main character.
- A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire. This is the third book in the Wicked series. As always it is a creatively written take on the main players in the Wizard of Oz but is best read closely together with the rest of the series as it is very reliant on details of the previous books.
- Hey, Wait… by Jason. The most touching and heartbreakingly tragic story ever rendered in graphic novel form.
- Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox. I put off reading this for years because I didn’t want to face the realities in it however it is beautifully written and a really interesting tale of celebrity and Parkinson’s. I am now addicted to bios.
- Digital Photography: An Introduction by Tom Ang. Well I think I’ve harped on about this one quite enough. Even though I read it for a challenge, I still read it cover to cover so I reckon that counts towards the tally!
Sadly, even with five books down I am still at a total of 42 books to read. Collecting books is a terrible compulsion! I shall endeavour to update on this resolution each month.
It's a Resolution, Baby! 