Update On “7 Books Til Christmas”

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I was going to read 7 books before Christmas (click that link to read the post.)

I got through 5. Or, 5 1/2 if you count my current effort to slough my way through a science-fiction anthology. Don’t get me wrong- there are some decent stories in there, but most seem to be written in the I-write-novels-so-I’m-gonna-drop-you-right-in-the-middle-of-the-action-and-offer-no-real-ending style that drives me crazy. I mean, it’s a short story, not a novel excerpt. For the love of scribbling, give me a cohesive plot & a definitive ending! (Ok, end rant. Except to say my short story totally has both. You’re welcome.)

So instead of getting my To Be Read bookcase down to 18 books, I was only about to get it down to 19 (& 1/2). That wasn’t too bad for a week’s effort, and it did result in the bookcase being the barest it’s been in almost a year. I was feeling OK about it. Hopeful even, that one day I would get it down to single digits.

Then Christmas came.

It started with one innocent book- a collection of Doctor Who stories that is only available in the UK. My brother ordered it off Amazon UK for me. (Fun fact- Amazon Prime works for shipments from other countries. Once American Doctor Who fans find this out, Amazon is going to be hemorrhaging on international shipping costs.)

One book was fine. I could put it on the shelf and still be at 20 books to be read. A nice round number, and still below where I had started the previous week.

Then came the gift cards. To Books-A-Million AND Barnes & Noble.

At that point, it was all over but the buying. Two nights of frenzied shelf perusal ensued, including an awesomely awkward stand-off that I won against a couple of teens who seemed to think the manga section was a good place to make out because, “only nerds go here,” but that’s a different blog post. The point is that I bought 11 new books over the last two days, bringing my To Be Read bookcase back up to 30 (& 1/2) books.

I suppose this means you can expect my New Year’s Resolution to be to drop 25 pounds.

Of books.

At least I won’t need a gym membership.

7 Books Til Christmas

Ah, Christmas time. The month of the year when it is not only acceptable but encouraged to eat as much delicious junk food as possible. This tradition used to bring me a lot of joy. Now, as a gluten-free person, it brings me a lot of terror. Homemade Christmas cookies are a minefield of potential allergens, while the non-gluten-free assure me that, “it’s ok to cheat a little. It’s the Holidays, after all.”

My only salvation is the advent calendar, especially the cheap ones they sell at department stores for a few bucks. Made with some obscure chocolate brand from a land where they’ve never heard of wheat, barley, or rye, these slim cardboard boxes come embossed with my favorite design in the world- a gold circle with the letters GF inside. Certified Gluten-Free. It takes a lot of self-control to limit myself to a socially acceptable number of calendars for one person (it’s still 5, right?) when the fear of reaction has been removed.

This year, I have no advent calendar of chocolate. Instead, my advent calendar is decidedly less edible (at least in a conventional sense). This year, my advent calendar is made of books.

As most of you may know, I have a very bad habit of buying more books than I can read, leaving me with an ever-growing To Be Read pile. As some of you may know, this has expanded from a pile to an entire bookcase. The population usually hovers around 36, with new books being added as soon as one or two disappear. Right now, it is at a record low of 25 books. With the coming of Christmas, the shelf is only guaranteed to grow more.

So, I’ve decided enough is enough. The Tsundoku (a wonderful word meaning the act of buying a book and leaving it unread) bookcase must be vanquished, or at least partially vanquished. There are nine cubbies on the shelf. 5 of them currently hold books. My goal is to get it down to 3 cubbies by Christmas, for a total of 18 books or less left on the shelf. This means reading 7 books in 13 days.

Side note- this is a decidedly more fun goal than paying off student loans. Why didn’t I buy 60,000 books instead of going to grad school? I’d very happily spend ten years paying off that debt.

The list of books to be read by Christmas is below. You can also follow my progress on GoodReads, which is a great site for readers if you’re not familiar with it. My username is Kaedance. Look for the “Advent Calendar” shelf. Then feel free to look at the “to-read” shelf and laugh at my inability to stop buying books.

To Be Read By Christmas:

Alice In The Country Of Hearts, Volume 1 by QuinRose & Soumei Hoshino
The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand
Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Claudia Gray, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Mlynowski
Pet Robots by Scott Christian Sava, Diego Jourdan, and Villagran Studios
Peter & Max by Bill Willingham
Megatokyo Volume 1 by Fred Gallagher & Rodney Caston
Eclipse One, edited by Jonathan Strahan

Three of these are novels, three are graphic novels, and one is a collection of short stories. All of them have been on my shelf for more than 6 months, and some of them have been there for over 18 months. Hopefully, they’ll all soon be promoted to one of the “read” bookcases.

With that, I’m off to read. I mean, I’m off to work. And then read. No reading books at work. I’ve never tested it, but I feel it’s probably discouraged in favor of reading spreadsheets and reports.

Gotta make money so I can buy more books.