Jack of Many Trades

the Year of Good Intentions

Originally posted: 2012-03-18

So unless you're new, you know from my copious linking habits that I have a girlfriend, and my girlfriend has a blog where she talks about emotional honesty and knitting. (Kind of like how I talk about mental illness and magic, I think.) The other day, she announced that she's embarking on a project she calls The Year of Good Intentions. Basically, the idea is that she's got all these great knitting books but she always gets distracted by the shiny new pattern and doesn't spend enough time in her personal library.

*cough*

Yeah, when we had that discussion, it hit a little too close to home for me. I am what you might call a Shiny New Thing collector, particularly when it comes to books. I may have weeded my library down to a single box when we were moving, but that doesn't count the ebooks that I collect like candy, nor does it include the books I've picked up since we got here. (There are so many places nearby that have books for a dollar or two, it's a terrible influence.)

So. Aside from my comic books and Mira Grant's Blackout, which comes out in May and I've been looking forward to since I finished the second book in the trilogy, I don't plan to buy any new books until the end of the year. I'm allowed to use the library, but only to borrow things I look up ahead of time and go in planning to get. And I suppose it would be rude to turn down gifts, so if you really want me to read something, you can buy it for me.

Otherwise, what I've got is what I've got. Considering Calibre says I have about 1300 ebooks in my library, I suspect I'll be just fine. I'm considering this an exercise in appreciating what I have and cutting off my book-acquisition habits at the knees.