These are the twenty six novels I bought this weekend, at the Save The Children Booksale:
An Imaginary Life by David Malouf
Age of Iron by J M Coetzee
Harland’s Half Acre by David Malouf
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
The Burnt Ones by Patrick White
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
And the Rain My Drink by Han Suyin
Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
Amy’s Children by Olga Masters
For Love Alone by Christina Stead
The transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
Shame by Karin Alvtegen
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Half Brother by Lars Saabye Christensen
The Renewable Virgin by Barbara Paul
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul
Youth by J.M. Coetzee
The Feud by Thomas Berger
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Border Crossing by Pat Barker
And these the twenty one science fiction/fantasy novels:
Threats and Other Promises by Vernor Vinge (short stories)
Wind’s Twelve Quarters: v. 1 by Ursula Le Guin (short stories)
Last and First Men: a Story of the Near and Far Future by Olaf Stapledon
The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire by Doris Lessing
Nova by Samuel R. Delany
Songs of Earth and Power: Infinity Concerto and Serpent Mage by Greg Bear
The Song of Wirrun: Ice is Coming, Dark Bright Water and Behind the Wind by Patricia Wrightson
Pictures at 11 by Norman Spinrad
Invaders from Earth by Robert Silverberg
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
Dark Space: The Sentients of Orion Book 1 by Marianne de Pierres
First Lensman by E.E. Smith
If the Stars Are Gods by Gregory Benford
Song Of Mavin Manyshaped by Sheri S.Tepper
Conan of the Isles by Lyon Sprague Camp and Lin De Carter
To Open the Sky by Robert Silverberg
Capricorn Games by Robert Silverberg
Stepsons of Terra by Robert Silverberg
Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
The Lazarus Effect by Frank Herbert
Not counting the two short story collections, this makes a total of forty five novels to read, a good portion of a year’s reading.
Thinking about all these books, it would be fair to say that:
Reading is my favourite pastime. (Really??)
Whenever I have a problem I like to try and find the answers from books. Whether it’s information and facts, or similar experiences from other people. Even if it’s not really possible to find the answers in a book.
I also have a bad habit of collecting books about things I want to do or am interested in. Writing. Meditation. The meaning of life. Cooking. I don’t necessarily read everything I collect, though.
I buy books like other people buy a pub crawl, or clothes, or experiences. It’s a rare week where I don’t acquire a new book. (Or, if I go a week without buying a new book, I make up for it the following week and get three.) We’re going to need a bigger house if this keeps up.
Which leads me to wonder if I could go for a year without buying books, except say at the next Save The Children Booksale. (And maybe when I need to get birthday gifts for family and friends.) When I mentioned this to M he smirked disbelievingly. I wonder, though. There are more than enough books to read at home – I certainly would not run out of books to read in a year. (Besides, I work in a library.)
I seem to have this consumerist, acquisitive thing happening with books at the moment. Would it be possible to break the habit? Reset my relationship with books, enjoy what I have. Shift the focus from acquisition. Read for reading’s sake, to learn. Re-read. (Gasp!)
Could I go for a whole year without spending money at Planet Books, Borders, Dymocks, the Book Depository…? Would I make it until next year’s Save The Children Booksale?
What do you reckon?
Would I be just setting myself up for a year of torture?
9 Comments
I completely understand how you feel. I went through this a few years back, when I realized how much I spent on books and how many books I had that don’t get read! Getting really busy with night school worked very well, but I’ll say this:
I tried, a few times, when I thought “I need to get this book” just going to my local library and checking out whatever they had. I even scanned a few pages that were pertinent to my needs to assuage the feeling that I needed to OWN books. Then I returned those books and I tried it again next time. It really dulled the acquisitive urges!
I think you’d need to have serious motivation to do that. 🙂
For me it’s more about the reading rather than the owning. I do like to buy books that are my favourites and children’s books are open slather, but on the whole I’m happy to borrow stuff from the library. Well, cookbooks are in their own category – I do buy more of those than I really use.
A year of torture, I think. But seriously, if you read Shame please tell me what you thought. I haven’t heard from any readers on that one. Translation is a lonely business. Steve
Kim and Penny I think I will ponder this some more.
Reg thanks for stopping by. You didn’t have a hand in the English language translation of Shame did you?
that’s a hard one. We still haven’t unpacked our books after 9 mths boxed up. In the rented house we had one bookcase and it was filled with cookbooks & books that we hadn’t read- as I thought this would be a good chance to catch up with reading. Well all we seemed to do was buy more!
I didn’t buy books for a few years when children were little (except kids books) and used the library extensively and borrowed from friends people- I just couldn’t afford books.
Perhaps try only buying second hand? – but honestly- don’t put yourself through pain if you are going to be miserable…there are much worse habits!
K
I’m impressed with your book purchases… you must have a large amount of shelving space. 🙂
If you are even contemplating a month without spending, I suggest you read (yes another book) “Not buying it: my year without shopping” by Judith Levine. An enjoyable read which examines consumerism. Even the author admits to having a book buying habbit!
HK
Kate, I am wondering how miserable I would be if I tried this. However only buying secondhand might work…
Hi Helen, no I don’t have alot of shelving space. I don’t even live in a very large house. The books all seem to fit though. Will look out for that book (will try not to buy it though 😉 ).
Heh heh heh – you and I are very like minded on this particular matter. I buy books when I’m down, when I feel like it, when I walk into a bookshop…I did cut back for a few years when I wasn’t reading as much but I too, suffer from collectivitis, though not as badly as I used to – he says, thinking of the 80 odd Biggles books, masses of Enid and complete Terry Pratchett.
I find areas of interest, and end up buying lots of interesting books, many of which I never quite get round to reading fully. Some books are just nice to have on the shelf, some are interesting to look at, some are “just in case”.
My new place will have space for all my books and will have good space for expansion – for the next couple of years at least.
With all that said, I’m not buying much at the moment, not really in the mood. Was just in the UK and came back with single figures! I don’t really have a passion to go into a bookshop at the moment, or even to peruse the shelves. Though there was that Amazon order a week ago – oops, forgot about that. But other than that, I’m not buying much. Went into at least 3 bookshops on the weekend and bought nothing.
Yep, I definitely have the “nice to have, nice to look at, and just in case” syndrome 🙂 Actually I am starting to think that it’s not just books I might want to consider an embargo on buying. M can tell you that this year I have morphed into a profligate online shopper. It’s a rare week when I’m not expecting something in the post…