Failure

Back in January I made a resolution to read only the books I already owned. I confess that I broke my resolution a few months back in April. It all started innocently enough. I was cruising the Web, searching for the most recent winners of the Pulitzer prize for poetry. Natasha Trethewey, the 2007 poetry winner, was in Oklahoma City for conference which I was going to attend. She was billed as a Pulitzer-prize winning poet, so I wanted to know how recently she had won the award. Then I discovered a new poet, W. S. Merwin, who I had never heard of before. He had won the 2009 Pulitzer prize for poetry, and, on impulse, I purchased his book on Amazon before I knew what I had done.

Since then, I have bought other books online, mainly books of poetry by Andrew Hudgins, Stephen Dunn, and Sherman Alexie. I told myself that getting back on the Amazon wagon was okay because these books weren't available at my local library. But I just did a check on the catalog, and some of the books that I bought were available. In my defense, I like rereading books of poetry, so maybe it's okay I broke my resolution. :)

Can I tell you a secret? Part of the fun of buying a book on Amazon is getting it in the mail. Real mail is ten times better than email. I love opening the door to my mailbox and discovering a white rectangular package. What's even better is if I have purchased more than one book, and I'm not sure what's inside. It's like Christmas, any time of the year. Ha. But I have really tried to limit how many books I have purchased so far this year.

For instance, the book I'm currently reading--The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--comes from the library of the school where I teach.

My purchased books keep piling up, and now that another school year is only four weeks away, I'm realizing that I have barely made a dent in my collection. I will keep reading, though. How could I not?

Reading Resolution: 2010

For the past couple of years, I have spent countless dollars on books that I have yet to read. This year, 2010, I resolve that I will not buy any books for myself until I read the ones that I already have--a number at the moment that hovers somewhere around 30.

This does not mean I can't check out books from the local library. I most recently finished reading The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance (a terrific memoir), and today I checked out Nurtureshock, which I have had on reserve for about a month.

Some of the books on my shelf I have begun and have never finished, like Reif Larsen's The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. Others, like Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, I have never even started.

So here's to a year of reading books that I already own or can borrow from a library. Sorry, Barnes & Noble.