Books, books, and more books!

I'm an avid reader, or shall I say, an avid collector of books? Whenever I come across a topic that interests me, I go to Amazon and start adding tons and tons of books to my wishlist to keep track of all the book recommendations that I have received and would like to read one day. And of course, once on Amazon, there are the recommended books that I just can't seem to resist. I end up adding all of those to my wishlist too. It's really a smart way for Amazon to get people to buy more books! In reality, if I actually purchased all of those books, I might end up needing a separate office just to house all the books. And who knows if I'd actually have the time to read them all. I do appreciate the feature, however, because it allows me to learn and explore a topic just by reading the titles of books available on the subject.

Once I've culled through all the book titles on Amazon and added them to my wishlist, I add the ones that I actually think I'll have time to read to my shopping cart and purchase them. I think I've actually read only 5% of the books I own. Tsk tsk, I know. You don't need to remind me that this is one of the reasons moving is such a chore and why there is so much baggage I carry to every new place I move into. I haven't had time to read the books I own yet because of the insane number of hours I used to work and all the travel I had to do in consulting. I think it was even worse during grad school. I had purchased the books to read later. Going forward, I am only going to buy things when I actually need it.

Now, the window of opportunity awaits. I am here in my new home in New York with no "job" at the moment, cleaning and organizing all of our belongings and writing on my blog. This is the perfect year to commit to reading these books! Sorting and putting away all of these books only reminds me of how much I've longed to find time to read these books over the years. No more excuses! I'm doing the things that make me happy this year, and reading books is definitely on the list. This is the year to read.

It's been 6 years since I started collecting all of these books. The books are of all different topics that I'm not even sure I should share with all of you (I tend to be a private person with interests that I do not announce to the world)...but I will, since one of my intentions I made while creating this blog was to be open and share more about myself and what I have learned with others. Why hide? I've decided to live out loud. This is why after much hesitation, I decided to use my name as my website and blog name. I can't hide if I use my name. If people judge me or think I'm strange because of the content I write about, it's really their business. I know who I am and think others may be able to benefit from the things I've learned in my journey over the years. In particular, I've been hiding more of the spiritual aspect of my life as I've transitioned from a devout Catholic to someone who has become very open to every and all religions, spiritual lifestyles, beliefs, and even new age concepts. I've decided to share this journey as well (this is a bold move for me to share this one) in another blog for those interested in spirituality: Seeking a Spiritual Life.

In order to reduce the clutter in my home, I've resolved to read the books, then donate, give away or sell the books once read. Once I get through these books, I plan to use the public library this year (wow, what a concept! fortunately, it is located relavitely close to my new home) and purchase ebooks for my Kindle instead of buying another book to stuff into one of my overstuffed bookcases. You will be surprised to hear that we had to leave our TV at our old place because we knew there would be no space in our new place for one. Instead of a media cabinet and TV, we have several bookcases in its place. We had to choose, and we chose the books over the TV. How nerdy are we? It was definitely a difficult choice to give up all of my recorded shows on my DVR, though.

If you don't have a kindle and love to read, I would definitely suggest buying a kindle! One book, yet thousands of books, all in one device. I have the original one, and I love it. I like the ability to highlight and bookmark certain pages to go back to later. It's like sticking those little post-its without all the visual clutter. The battery lasts quite a while, so it's great for travel too.

Amazon Kindle (Latest Generation)

If you're interested in books I recommend, you can visit my store:

Christine's Book Store

Or, if you're just interested in looking at what books I'm reading, what I've read, and what I'm planning on reading, you can take a look at the books I own on shelfari.com.


If you have any good books that you've read that you recommend, please leave a comment. Happy reading!