Resolution week: books in 2011

There was never a lack of books wherever I lived. We had plenty of books growing up, and I positively devoured them; we were fed Nancy Drew with our meals. When I moved to Singapore, I brought with me some of my books, and I’ve only recently stopped bringing even more of my books from the Philippines back here. A house without a small library of any sort is not a house, I daresay.

Of course, that pretty much means that sometimes…there were far too many books. I would see something shiny and interesting in a bookstore and oh oh oh I must have it! And thus the to-read-stack grows ever higher and longer. It’s a mix of gifts and self-buys that I haven’t been able to crack open, sometimes due to lack of time, and sometimes, admittedly, due to lack of interest.

But all of these books are beautiful in the own right! Right? For shame!

So when I was thinking of a resolution in 2011 that I could do for my book-reading, I shuffled through ideas of “read 50 books” and “read books I previously put down because I couldn’t get through it omg” which felt like any ordinary resolution. I could probably make them every year and it wouldn’t really make a difference!

And then I came across my bookshelf, my bookshelf which has one whole shelf (plus more) of books I haven’t read yet. Bingo.

Why spend more and more money buying books when I haven’t discovered all the gems that were in my own bookshelf, right this very minute? Some might not be gems after all, but they all deserve a reading. They will probably surprise me, too! They are worlds on their own and each world deserves to exist, by getting read and experienced.

*pets bookses*

And so, my booky resolution of 2011 is to read all the books on my to-read shelf before I even think of buying more books.