I created my LibraryThing account one year ago today, and immediately started adding books. There are now 710 books in my catalog, which is still not all the books I own. I have to confess, once I got the bulk of the literature and fiction done (most of which is in “the red room” in the basement), I haven’t been as ambitious. Most of what I’ve added in about the last three months are the new books – I HAVE been pretty good about adding them within a few days of acquiring them.
I’ve learned two big things about my personal library since joining LibraryThing. First, though I obviously have a LOT of books, I actually thought I had more of them. I don’t have a strong positive or negative feeling about that discovery, just that it surprised me. What can I say, I’m not a big numbers person. Second, I own A GREAT AMOUNT of books that I haven’t read yet. That finding IS a little embarrassing. I knew I had a lot of unread books, but of the 710 items in there, today, 311 have the tag “tbr,” indicating they’re still “to be read.” I could NOT buy books for five years and still have things to read!
While I spent last year’s July 4th holiday between the glow of my computer screen and the hush of my crowded bookshelves, I hope tomorrow to do some cleaning and organizing at home while listening to my audio of The age of innocence – I’m leading the book group discussion this coming Tuesday – and to catch up on some e-mails, primarily responding to those kind friends and family who have actually read some of these blog posts and followed up with a note to me! You know who you are! Thank you SO MUCH, I’ll write you back very soon!!!
And now, the end of my lunch break, must get back to work. Oh – the FIRST thing I’ll do tomorrow: sleep in, at least until seven. 🙂