It's Andy Fish!

I’ve got an addiction to both books and reading, and I have a deficit of time. Like Burgess Meredith in the famous TWILIGHT ZONE episode “Time Enough At Last” featuring a book worm who tries to satiate his reading habit a little bit of everyday but is met with people who just downright hate his yearning for the written word it’s only when he takes his lunch break in a bank vault to read some Dickens and the world is destroyed in a Nuclear Blast does he finally have time to read all he want.

I grew up in libraries– traditional public libraries where I would spend a good deal of my vacations from school there sitting with a pile of books, I’d also bring paper and pencils and draw my own comic books while I was there. I also had access to a vast library of thousands of books when I would spend part of my Summers in Portland Oregon because my Great Aunt and my Grandmother were tremendous readers. My mom has always been a heavy reader but I don’t think she saves books she’s read, I’ve picked up the habit of keeping books and often re-reading favorites.

A favorite activity when I’m traveling is to hit up some used (and new) bookstores but after this year’s milestone birthday I’m looking at the shelves and shelves of my current collection and seeing a hard truth;

Currently I read about 50 books a year. Previously I’d read about 100– so I’ve dropped by about 50% — my free time has dropped to match. But at 50 books a year it would take me about 50 years to read every book I have.

I will never have time to read all these books.

Does that make me a hoarder that the idea of getting rid of them fills me with some dread? I think it does, so I’ve decided I’m going to purge my collection and thin the herd. I’ll let you folks know when I put them up and where in case there’s something you’d be interested in, but I’ll keep only true favorites and the ones I definitely will get to read.

Wish me luck, it’s not an easy task.