On My Bookshelf

I have a terrible habit of buying books and taking ages to read them. Often I have more than one on the go at the same time, so the process gets bogged down even more. My plan for the Holidays while I'm off work is to try to finish at least two of the seven (yes, seven) books I'm reading and resist the urge to buy more until I have worked my way through the current load. I wouldn't describe myself as a bibliophile because I don't buy what I won't read. I just over-estimate how much free time I actually have to sit quietly with a book. I've had the book addiction since I was a kid. Growing up, our house was full of reading material with both my parents being avid readers.

I'm going to load some of the blame onto social media. Its a bad habit in some ways, a good one in others. I've virtually met some wonderful people and found some great books to buy via social. But it can become addictive and in my view, doesn't qualify as reading when so much of it is just people being horrible to one another. But I've kicked other bad habits over the years (smoking, biting my nails) so I know I can overcome the social media bug and get my nose back into a good book.

My current list includes two biographies, two that I call social history type books, one based on a tv show, a tell all, a science fiction and a spy novel. Wait, that's eight, not seven, all on my Kindle. Thinking about it, I forgot a physical book I bought last month, a history of Russia, after watching the 2017 Oliver Stone interviews with Vladimir Putin when I came across them on YouTube. See? An example of social media being a good influence. I think. So that's nine books.

Oh dear........