I collect faster than I read.

There, I said it. That’s the problem. I can’t read as fast as I collect the bloody things. I am, at this point, in dire need of a new bookshelf. Right now I have books stacked, not shelved but stacked in PILES, on top of a wardrobe to the point that they almost touch the ceiling - and I’ve got 9 foot high ceilings!!

Part of the problem is that I love books (this may, in fact, be the entire problem). The smell of them, the feel in my hands, the texture of the covers and pages, not to mention the promise of what’s inside. This love of books and the written word has led me to subscribe to a few quarterlies and other literary magazines.

At this point, I subscribe to:

  • McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern
  • The Paris Review
  • Brick
  • De Gids
  • Granta
  • Geist

One of those isn’t in English, and reading it is meant as an effort to learn Dutch. Another one I only just subscribed to and haven’t even received the first issue yet as of this writing.

You see the problem now. I get a lot of books in the mail. I enjoy them all, and sadly I know of at least two more that I would like to subscribe to! I’m a mess.

Carrying on though - only 4 are quarterly, one is twice per year, and one is every two months. I also buy books on impulse, and I have a sizable backlog. The consequence is that I am unable to get through the journals and quarterlies in a timely manner. Most I’m still reading one to two years behind. I’m still working on Mcsweeney’s from 2024! I have 9 of them to catch up on.

It’s oddly exciting and exasperating at the same time.

I am afflicted by a tendency to want to LEARN ALL THE THINGS, which of course means READ ALL THE BOOKS. The thing about this is, I have a reading problem. Yes the problem is as I said above, but it’s also that sometimes I just Won’t Read. A lot of people describe having a reading slump, where they don’t read much or just barely pick up a book at all. I have those and they can last for many months. I want to say that I have figured out how to get over them, but that’s not-currently-in-a-reading-slump me talking and who really knows what will happen.

The approach I am taking to overcoming this problem is to set reading goals (what? Did you think I would ease off buying more books?) I have a somewhat ambitious goal of reading 35 books this year, and I’m 5 books behind so far. Some people I know have passed that almost by twice as much, but with everything else I want to do, 35 books is ambitious.

Reading is just so great. Good for keeping the mind exercised and expanded. There is so much in the world to learn about, so many perspectives to see from, so much creativity to witness. How can you not want to dive into that?

Anyway, I have a reading problem and if you want to witness it in real time, I’m on goodreads, of course.