Book Guilt

I've been an avid reader my entire life. Most of my favorite birthday and christmas presents have been books, my favorite places in the world include my local library and bookstores, and long before people were getting into accidents from texting while walking, I was hurting myself and others from reading while walking.* I used to read often enough to prevent my personal bookshelf TBR pile from ever getting out of hand and still be able to regularly go to the library to support my reading addiction.

Then I went to college, and 3 contributing factors lead to my ultimate downfall and the vast pile of book guilt in which I currently reside.

Factor 1: I stopped reading as much. I still read a lot, but I often had to ban myself from fun reading in order to focus on exams or class reading.

Factor 2: I got a job, which meant I suddenly had a steady albeit tiny income.

Factor 3: School bookstore sales.

I never really had a chance. Every summer, I would put a big dent into my TBR pile, and from September to May I'd multiply my list by 4.

So here I am, almost a year after finishing graduate school, and I still have a huge freaking pile of books to read. I have so much book guilt, I've actually sorted them into categories.

Neglected required reading from high school
1. The Tempest by William Shakespeare
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
3. The Storyteller by Mario by Mario Vargas Llosa
4. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
5. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Recommended reading from friends
6. Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
7. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Books I started reading but never finished
8. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
9. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

Books I 'borrowed' from my family members
10. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11. Angela's Ashes by Frank Court
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
14. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
15. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
16. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Sequels to books I've read
17. Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker (sequel to Abarat and Days of Magic, Nights of War)
18. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
19. Tommy Nightmare by J.L. Bryan
20. Bartimaeous: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud (prequel to the Bartimaeous Trilogy)
21. Extras by Scott Westerfeld (sequel to Uglies, Pretties, and Specials)
22. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
23. Eric by Terry Pratchett
24. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (sequel to Wicked)

Splurges from Barnes and Noble
25. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
26. Paper Towns by John Green

Cheap books from bookstore sales/ Printer's Row
27. The Silmarilion by J.R.R. Tolkien
28. Solaris by Stanislew Lem
29. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
30. Othello by William Shakespeare
31. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
32. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
33. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
34. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
35. Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson
36. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
37. Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie
38. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Gifts
39. The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien
40. The Mask and the Sorceress by Dennis Jones

Free Kindle classics
41. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
42. Dracula by Bram Stoker
43. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
44. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
45. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
46. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hoob by Howard Pyle
47. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
48. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
49. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
50. Emma by Jane Austen
51. Persuasion by Jane Austen
52. The Secret Garden by Jane Austen
53. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
54. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
55. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe
56. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
57. Once a Week by A.A. Milne

57 books, people.

And these are only the books I own (and have purchased before March, I'm going to do a book haul at the end of the month). I have an even longer list of books to borrow from the library or to eventually buy. Even worse, though I am reading more than I did in college, I am still not reading fast or often enough to put a dent in this pile. Last year, I made a concerted effort to read 30 books, and I only made it to 27.

Hence this book blog. I am hoping to use this as a way to keep track of my reading and book buying patterns, and to do reviews of all the books I read this year in addition to doing general book discussions about whatever books are on my mind. I won't make any promises to how often I will post yet, but I am excited for the year!

Happy reading,

Katie

*Not an exaggeration. I once stepped on my mom while simultaneously reading and walking down the stairs.

Note: This post is a written response to the following video Kristina Horner posted on YouTube two months ago about book guilt.