Relenquishing Library Books
I've resolved to turn in some of my library books unfinished. Yes, UNFINISHED. Not the ones that come from the first column of fiction (authors starting with A) or the first segment of nonfiction, since those all are a focused reading project, but I have a lot of extra books checked out now.
A couple friends and I put together a short list of books in sci-fi/fantasy that we'll be reading and discussing online next year, and since I've read Hugh Howey's Wool already, I figure I can read the rest of the series while my friends read the first book, so I can return the second book and get it again later.
Ditto for The Book Thief, which I am sure won't take terribly long to read, but I can check it out again next year when I've cleared my queue a bit. I doubt that I'll manage to finish and turn in all my remaining library books by the end of the year, though I'll try. But at least my stack will be a bit less daunting for the rest of this year.
For next year, at least till my immediate TBR queue is cleared out, I think I am limiting my library check-out quota to 3 books per week, a drastic change from this year. When I was floundering about, just trying to find free books to review at all, checking out stacks of books at a time was great, but now I have growing stacks of free books that are mine, and a long list on my computer of ebooks I've downloaded, all waiting patiently to be read. Using the library and actually checking books out is vitally important to maintaining the library and its book collection, since each book I check out will survive in the system longer because it was checked out at all. I just don't need to have 40 books checked out at all times.
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Comments
scheng1 wrote on December 18, 2014, 7:07 AM
We have the same problem. We always see books that we absolutely must read, and we want to read, but we have no time to read them all.
GemOfAGirl wrote on December 18, 2014, 11:44 AM
I'll be doing the same thing soon. I'm currently reading "Moby Dick", but I'll be taking it back to the library soon, unfinished. I'm getting started on my busy season at work, and I know I won't have any time to finish it between now and April. I can check it out again then.
Kasman wrote on December 18, 2014, 2:54 PM
I have never returned an unread library book. I have failed to return some - but they were all read!
BarbRad wrote on December 19, 2014, 12:00 AM
Forty books at a time? I think that even tops my childhood library book totals. Someday I will check out the Book Thief and read it, but not yet.
Ravenmount wrote on December 19, 2014, 1:36 AM
I'm sure I'll check it out again, or read a copy from a thrift store or someone else's shelves. It did look like a good book, and a fast read.
As a kid I used to max out my account every week, which I think was capped at 40 books, but I'm not opposed to renewing books as long as I can. My sister would just ignore due dates and racked up huge fines, always, and I think as an adult she has the same bad habits, to the extent that she can't use her local library to borrow books because she'd have to pay off her fines first and she can't afford to right now. We all grew up checking out (and reading) lots of books.
Ravenmount wrote on December 19, 2014, 1:39 AM
I have never gotten into Moby Dick enough to get past page 20. I had ahousemate who ws absolutely obsessed with Moby Dick and thought it held the answers to all of life's problems, which may be true, but he was so pushy about it that I haven't picked up that book since.
Ravenmount wrote on December 19, 2014, 1:44 AM
I used to be more like that, but I figure that the books will still be at the library in a month or two when I can read them without so many other unread books stacked up on deadlines (many of my not-yet-published ebooks are temporary files that expire when the book is about to be published, or after 30 or 60 days, so some of those take precedence because I can only have them a few more days, with no renewals possible). I almost never give up on a book, so all the books I checked out will be read by me eventually.
Ravenmount wrote on December 19, 2014, 1:47 AM
Yes. I am always in denial about the fct that there won't be enough hours left in my life to read all the books I know I want to red, let alone ALL the books. :)
GemOfAGirl wrote on December 19, 2014, 3:37 PM
I rarely read fiction, but I was inspired to give it a try when I heard about the real-life incident that inspired the story. I'm actually enjoying it, but I haven't been able to devote much time to it lately.