A Gentle Madness

Books are coming into my house much faster than I am reading them.

Books very rarely go out of my house–I really, really try not to take in stuff that I won’t like well enough to keep, so it’s rare that something is inside that I am willing to part with.

Obviously if things are coming in at a greater rate than they flow out, then the amount inside will grow. This has certainly been happening, and I am currently probably in need of about eighty linear feet of shelving just to get caught up… and I am almost out of rooms where I am allowed to put shelving. (Yes, I actually have the beginning of “stack” in my office–that is, I have some shelves arranged in the middle of the room in addition to the shelving all around the perimeter.)

Even more distressing that this though, is the backlog in my “to be read” pile. I am also acquiring books much faster than I can read them.

This is what my current “to be read” pile looks like:

Actually, that’s just the hardcovers. There are a couple of other stacks of trade paper and MMPB books elsewhere.

I think I might have a problem.