I love books. Books have been with me for as long as I can remember. They are my happy place and I turn to books when I am happy, sad, frustrated, stressed or relaxed. My parent’s house is full of books and I grew up being surrounded by many, many books. While others wished for money for their birthday, I always wished for books. I simply enjoyed reading from an early age. During school, one of my teachers sparked a deeper interest for books in me: I did not only want to read, but I also wanted to understand what goes on in a writer’s mind, how themes and motifs are connected and presented throughout the years. I then studied Comparative Literature, English Literature and German Literature and it was a dream come true. In my courses, we discussed the texts and preparing for a class was, most of the times, just so much fun. My love for books grew only stronger and deeper.
During my studies, I made new friends and with them, something happened which I was not used to: Competing about who has read the most books, the longest books and who owns the most books. Thinking back, it is kind of embarrassing how great we felt because we had read a certain book and how snobbish we were. Harry Potter – no, thank you. Anna Gavalda? Is that even “real” literature? It became a kind of obsession to own more books. Why? I don’t really know. I can only imagine that I thought it would make me appear more clever, well-read. I felt that I had to own a lot of books to qualify as a real literature student/person. How silly! Reading and books became a status symbol – one so silly and arrogant that it is difficult for me to accept that this was of thinking was part of my life for a couple of years.
I cannot deny it, I still love being surrounded by books but over the past years, I bought so many books that I felt like I had more unread books than actually read books. This is not the case, but the piles of unread books kept getting higher and higher. Books became yet another thing I would buy and you know, one can never have too many books.
The good of a book lies in its being read
Umberto Eco
This might be true, but I also want to know what the books are about. I want to explore the world that waits behind the cover of a book for me. I want to treasure the books, the work a writer has put into it and take the time to discover something new, learn something new, and maybe become a different person. I believe that books can change you (My thesis was actually about female initiation through reading). I wanted to be able to say what I liked about a book, what I didn’t and not stand in front of my bookshelves and repeat over and over again that I hadn’t read the book yet. So, when my friend Presilla and I started our book club, we both very quickly discovered that we have a lot of books which we haven’t read yet and we decided to not buy new books for a year.
We started in October 2018 and have 286 days to go. Our plan is to give money to a charity that helps people get access to books and teaches people how to read because our dream is that everyone can experience the joy a book can bring.
Why buying no books is difficult – a personal dilemma
The first months were not difficult. But I spent the first week in January in a bookshop in a booktown in Scotland. I talked to the owner of a secondhand bookshop, who told me how difficult the business became, especially since Amazon took over. He also mentioned how happy he is when people are coming into his shop, especially in the weeks after Christmas. And it dawned on me: We had already stopped buying books from Amazon or other chains and only bought books in owner-owned independent bookshops, but not buying any books also means not supporting these small businesses. And for me that is difficult: I want to support them, I want to be able to buy my books in a real bookshop for years to come, I want to be able to talk to booksellers and get their advice. But I also want to catch up on the books I already own and get better at cherishing for what they are: a source of knowledge, history, work and creativity. I will continue with our plan until November this year, but I am also making a compromise: I buy more books as presents and buying books as presents for someone else is allowed 🙂 I also want to talk more about books and share my thoughts on them because I already noticed that others in my close circle started to buy books that we talked about and that is a great feeling. I am optimistic that I will find a better and healthier relationship with books after the year. And who knows, maybe I continue a little longer. Or, and that is more likely, I will buy one or two books per month and only buy a new one once I have read the one just bought. Because one thing is for sure:
Books are a refuge and a reservoir of power. The mills of books grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small.
Arthur Bryant
Do you have many unread books? What is stopping you from reading them?
