My humble reading beginnings

Have you ever counted the books in your home?

I have. Between my partner and me, we have 1399 books (not including cookbooks, academic journals and how-to books). And that's after we went through a big purge a while ago.

I find that amazing. We've got them all over the house, crammed in book cases in the dining room, the guest bedroom, the offices and even in a storage room. We've got every book Dick Francis ever wrote (though not the ones his son, Felix, has been writing using his name); we've got everything John Locke ever wrote as well.

We've got books on feminist critical theory and moral philosophy, books on sports and entertainment. We've got mysteries and histories, sci fi and serious lit. We've got graphic novels and fantasy novels and really bad novels too.

I once dated a woman who owned two books. That was it. Just two books. And she gave one away while we were going out. That's even crazier.

And there are people out there who have more than we have. Some people have more books on their e-reader than we have in our house (which, by the way, is Kobo-free).

After I counted all these books, I sat back and rather smugly assumed that I had read most of them. At least half of them.

But then I wondered. So I went back and counted all the books I had actually read from cover to cover. What a surprise that was: of the 1399 books we have in our house, I've read exactly 276 of them.

Shameful.

So I made myself the following promise: before I die (an event which is still not likely to occur for at least two decades or so), I will read every book in this house that I have not already read.

I will read them in the order in which the find themselves on our bookshelves, starting with the office we call "The Green Room" and working my way out from there. That means there may even be a rough structure to the subject matter since we're pretty organised when it comes to our book collection.

Further, I committed myself to write a blog about the experience. And about the the books. And my own insanity in deciding to do this.

I start with Ann Radcliffe's The Italian, apparently a gothic romance from the 18th Century. Sounds exciting. Stay tuned!