Conflicted about making New Year’s resolutions, this year I made only one, one I have nearly broken forty-two times in January and thirty-nine times so far in February. The resolution, as written in my journal: “I will not buy any books this year. Zero. Zip. None. Why? Not buying books will give me time to read and sort through the ones I have.”
So far, so good. I declare that, as of February 28, I have not purchased a single book this year.
Just between you and me, I know I won’t last an entire year without being tempted by all new releases being published and suggestions from friends. I’m going to need a few exceptions.
For instance, I’ll still be using our public library, since borrowing is not buying. But what happens if they don’t have a book I want to read? Can I put in a request for the library to purchase the book without breaking my resolution? Thankfully, they have a five-book-per-month limit on these requests. I didn’t know they knew me that well! There aren’t any guarantees they’ll buy the book, but if they do, you get to be first in line to check it out. And for true literary emergencies, I’ll allow myself to use interlibrary loan for books that are a little older. For this service they charge a $3.00 fee. Again, I’m not buying the book, just paying a fee.
The only problem with the library is that I can’t write in their copies and I love underlining good sentences or pertinent facts I want to remember. I’m remembering the time I accidentally wrote in a Library book! When I called to report my transgression, they asked me to purchase a new book for the Library and said I could keep the one I had defaced! If that were to somehow happen again this year, by accident of course, would that constitute breaking my resolution?
So you see that making and keeping a resolution for me is a complicated endeavor. If you still make resolutions, do yours get complicated like mine or are they more straight forward?
IMAGE: Another new photo!
