Too Many Books

There they sit, accusingly, on the bookshelf.  A half-dozen or more books that I have acquired over the past several months with the intent of reading them 'some day'.  These are not all the books I have accumulated this year, mind you, just the ones I haven't read, yet.  A row of shame, sitting in front of another row of books on the shelf.  My fellow book-hounds know all about double-parking books when your book-cases reach capacity.  But now I have clearly reached a tipping point, a watershed.  I am acquiring books faster than I can read them.  In earlier days, I would find a book that I was interested in, purchase it, and read it.  Or maybe two.  But now the collection of unread books is well beyond that.  I am somewhat afraid to take an actual inventory to find out just how many there are.

Impulse acquisitions.  I assume everyone makes them.  In the category of "Things we don't need, but…"  

What is it about books that when I see one, I think, 'Oh, that would be REALLY interesting'?  As I stand there at the New Arrivals table in Barnes & Noble hefting this treasure in my hand, do I even consider all the books at home I haven't yet read, that I won't have time to read if I read this one?  Including all those Great Books that are vital to my intellectual and spiritual growth?  I have a vague plan to read more of those, as well.  In the mean time, in spite of the avalanche of new media that threatens to bury traditional books, new volumes come out every year that capture my attention.  Just yesterday, I saw two more books (three, actually) referenced in National Review that I added to my mental wish list.  One thing I can say, is that I no longer read simply out of necessity, or to conquer the 'Great Books' list.  I find myself inclining towards history more and more: stories of real people, whose significance is far more intriguing to me because they walked this planet and breathed this air and lived a life with all its joys and sorrows.  People who should not be forgotten.  And that, more than anything, explains why my library will keep growing.