My non-book buying year

There is something powerful about starting fresh with a new challenge on the 1st of January. It's like pressing the reset button. And that's what I decided to do and here's what happened when I did.

An idea had popped randomly into my head towards the end of 2017 and it didn't seem to want to let go. I began to wonder - could I do this? It was a real biggie for me.

So what was the challenge?

Well, the title of this post, is undoubtedly a spoiler alert, but I was wondering could I make it through the entire year without buying a book?

I know. Please stay calm. I can hear your screams: 'What? No book buying for a whole year.' Yep - that's the challenge I decided on.

Anyone I told, and who knows me well found this hilarious and probably doubted me from the off. When I mentioned it to my husband and some close friends, they just laughed thinking I was joking. And at first maybe I was, but then that little seed of an idea lodged deeper and deeper and I wondered was this something I could actually achieve.

Was I going to have to give up some of my favourite activities? Were trips to bookshops out? Would I have to give up participating in online book clubs and hearing about new and exciting upcoming titles? Would I have to avoid author events where books were readily available to buy?  Was I going to have to descend into some sort of book related hibernation?

And the answer is a resounding "no." I've continued with all these activities and not bought one book. So far, so good. Almost at the end of the first quarter and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. 

But why would someone who loves reading books and being part of that world want to stop buying new books? Why indeed?

• Perhaps it was because we'd cleared a lot of stuff out from our home and were trying to let go of that need to keep accumulating. 
• Perhaps I also wanted to save money. Although these were mostly small purchases, they all added up during the course of a year. 
• And perhaps it was because when I really thought about it, I realised that I'd become some sort of collector of books and less of a reader. 

The collector point was a big determining factor. I'd always considered myself an avid reader. I've read books since I showed up in this world and read my very first Ant and Bee or Ladybird books. I was always referred to as a bookworm during my childhood and like to carry a book or my Kindle virtually everywhere I go, just in case there's an opportunity to read a few pages. I realised, that I was spending a lot of time looking at books online, trying to decide what was next - time when in fact I could have been reading. I was spending a lot of money buying different books that sat on the bookshelf or on my Kindle unread. This made me feel guilty. I'd made a commitment to that book and it's author at the time of buying and then had abandoned them. The shelves at home were filled with books that I'd not read. Friends would come over for supper and ask, 'how was that or that and did you enjoy that?' and I'd have to answer that I hadn't yet read it. 

Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly acceptable to have books and a lot of them, but I also felt that I wanted to read them as well as collect them. I wanted to show them some love.

In order to get the challenge started, I set a few rules for myself. These were like a safety net approach to avoid going cold turkey. They were: 

1. I could still borrow books from my local library
2. If a book was free online and I wanted it, I could download it
3. If I was given books as a gift, I could accept them

The rules have helped me and given me a sense that the challenge is not too restrictive. There is still a possibility that if I want to read the latest bestseller I can reserve it at my library and get my hands on it. If someone kindly wanted to give me a book, I could accept it and read it. The Essex Serpent came to me this way recently. 

I've learnt some interesting things from taking this challenge and I'd love to share these with you. I'll continue to update my progress on here. 

I'd also love to hear from you. Leave a comment on what you think about my challenge or let me know what challenges you've set for yourself and how you're progressing and if you like what you've read here please feel free to share it.

Until next time...