I'm in a book club and next month I get to select the book we're going to read. When I started thinking about my choice, I started to go to the New York Times' Sunday book review section before it hit me: I own many books I haven't read yet, why am I going outside my own stash?
Of course, this thought naturally progressed to the next one: How many books, magazines or projects have I not read, finished or even started? Am I a procrastinator? Hell yes, when it comes to cleaning. I have a sister who loves to clean, and while I love the results, I seem to be missing that gene. However, for everything else, I realized I have a lot of open projects because I have a lot of interests. I guess you could say I like shiny objects, but in this case, objects = interests. And I realized this makes me happy.
I've always wondered if there is an age where your curiosity to try or learn new things shuts off. I'm happy to say it hasn't happened to me yet. However, I would like to take the next year to act on/finish/make a dent in my books, interests (cooking, writing) or projects (I really thought recycling old t-shirts into squares for a quilt was a great idea. However, I've had a bag full of squares in my back room for the past year, maybe it's now time to create the quilt. Granted, I'm calling it the "ugly quilt" because I've never made one, but have started asking older sister questions on how to do this since she made one years ago).
When I asked my sister, "Yoga Girl", if she had a lot of unfinished projects she said without skipping a beat "of course". "How could I not when I'm never home." I forgot how the routine of daily life prevents me from finishing every project. However, I'm now intrigued to want to start completing some of what I think is open just to see if the book lived up to it's book cover; or if I have the patience to transform a bunch of fabric squares into my new picnic quilt (really, did you think this 1st time creation would go on my bed?).
As I was thinking about this subject, while content with having a lot of unread books on my shelves or unfinished projects because it means I'm still curious about anything, I have to wonder am I the norm? Are there more people out there like me with the unread books and projects that take a decade* to complete; or do most people buy and read a book before they start another one? I'd be curious to know.
*For the record, I consider organizing my attic as a cleaning project and since I've already stated that I procrastinate when it comes to cleaning, I'm not going to put that into the same bucket as an unfinished project of interest.
4 comments:
smiles...it is a guarantee that i have plenty of books laying around...ha...i am def curious and willing to take a chance...used bookstores feed my addiction...smiles.
@Brian - It is very addicting. I go for one book and then spot 10 others that catch my interest. I try to avoid them for this very reason.
I have a needlework project that's I'm about 10 years in on. I have a partially hand-carved bowl in the garage. I could go on. When it comes to books, I usually stick to the library. If the book doesn't hold my interest I take it back without guilt.
@LET - I'm more impressed you can take back a book you haven't finished. Don't know why, but always feel compelled to finish a book I start.
However, totally fascinated about the bowl - assuming by statement, it's a wooden one. If you ever finish, would love to see picture of.
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