Time for Reading

Does anyone else have stacks of unread magazines? And shelves of unread books? Yesterday, I actually had the urge to sweep the magazines off the dresser where they are stacked and just get rid of all of them. When that thought went through my head, I panicked. I had never before wanted to get rid of any reading material, especially if I hadn't read it. Don't get me wrong; when I finish a magazine, it usually goes in the recycle pile, unless I know someone else would like to look at it.

Books, that's different. It's only lately that I've been able to pass on books to others, or to give them to the library or even the Salvation Army. Books have been my reason for being, or, at the least, very important to me. But now, when I look around the house and see the hundreds of books and dozens of magazines, I see clutter. I have been able to curb the urge to buy a lot of books because the library makes them so available. If Mentor Public Library doesn't have the book I want, chances are I can find it through Search Ohio. Only if I cannot find it there do I consider looking on the internet to buy. That way, I tell myself, I am at least not adding to the book clutter that has taken over my house.

Back to the magazines. I know the solution is easy - just don't renew them. Then I stop to think; I have to renew The Week, it's great for keeping me up to date on what's going on in the country and the world (if only I were up to date on reading it). And what about the Atlantic, Alfred Hitchcock Magazine, and a few others? Don't I legitimately need them to study what kind of stories they publish? Then there are a couple of dog magazines that I can't quit because, well, because they're about dogs. And the writing magazines, their content is about writing! I do think that I won't renew The New York Review of Books, because I have no trouble finding books to read. So there is at least one magazine gone, I think.