One of my goals this year is to finish off my book debt. I made a deal with myself that I will not buy any more books until I finish all of the ones in my to-read list, some of which haven't even been opened for eight years already. I thought I'd be able to finish everything by December, but I'm not even halfway through the pile.

It's probably a good thing that my favorite Book Sale outlet just closed down. I used to visit it at least once a week and pick up a book or two, plus some magazines. I often buy books written by people I've never heard of. Ergo, I'm a sucker for book review blurbs. Sometimes, I just buy books because I like their covers, or because the author looks cute in his photo.

I'll be giving away those that I'm not planning to keep in my library. I'm not saying that they're crappy (although some of them are -- then again, Murakami bores me so who am I to be a critic, right?). It's just that I want to free up more space in my shelf. So unless I thoroughly enjoyed a book and would like to read it again, it's bound to be disposed of. I'll be posting details about my first book giveaway next month.