Scaling Back for 2025

I hope I can discipline myself to stick to this New Year's Resolution, but I've decided that throughout 2025, I'll make no new book purchases. Even though I usually stick to bargain or secondhand books and spend sparingly, every tiny $2-5 purchase adds up. Stopping this source of spending may also help me plumb to the bottom of the piles of unread secondhand books I already own, many of which I've undoubtedly forgotten about. 

The sources may be as follows:

1) From my towering piles.

2) From my enormous kindle back-up

2) Borrowed from the library.

3) Borrowed from friends or family.

4) Gleaned from Little Free Libraries

5) Free e-book loans from sites such as Internet Archive or Project Gutenburg.

It means I'll have to keep out of secondhand book sheds, but that'll be a matter of willpower. Harder still will be steering clear of the book sections in general secondhand shops, since they are in full sight. 

 This time last year I commented in my New Year's blog post that I'd have another crack at delivering weekly, book themed blog posts for the sixth year running. (Before that I used to write them even more frequently.) I managed to deliver on that goal yet again throughout 2024. For 2025, I almost decided to cut right back, but instead I'll see how I go again. As a token of continuation, I've just opened two new pages, this time on fan fiction and time travel stories. And I've also created my own Aussie monthly book challenge.

There are several reasons why I've persevered with weekly posts for so long. Above all, I consider it to be a fun mental and spiritual discipline; a framework on which to hang the rest of my days. I haven't always been the best at following through on commitments, so this helps me adopt the motto that when we're faithful in small things, we'll be faithful in larger ones. I also bought into the idea, bandied about by some writers, that when we show up without fail, our muses are impressed and honor the appointment. And added to that, the statistics in my toolbar function as a sort of almanac. I enjoy looking at them to gauge how much of the year I've blogged through, and how much still looms ahead of me. 

I'll also be prioritising my fanfic. I get the most personal buzz, adrenaline rushes, and dopamine surges from the fiction writing I've finally taken up again, after many years.

I'll still be on Bookstagram, although maybe not as frequently as before. 

Please do subscribe to my feed in my toolbar, to keep up with my posts. 

And Happy New Year!