It's a good thing I like to read

I mentioned in my last post my desire to get my to-be-read stack down to a manageable 50 or so books. That got me wondering, how many books do I own which I haven't read yet? It's a metaphorical stack, you see, I tend to shelve things right away because I'm anal. So I took out a yellow pad and went shelf by shelf, counting everything I've not read which I intend to read (so this isn't counting reference books or my husband's architecture books or my boys' books unless I'm intending to read them cover to cover).

The final tally: 252.

Good lord.

OK, lest you think I'm a total impulse buyer in bookstores, a good chunk of those are books of my husband's which I didn't buy myself but do intend to read (the Niven, Heinlein, and what have you), and an even bigger chunk is books that my mother-in-law gave me a year or so ago: all her books from college. It was a wealth of riches, particularly for someone like me with an interest in history and period literature, especially from ancient Japan, China, and India.

Still, 252. You realize if I read a book a week (which is about my average), it would take me five years to read them all. And that would be assuming I didn't buy anything new (which isn't in the realm of possibility; I have five things on preoder from Amazon.com coming in April-August). Plus there are all those China Mieville books I haven't read yet, and I'm dying to check out John Scalzi (his blog rocks). Then there's this novel I'm supposed to be writing...

At any rate, I intend to make updates at the end of the month of what I've read and what the to-be-read count stands at now. You all can help keep me honest. I've got my work cut out for me!