I’m a reader. More accurately, I’m a reader with a book addiction. Over the last decade I’ve worked as a bookseller selling both new and secondhand books. Surrounded by constant temptation, my addiction flourished to the extent that my reading couldn’t keep up with the tide of acquisitions. My shelves overflowed. I was drowning in a sea of unread books.

This year I am taking back control. My goal is to not purchase a book for an entire calendar year. Instead, I will tackle the stacks of tsundoku* in my library, reading exclusively the unread books on my shelves, rereading classics and favourites and borrowing from libraries.

I’m also a writer and part of South Australia’s writing community, so I’m allowing myself one exemption from the no-book-buying rule. If I attend a friend’s book launch I can buy their book. If I drink their wine and party on their dime, I buy their book. That seems fair.

Over the course of this year I will post about what I’m reading, the discoveries I’m making about addiction and consumerism and the joys and pitfalls of being a reader on a mission to justify their ridiculously overcrowded library.

* Tsundoku (n.) is a Japanese term for the condition of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them.