So for the first new blog here on the site, let me reveal a deep dark secret about myself. (See, I know how to get attention.)

I have a problem where in I buy books more than I read them. There's nothing I like more than to wander the aisles at my nearest bookstore, be it Borders, Barnes and Noble, or the many great local bookstores here in St. Louis, which I need to check out a lot more in days to come. Of course, I come out of the aisles with a stack of new volumes to add to my collection. Or, which I am doing more of these days: I will see the book, pick it up, read a little of it, note the title and go home and buy it on Amazon. (Advantage, me.)
 
The issue comes up when I actually get the books home. I like books, I like the concept, it's just that the reading... with time committments and such, it's a challenge. So this acquisition without comprehension has left me with a rather sizable surplus of books. I've got 'em, but I haven't read 'em.

So, as part of the New Year's Plan to tell a better story, I figure I need to read some better stories. I took all of my unread books and put them into what I now refer to as the Book Box.

It's just an old milk crate with 25 books I've never read in it. The topics vary from God to Pistol Pete Maravich, as evidenced by the two books on top there. It includes authors like Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Krakauer and Feinstein.

There's also two out of the box and on my nightstand which I'm plodding through now, The Long Snapper by Jeffrey Marx (So far, so good) and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genuis by Dave Eggers (OK, kinda plodding and self-aggrandizing, but he warned me in the prologue of that).

So the grand total is 27 books, probably closer to 26 because I'm partway through the two on my stand, so that leaves 26 books in 52 weeks, or 2 weeks a book to finish them all by the end of 2010. I will review them as I see fit here if you care about what I think about what I read.

Oh, and there will be other blogs here too. Maybe more dark secrets. See, I can keep you coming back, too!