Books

Books are my one weakness, notice I've said books and not reading. While I do enjoy reading, I have more of an obsession with buying books. My wishlist on Amazon is huge and I do tend to get a little carried away, forgetting all the books I have sat on my shelf, and before I know it a new book is winging it's way to me.

I've been thinking that this year, the year of the big 30, i'd really like to get serious with decluttering my home and creating space. To me, decluttering is a two part process, releasing things that I no longer need whilst also limiting what comes into my home...hmmm, I suspect there's a spiritual aspect going on here too...so to start with I am going to read all of the books that I have and not allow myself to buy any more. I am imposing a book buying ban on myself. It's going to be hard but until I have read all of the books that I own - or got rid of them because I no longer want to read them - I am not going to allow any more into my life.

Here's my list of what I need to read so far...though I suspect the list may grow as I discover more lurking on my shelves:

1. Cloud Atlas
2. The Secret Scripture
3. A Cat Called Norton
4. Behind the Scenes at the Museum
5. Lucky Jim
6. Wicked
7. A General Theory of Love
8. Lust for Life
9. Return to Wuthering Heights
10. The Man Who Disappeared
11. Blood and Ice
12. From Dead to Worse
13. Man and Boy
14. The Future Just Happened
15. The Only Way is Up
16. Altogether Dead

It seems like I have plenty to keep me going!

Reflections on turning 30

I turned 30 a couple of days ago and i've spent the last few days pondering which things i've achieved that I put on my list just over a year ago. It's interesting to see how much my priorites have changed within the year, for example, over the past 365 days there hasn't even been a moment where I felt any desire to experiment with affirmations or learn to play the didgeridoo. Yet I have spent vast amounts of time growing my own veggies and focussing on turning my house into a home.

As a comparison I've come up with a list of 30 things I did before turning 30:
1. Became a solo home-owner
2. Grew my own veggies
3. Decorated the hallway
4. Decluttered lots of junk from my home (though this is still ongoing)
5. Planted a plum tree
6. Planted an apple tree
7. Created a driveway
8. Built a fence around the back garden (well, I paid someone to do it)
9. Bought some chickens
10. Adopted some fish
11. Bought new blinds for the bathroom
12. Learnt how to make rhubarb crumble
13. Became financially independent
14. Overpaid on the mortgage
15. Bought 2 new cars!
16. Ate healthly, home-cooked meals
17. Read more books
18. Got to know my neighbours
19. Started a new relationship
20. Spent more time with my family and friends
21. Made a 5 year plan (though i'm aware that this may change)
22. Painted my front door in fabulous blue
23. Took on the overgrown ten-foot and won!
24. Saw Tim Minchin live
25. Learnt that I actually enjoy DIY
26. Brought out my table's inner funkiness
27. Realised that i'm stronger than I ever thought I was
28. Started to learn how to pickle and preserve my garden produce
29. Blogged infrequently
30. Discovered and keep discovering different facets of myself

With all things taken into consideration, I think it's been a rather immense year...I wonder what this year will bring?