December was a surprisingly book-heavy month, fueled in large part by me taking a full two weeks off from work. This is the first vacation in a long time where I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything for the entire break. So I read. A lot. And I wrote in my journal. And I slept a lot.
I didn’t set out to pick up so many books in December, but opportunities to increase my collection just kept appearing.
If you look at the dates where I completed reading books, you will see that they start at the beginning of my time off. And they continue right through to the end of the year. I am still reading, and will likely complete at least one more book before I return to work on Monday.
One additional note: Two of the books i read – The Crying of Lot 49 and The Poppy War – I picked up from the Grand Rapids Public Library. One of my goals for the new year is to spend a lot more time at the library. I love acquiring new books, but collecting is expensive and the library is only a few blocks from my house.
Acquisitions
Reading material I acquired in the month of December, 2025
October was a fantastic month both for reading and for acquiring new books. I had more quiet time than I have in any other month this year, and I also know that November will be exceptionally busy, due to it being the Month of Writing (formerly NaNoWriMo).
And this year has been very stressful, so I indulged in some retail therapy.
This was an excellent month for book acquisitions. For reading, not so much. Various events conspired to keep my attention span at a minimum, plus it being December I picked a classic Russian novel to read. This year it was Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, which is brilliant, but requires dedicated time to read, and that has simply not been possible. Maybe in January.
So I round out 2024 with 50 acquisitions and 65 volumes read, as well as close to 200 short stories. All in all, not a bad year.
