Countdown to New Books!

When talking about this project, there is one question I’ve been asked more than any other:

“How many books do you have to read until you’re able to buy a new one?”

Up until now I would give a vague answer about getting as far as I could through The List, and how some series might require me to purchase a book to finish it off, and blah blah blah. But I wanted something more concrete, so I could finally answer that question.

So, without further ado, the answer…

Fifty-nine…ish.

I know, I know. It’s not a solid answer with an “ish” tacked on the end. There are reasons for that, so let me explain how I came by that number.

Most of my reading falls into one of two genres: science fiction or fantasy. These are the books that bring me the most joy, and the genres I’ve been reading for my entire life. There is, however, an issue with books from these two genres as it’s pretty rare to find standalone novels – most of them tend to be part of a series. And from experience I’ve learned that I need to start a series and work through it without jumping over to something else in between. Otherwise I tend to lose plot threads, forget characters, and spend more time having to hop back to a previous book for an explanation.

This, in of itself, is not a problem. But when we look at this fact in the context of my list a disturbing pattern starts to appear: I purchased a lot of books, and I do mean a LOT, that were book one of a series. Or books one and four. Or book seven.

Look, we all know I have a problem. Let’s not dwell on this.

My first rule when I began this endeavor was to start with the standalone books, while skipping over a series where I couldn’t just sit and read all of it consecutively. Therefore, in determining the number of books I needed to read before I was able to purchase something new, I first needed to figure out how many standalone books I owned.

At the time of this post, there are 32 standalone books remaining on my list. That’s it. The rest are all part of a series. For those of you in the back? That’s 134 books which are part of a series. And if you want to get technical, that standalone number is probably smaller as some of these are book one in a series where the other books haven’t been written yet.

Okay, so I’ve got 32 standalone books. Check.

Next I went through and found non-standalone books that I would be able to read without further purchases. There are two main categories here: trilogies/series/whatever where I own ALL of the books, or any book where I’ve read all of the other relevant works.

Currently 26 books fit that description.

The more numerically oriented among you might be saying “that’s only 58 books, sir” and you would be correct, but the 59th book will be the one that will lead to the first purchase.

Now let’s dive into the reason for the “ish” at the end of the 59…

• Included in the 59 are a few trilogies where I own all the books. If the first one is hot garbage, I’m not going to read the other two.
• There is one series where I own books 6-8 of a 24 book run. I’m not going to finish that in a consecutive run, as the books are ones I use a palate cleanser. These might get bumped along a bit.
• Once I’m through the 58 books I mentioned above, I delve into uncharted territory. I’ll start new in on series at that point, but will only make purchases if I feel they are worth continuing.

Of course 59(ish) books will take a while to read so 2021 may wind up being the first year in a LOOOOOONG time where I fail to purchase a book. Only time will tell!