CLEARING SHELVES NEARER YEAR'S END: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

A chunk of the way into the year, I pondered the state of my bookshelves. Was I clearing bookshelves after reading books, week in and week out?
   For reasons of the plot, no.
   A writer's bookshelves are not stacked alphabetically. As a writer, you cram the books in by height, or width, BOTH, and that is the system of systems - perfect in its randomosity.

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Now I am a chunk of the way from year's end, and the great accounting nears. Have I been reading a book a week? No. I started out by reading more than a book every week, knowing that the pace would slacken as I tackled weightier tomes.
   As I am reading more than a book a week at this end of the year, I am on track to finish 52 books in 2017. Luckily, I didn't buy 52 books. I reined that unicorn in, oh, many a moon ago.

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How many shelves have I cleared of unread books, then? Two. And one of those I managed only in the past month. (And I killed off two shelves by reading a bare minimum of books. Not even a handful.)
   Averaging it out, I'll have finished the equivalent of two full bookshelves by the end of December. Where the hell are those shelves? Here, there...
   I read what I read thanks to the random nature of my very practical filing-system. Books fit on shelves. I vary the topic, week by week, and that sends me flying around the shelves on a mission to bring the number of unread books down to microscopic size.
   Quick poll. To my left, I'm staring at four bookshelves in one wide bookcase...
   The lowest shelf doesn't count. That's packed with reference books, and I am not in the mood to read dictionaries from cover to cover. (Exception: I've read The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce...so that you don't have to.)
   Above that, most of the books are unread. Fifteen. Possibly sixteen. I have three books by J.M. Barrie there, and I know I've read two of them. But I can't be sure which two. I leave them there for now, knowing I'll solve that puzzle when I take a notion to.
   Higher up. There are five unread books, all short story collections, and I am working my way through those VERY gradually.
   Top shelf. Three books to go, there. No. Four. It pays to double-check, and peek past the bulk of one mighty tome to see an unread book not in its shadow...the missing book is way over to my right, on a table packed with unread books. Over a dozen of them...removed from shelves for convenience...
   If I see the books off the shelves and on the table, I am more likely to take action. It's a system that works, going by the books I've polished off this year.
   My unread book problem is dwindling. Yet I don't seem to clear the shelves. There'll be a turning-point on the shelf situation. But I fear it won't be this year.
   In my first post on this topic, I cleared a shelf. And I've cleared a second shelf since. My fast-paced high-powered executive lifestyle whizzes along faster than I care to describe.
   Glancing sideways, I see I'm being overtaken by a snail. Wonder what the snail's reading.
   Look on your own Shelves, ye Mighty Readers, and despair.
   Shelley.