I did something scary over my holiday vacation. I started putting every book I own into my LibraryThing library. Then I tagged them as read or unread. I still have a few more miscellaneous piles to enter but the number is already scaring me. I have close to 250 unread books sitting my apartment. I should be resolving to read them this year. I should be setting up reading plans and goals. But I'm not.

It's frightening because I have more than 200 books at home that need to be read (some that I really, really want to read), a list as long as my arm of books I don't own and want to read, and more books are being published every day. It's been a struggle not to sign up for challenges and set goals. I feel the weight of those books sitting on me and each time in the past few weeks that someone's told me that I should read such-and-such a book I kind of want to scream. I am drowning in books and the would, could, should feelings associated with them. There are lots of new tempting reading challenges that I could make work with my collection. But if there is one thing that I really discovered this past year is this - reading from a list or to a set of rules is not fun for me.

I really would like to read the books on my shelves. And I really would like to read the books on my library request list. I really will want to read the books that I hear about in the coming year. But I want to have fun and enjoy myself too. How does one balance all of it?

I think to a certain extent Courtney feels my unread book pain as she points out in her reading resolutions.

Own less books that I haven’t read. Ha. Hahaha. This probably won’t be done, but at least it’s good to aim at.

Morsie Reads may as well as I that one of her resolutions is "to read some of books that I've bought to keep in my personal collection, but haven't read yet."

I think what I'm doing for 2009 is striving for balance. I like what Franki had to say about balance.

I have come to terms that balance in my life means balance over the course of the year. Some months I read a lot. Some months I don't. Some days I eat really healthy. Some days I don't. Some weeks I am a workaholic. Some weeks I relax more. Sometimes my house is really clean. Sometimes it is a mess. Sometimes I go too long without seeing good friends and sometimes I spend lots of time with them.
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I am happy enjoying what comes my way in 2009 without giving myself the pressure of reading a certain amount of books, losing a certain amount of weight, attending boot camp every day, etc. I hope to do all of those things but without the pressure of a resolution!

I don't need to make a reading resolution to find balance. I need to live my life in balance and that doesn't mean only reading books on my shelves or not reading any from the library. It doesn't mean not buying books. It doesn't mean sticking to a list. There will be months when I may read twenty books and other months where I might read two. I may make a dent in that big old pile of unread books or I might not. There very well might be months where I read nothing but YA or food-lit. Balance is about the long-term, not about the right now. What I am doing is releasing myself from the pressure of getting it all done and enjoying myself. I am reading for the joy of reading.

Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.