Do you remember the feeling of walking into a toy store as a child? Flying through the huge shelves, eyes filled with a must-have! to move on to the next? Just the idea of having just one of these treasures in one’s own room at some point gave rise to tingling excitement, not to mention the dream of collecting as many toys as possible in the shortest possible time at a retro children’s show.
That’s how I still feel today when I enter a bookstore. The smell of paper alone relaxes me, I happily scan the displays with my eyes, the colorful covers make me want more, I have to control myself, I would like to read them all at the same time. I devour back after back as all sense of time disappears.
I feel the same way every year with the previews. When a book is announced, I save it to my notes. This quickly accumulates several dates a year that I look forward to. And because I’m an impatient person, I don’t have to worry about the in-between times – because I usually have a stack of books that have already been published on the coffee table, slightly dusty but definitely not forgotten. Because even though I love reading, I’m not one of those people who sets resolutions: one book per month? Way too much pressure! The idea of scheduling the rare everyday moments in which I allow myself to lose myself in the pages is repugnant to me.
That’s why I don’t have a to-do list, but rather a bucket list. And it doesn’t even have to be checked off. Maybe I’ll take books with me to 2025, maybe some will even fly down during the year. If I’m lucky, more and more end up on it – for example from colleagues, who I’ll immediately ask to add to their books about anticipation. And at best, this collection triggers a little toy store moment from before in all of us.