I have an addiction. One I’ve had most of my life. Like most addictions, I wasn’t born with it; it developed over time, influenced by external experiences and factors. Although unrecognized at the time, my addiction took hold at the age of eleven. Almost every penny of my modest allowance was being spent on books. I wasn’t at the point where I was borrowing to feed my addiction; but only because they don’t issue credit cards to eleven year olds. Now many might say they also buy a lot of books, it doesn’t mean they have an addiction. Completely possible, but that’s not me. Just like a compulsion to drink, or gamble or play video games, I can’t stop buying books. It wasn’t really too much of a problem until the advent of the internet. Now my addiction can be fed with the click of a button. I finish a book, click a button and am reading the next book within seconds.

Convenient yes? Read a book, buy your next one. Sure, but for compulsive book buyers it poses quite a problem. I don’t just buy one book, I buy eight. I download cheapies and specials and those that look interesting. I spend time on Amazon and Goodreads checking out all their recommendations and adding to both my Kobo and my Kindle. And I still indulge occasionally in an afternoon at Indigo, adding to my physical library, which is housed on my main floor. I have tried getting books only from the library but I’m not good at waiting for what I want. I’ve tried going cold turkey, telling myself “you may not buy a book until you’ve read what you have” but really that’s just not feasible as long as Dan Brown and Joy Fielding are still writing.

The result. I now have more books than I could every hope to read. I have books I don’t even know I have and, more than once, I’ve purchased the same book twice. Two days ago I sat down to gather some hard stats. With an idea of what I might discover, I created a reading list of all the books in my library I have yet to read. So far I’ve only compiled the books from my electronic devices yet already the numbers are illustrating the stark reality of my addiction. I can only imagine what my list will look like once I add all the physical books from my library. And that only includes books I’m still interested in reading. I figure, at my current reading speed, it will take me five years to read the entire list.

So, a New Year’s resolution. I know I will not be able to stop buying books completely, but I can stop buying everything that looks interesting. I can stop buying a book because I like the size or cover, or because it will look good on my shelf. I can stop buying book 3 of a series if I have yet to start book 2. I can stop looking at the recommendations on Amazon and Goodreads. (Well, that last one might be pushing it, but it’s worth a try). And I can keep the prioritized list visible, working my way through it and crossing off as I go. I love crossing things off a list.

I know that new must-haves will come out, and I will buy them, but if I can redefine what “must-have” means I may stand a chance.

If only I didn’t have to work. It takes up so much reading time!!

So it appears a total solar eclipse is not as rare an occurrence as I thought. One occurs somewhere in the world every eighteen months, so in theory you could make quite a career out of following in the moon if that was your thing. I watched NASA’s eclipse coverage yesterday and once again marveled at the astounding beauty of nature and our world. The view from the Space Station was particularly magnificent to see. I also wondered what the ancients must have thought as the world went black for a good two minutes. The gods/God must have been very angry indeed.

In honour of the occassion, I hunted around for a book to review with Eclipse in the title and racked my memory for eclipse-centric books from my childhood. While there are many that deal with “teaching” children about the phenomenon I was more interested in it as a plot point or a symbolic device. I admit my findings are barebones; there’s somewhat of a gap in this area, making me think that it might be fun to write a novel where an eclipse plays a central role. How I’m not sure yet but with NANoWriMo approaching I’m certainly tossing a variety of plots around. Maybe someone who does follow the moon around?

So here’s the titles I remember reading which either have eclipse in the title or have an eclipse as a plot point of some sort.  The first three were more recent reads, the latter three from my teen years.
 1) Eclipse by Stephanie Mayer – yes, I know you were all thinking it, and waiting for me to bite the bullet and talk about it. So, yes, number one most commonly known.  While I can’t speak to it first hand (I didn’t get past the beginning of book two) the Twilight wiki claims that the title refers to Jacob calling Edward an eclipse when Bella says Edward is her personal sun. Now that I can get on board with if the first book was anything to go by. Once Bella met Edward she ceased to exist. He eclipsed her. But that’s another rant all its own, so lets move on.

2) Eclipse by Andrea Cheng is the story of a young Hungarian boy growing up in 50’s America. It’s a coming of age story as he must learn to stand up for himself and find a sense of self-worth. The story is not long but I imagine the title refers to how he escapes to the library to read about everything, including eclipses.

3) In the Path of the Eclipse by Stephen King – okay a bit of a cheat here. King did not release a book of this name but according to the Stephen King wiki (sense a pattern here?) it was the original title for what eventually became Delores Claibourne and Gerald’s Game. While I don’t remember Gerald’s Game I do remember that Delores carried out her “plan” during an eclipse.

4) The Secret Mountain by Enid Blyton – while I was enamoured by Enid Blyton as a child (she too will be featured soon) it was her Adventure Series I loved the most. I remember the plot of this one, much as I vaguely remember some of the Secret Seven plots. As an adult reader, I can now see the tremendous colonial mentality at work in this book as the family manages to escape from an African tribe by claiming they will “kill the sun” if not released.

 5) Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain – Our hero, Hank, performs a miracle and blots out the sun in the chapter entitle “Eclipse”. I love Twain!

6) Macbeth by William Shakespeare – I’ve been teaching this play for the past 10 years and I love it more and more each time I read it. At the beginning of Act II Ross says “by the clock, ‘tis day/And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:” – a wonderful example of pathetic fallacy as Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan (darkness taking over etc.).

Finally, no eclipse list (even this short one) would be complete without the magnificent Ladyhawke. Yes, not a book, but too good not to mention. Cursed by the evil bishop for the sin of falling in love, Isabeau and Navarre are eternally together, forever apart. By day she is a hawk and he a man, by night he is a wolf and she a woman. At dawn and dusk they can almost touch before they are ripped apart. What they need is nighttime during the day… While the 80’s music has not stood the test of the time, the story is beautiful and Matthew Broderick is at his charming boyish best. This will always be a close-to-my-heart movie.

So obviously not all of the above are considered children’s books (or plays or movies), but then, I never defined my personal childhood bookshelf as containing books adults think are suitable for children. My childhood bookshelf was always comprised of what I was interested in reading, regardless of what was considered appropriate. I read anything and everything in my house when I was growing up, so don’t be surprised to see V.C. Andrews and Agatha Christie show up in the near future.