The Rosie Project

It has to be said that there's nothing like packing your entire life into boxes to make you aware of just how much 'stuff' you own.  Our house move at the end of last year brought my stashaholic tendencies into sharp focus in many forms - books, cross stitch, fabric, papercrafting, shoes, bags, clothes.  Even smaller items like ribbon - I have an entire box full of ribbon that I bought purely because it was pretty, not because I had a hundred projects lined up that required the stuff.

We both did so much de-cluttering before the move.  We got rid of over 250 DVDs, around 100 books, furniture, clothes, kids stuff (cot, pram, stroller, high chair - it's not like we'd ever planned a third child, just been too lazy to get rid), junk we'd just chucked in the garage and forgotten about, you name it, we probably had it.

The thing is though, I still have way too much stuff.  Especially books (and ribbon but that's a matter for another post LOL).  I must have around 150 books I haven't read although I'm not brave enough to actually count.  And this is on top of the several hundred I have that I have no intention of getting rid of because I read them again and again or they hold a special place in my stashaholic mind (ie my large collection of Hollywood biographies, Monkees items and Monty Python related books).

My biggest problem is lack of space.  I've acquired two additional bookcases in the new house but that's clearly not enough as I've still got three boxes left to unpack and very little usable space left despite having double layered on some shelves.  Clearly my biggest win is going to be to read the aforementioned unread books and then remove them from the house.  Unfortunately this will be a relatively slow procedure given all the other demands on my time but I have decided to try and focus on this job over this year and also keep track of how many books I actually finish.  I have attempted this before but given up around April-time but hopefully I'll manage it this year.

Which brings me to the title of this blog post.  I have just finished my fourth book of the year which is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.  I had never heard of this book before spying it in a shop and I purchased it purely because I had a discount voucher on a multibuy of books and it sounded good when I read the blurb.

I have to say I loved the book and have devoured it over the last 48 hours.  It's an unconventional love story told by protagonist Don Tillman, a 39 year old geneticist who has never had a second date.  He devises The Wife Project which is a scientific test to find him the perfect partner and things then get interesting. 

I don't want to spoil the book although I have to say the outcome is kind of predictable but the ride to get there is a damn good one!  It's a new book - published last year, the first by this author and it's already being turned into a film (which I may not bother watching on the basis that they'll probably ruin it LOL).  So if you're looking for a good read and spot it in the shop I definitely recommend you pick it up.