Books In, Books Out

Nick Hornby wrote a column for a year about his reading habits, and they were collected in The Polysyllabic Spree. Among the many things (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that I loved in the book, was a weekly tally of books in and books out. I know more come in to my house than I read, in a constant flow.

The world has conspired to make book buying easier and more convenient than ever. I also volunteer (temporarily) in two school libraries, so I am always seeing books that other people are reading, or that I want to share with my kids, or that I have heard about but not handled, that I bring home. And I have an irregular group of reader-friends, and we swap around books constantly, plus I sometimes hang out with a book club. And most everyone that gives me gifts tries to surprise me with something different. All these are fairly common ways to get books.

But I also have a special supplier: my beloved husband brings home books for me all the time. I almost need not keep a wish list, because he notices the same books that interest me, and gets them for me. So many of my books were presents from him that I felt it was TOO big a category for a tag on LibraryThing, not to mention the fact that my thoughts are his thoughts, and the line is blurry. But his complete reading satisfaction comes from looking them over and buying them. He loves books, but not reading. A singular case.

Anyway, the marigold is asking nervously:
Is it time to start a books in/books out tally on this blog? I think I would be interested to know the results.
Is that more or less important than working out a Partially-Read tagging system a la Bayard?

PS Life is good.