Catch Up.

"Good Grief!" is what I say when there are children and animals about.

Just had a look at what I have bought to listen to, read or watch but never got around to it.

There is a stack of books in various states of "un-readness".

This stack is matched by a pile of cds that I've copied onto my iPod and listened to bits and pieces of.

This stack is matched by a pile of DVDs that I've accumulated but not got around to watching.

I have a plan - download is the way to go. No more buying/building extensions to the house to accommodate the ever growing pile of stuff. No more trips to IKEA to buy yet another storage unit/bookcase, no more sagging roofs due to the weight of paper up in the loft.

I now have a plan to buy an e-reader and stop "popping in" to Waterstones just for a look. No more being taken in by those 3 for 2 offers. No more buying stuff reduced to a fiver because it is too good to let it pass.

Now I have to be a super-critical buyer and only buy what I really will read there and then.

Apart from holiday reading, of course.

I've just realised that there is loads of stuff I have bought over the years that I have watched only once and am unlikely ever to watch again. Not everything falls into the "Das Boot" or "Where Eagles Dare" category. Most of the books I own have been read only once and then carted off to go on display somewhere. The only stuff I use more than once is probably the music collection. No doubt in the 10,000+ tracks, there is some lonesome song that I have heard only once and as I have not tagged it as a favourite it'll need to take its chances in the random playlist.

Now on-line, there is plenty of option of watching "catch-up" TV - even the foreign stuff is there, if you know where to look. There is a pile of stuff on Youtube that you can watch - all for the cost of your internet connection.

And it all sits on a desk taking up the space of half a dozen hardbacks.