Boxes and Boxes

I may have come to a breaking point.

I went into this weekend with a couple of goals. First among them was to finish off my holiday shopping. At somewhere around 5:30 on Monday evening, I accomplished that goal. Well, except for one present. And a gift certificate.

And, possibly, one extra present in case something I ordered in the mail decides not to show up.

If it does--decide not to show up, I mean--this present will join the ranks of three others this holiday shopping season that have vanished on me. Luckily, for the other presents, there was enough time to either re-order or cancel and buy something else entirely.

This last straggler? Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I have a bad track record when it comes to ordering things that need to be delivered places. Luckily, however, the mail does not discriminate, as things meant for myself get lost just as easily as things I order for other people.

So at least there's that.

But, holiday fun aside, my other goal of this past weekend was to clean out a metric ton of comic books from various short boxes and floor spaces. As you can see from the photo at the top of this post, that whole effort basically turned into me throwing several hundred books into one much larger--and now almost immovable-- box.

As I went through my boxes of single issues, I asked myself the following: "Will I ever read this comic again?"

The resounding answer was, "No."

And so they were placed, lovingly (not really), into the big box you see up there. This got me to thinking. First off, what the heck am I doing buying so many books that I can't stomach to read more than once? And second, does it even make sense to buy single issues at all?

I know, I know. This is the comics topic du jour. But, hey. A big, giant box of discarded books doesn't lie.

So now the question becomes, should I switch compeltely to trades? It makes sense financially, and in the sense that I really don't care about reading something the day it comes out. Even with event books, I typically don't get around to reading my comics for weeks--usually months--after they initially ship.

I'm gonna think on this for a bit, but mostly because I don't want to stop going to a comics shop every week. I enjoy it, and I look forward to it. And it's fun coming home with stuff to (theoretically) read and enjoy.

Like I said, I need to think this through.

The other thing I need to think through is what, exactly, I am going to do with that giant box of comics. An Exfanding giveaway, perhaps? Cut them up into garland and wrap them around my tree? Pull an Uncle Scrooge, lay them on the floor, and dive into them?

Suggestions?