SBL Retrospective: The Books

I wish to report that, despite the load I carried back with me in my carry-on luggage, I am still "on the wagon", more or less:

• The top 4 books (the Loeb edition of Josephus) I brought with me to SBL.
  
• The bottom 4 were donations from publishers, who evidently hope I will adopt them as textbooks or recommend them to my students.
• The 3 paperbacks underneath Josephus I purchased as gifts.
• The 3 commentaries in the middle I purchased for my own library, which is a bit strange given my love-hate relationship with commentaries. They can be justified under an admittedly broad interpretation of the fine print at the end of my new year's resolution, since I expect to use all 3 in my teaching next semester.

As I wandered the bookstalls deciding what not to purchase, and sat in 2.5 hour book review sessions, I also considered how I want my book-buying and reading habits to change over the long term once this year is through. Some initial thoughts:

In the midst of everything else I get to do, I need to develop the discipline of reading widely in (and out of) my field:

1. Reading in subjects I have to teach and for current research projects take top priority.
2. Classics take precedence over the latest "important" monographs. If they are *really* important, they will still be worth reading a few years down the road.

I want book-buying to work for me: Instead of purchasing a bunch of "important" books at a discount, and never reading them, it is better to pay full price, and only purchase a new book when an old one is complete. (Of course, it is not necessary to purchase every book one reads.)

Other suggestions?