Just what I need...my favorite thought when I browse Amazon. They know how to suck me in...put those recommended books on the home page...books selected just for me. Books by Lee Smith, Grisham, Oprah books, etc. And of course, I have to buy them. Then my boxes arrive, and arrive, and arrive (I bet UPS curses us every time he brings yet another one..."Why can't she order them at one time instead of one every freaking day?")
I sat down last night and did some figuring. We added three new bookcases to our two we already had, and still we are overflowing. But I LOVE books. Love them.
My daughter goes to the library. To me, that defeats the whole experience of books. I want the box with the new book inside, the book that is new and crisp, never opened, all for me. I read very carefully, barely opening the book so as not to crease the spine. One of the biggest fights I ever had with my ex was over a book that had just arrived and was proudly sitting on my coffee table, which he grabbed and cracked back the spine to wrap the front cover across the back one. I screamed in pain. It felt like my spine he'd creased. How could he?
Well, like I said, last night I did some figuring. I buy about two new books a week. Thats 104 books a year. I start reading about twenty books a month. I finish maybe two (get bored easily, start another, fully intending to come back to the first later).
Once I'm finished, it's difficult for me to part with them, unless it's to loan them to someone I care about, for them to enjoy. So my book pile grows. I tell myself that after my husband retires, when my book budget's bottom drops out, I'll be stocked up and ready to curl up and read my old age away. Problem is, there may not be enough room by then for a chair......
2 comments:
Yeah, we are opposites. I like my books to be old and used, so that I can throw them around and use them as coasters. I get books from the library most of the time, but sometimes I buy used ones from Half.com. And after I read them once I either give them away or sell them.
Heck, I have a closer relationship with Amazon than with any human being I know. They darned sure get more of my money than anyone else does. I can't help it. Not without a 12 step program anyway.
I'm the same way when it comes to ownership. I can't imagine reading a book and then handing it over to someone else. No libraries for me! I have books that I didn't like and never finished, books that I loved and cherish, books under the bed, on shelves and stored away in cardboard boxes.
Next to children's photos I don't think anything means more to me than my books.
Amy, I'll take that "Good in Bed" book.I probably need to read up on that subject.
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