Scribblings

Bookoholic

Not too long ago, I wrote that I was a blogoholic. Well, I'm even more of a bookoholic. Let me walk into a bookstore or a library and I never leave unladen with books. I was spending a lot of money at places like Borders and so I took a vow to just borrow books from the library. The problem was, I had to have six at a time. When it was time to return the books, I'd finished 3, needed to renew 3 and ended up getting another 6. It wasn't long before I was running up fines because I'd forget which books had been renewed and had to be returned earlier.

The library started selling paperbacks and hardbacks for anywhere from a quarter to a dollar. I was borrowing and buying books. At book sales, TB and I would walk out with boxes (think a carton sized box that would hold reams of paper) of books. The librarians would look at us and say, "Oh, dear, how many books do you think are in there? We'll take your word for it." We'd give them $10 or $15 a box. We both made out because invariably we had like 50 books in the boxes.

These books are like tribbles!. We started out with 2 bookcases and quickly ran out of room. Now we have books stacked everywhere, in and out of plain sight.

I discovered Boock Crossing. What a great concept! You read a book and then "release it into the wild" (meaning you leave it lying out somewhere for someone to pick up) or you send it to someone who's been wanting to read it by consulting a "wish list". I was very happy because I was reading books and then sending them on. If I'd stayed off the forums, I might have my book-mania more under control.

Unfortunately, I read some posts on the forum and learned about an online book trading site, Paper Back Swap You list nine books with them and then you can ask for one from someone else's list. The only cost is in mailing the book to the requester. Well, I have sent out about 2 dozen books--and received back 26. Now I have gotten into their box-o-books.

My to-be-read pile has become larger than the books I've already read!

Is there no hope? TB and I took Kristin to Borders so she could spend some of her birthday money. I should have stayed in the car but no, I told myself I'd just browse. Borders has a 3-for-2 table...why is it so up front? Of course I was able to find 3 books I would love to read...hopefully by the end of this decade!

I think I just have to give up buying and trading books for the Lenten season--but March is just too far away!