Thursday, May 25, 2006

Confessions of a Book Addict

I’m the kind of person who can happily while the day away in a book store. If you give me 5 minutes among the stacks, I will have found something interesting that I’d like to read. This is all fine and dandy if I only ever visited a book store when I was in want of a good book to read.

The problem arises when I have books waiting patiently at home for me. It wasn’t too bad when I was a kid and didn’t have much of my own in disposable income. But since “growing up” and getting a real job, it’s gotten a little out of hand. The number of unread books on my case hasn’t yet hit the 3-digit mark—or at least I don’t think it has—I’m too afraid to do a count. (The last time I was shocked by the numbers was when I counted my handbags—but that’s another post on another habit for another day.)

All these neglected books are perfectly fine—I still want to read them—just not right now. I like the feeling of having many options. If I’m in the mood for some non-fiction, I can browse my library and pick up Guns, Germs and Steel or maybe The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. If I feel like some fantasy, I can return to Camelot by opening up the second of Rosalind Miles’ Guinevere novels and move onto the final one if I decided at the conclusion of book 2 that I HAD to know how it all ended.

There is a method to my particular madness. Even though I don’t want to read the book RIGHT NOW, I know that I will later, and I’m scared that if I don’t buy it right away, I’ll lose it forever. Let’s face it, there are many books published every year and of these many books, few are lucky enough to become bestsellers and remain top of mind for readers.[1] So, when I come across a book I like, I give in to the fear, walk down to the check out, and hand over my money.

I’m on the tentative road to recovery though and my bank account thanks me for it: I’ve started jotting down book titles and authors so I can find them again. This means I have to have pen and paper handy at all times—but that’s why I carry a big (but stylish!) tote.

Anyway, I’ve had a $50 gift card from Chapters burning a hole in my wallet for about a week now, so I did a little online shopping last night. I turned to my wishlist, and bought The Line of Beauty, An Alchemy of Mind, and Educating Alice. I got the emails today confirming their shipment. YAY!!

(Could someone PLEASE tell me why Chapters sends their books in separate packages when they’re all in stock? I got an email confirming shipment of one book, and within the hour, received the second confirming shipment of the remaining two. I've ordered online many times and this is not the first time they've done this. They need to seriously look into improving their logistics system because these inefficiencies, while probably small in the grand scheme of things, directly affect their bottom-line. OK…the analyst in me will go away now…)

And! I also got a call today from my friends in London! Unfortunately, I had stepped away from my desk so there was a voicemail waiting for me. The good news is that they picked up my books at Persephone! I’m sooo excited! I gave them a short list of 6 books in order of preference, so I don’t know exactly what they bought for me…I’m going to let that be a bit of a surprise…I expect to receive them Monday when I meet my friend for dinner.

I will be awash in new books! :)

[1] I’m reading The Tipping Point right now and the example of how Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood gained a following and eventually made it to the bestseller’s list immediately comes to mind. I haven't read it yet and to be honest, I'm rather indifferent about this one.

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