Bookaholic. This really came home to me when today’s mail was delivered. FOUR big cardboard packages/padded envelopes that could only mean one thing: BOOKS.
I really am incapable of dealing with libraries AT ALL (I neeevvvver return them) so if I hear of a book that intrigues me, I will go to Amazon Marketplace and see if I can get one for a dollar, or three. Plus postage, and it doesn’t feel like very much - is it? Unless it’s a newly published book or one by a friend of mine, in which case I will buy it new. I try to balance my Amazon habit with my supporting-independent-bookstores habit.
Last night I had an hour to kill and just happened to be nearby one of my favorite indy bookstores. It was such an amazing pleasure to walk around, touch and pick up and browse dozens and dozens of books. Mmm! In the end I had to buy two: John Crowley’s newest, Endless Things, and Peter Carey’s His Illegal Self.
Today, the mail brought me: two copies of the new Asian adoptee literary ‘zine Grinding Up Stones (looks great!), Joyce Carol Oates’ The Faith of A Writer: Life, Craft and Art (some writer buddies were raving about it and I got intrigued) and Shrink Yourself, a book about emotional eating (and which, curiously, was blurbed by Senator Ted Kennedy!).
And that’s only in the last 24 hours.
March 20, 2009 at 8:59 am
HI Susan. I am Suz, and I am a bookaholic as well. The first step is admitting it right?
: )
You know, even though I am reading my first book on Kindle for the iPhone, I am still madly in love with books in general. The online reading would never stop me from buying actual books. They are like art pieces to me.
March 20, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I proudly joined the library a few months ago, and have very much decreased my book buying…but oh oh oh! I had forgotten about the Amazon used book section! omg. ohno. omg.
March 20, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I think the only way a library could work for me would be if it were like Netflix: I order them online, they come to my mailbox and I send them back in prepaid envelopes. Physically GOING to the library to RETURN a book is like constitutionally impossible for me.
March 23, 2009 at 10:30 am
I, too, am a bookaholic. But between job, family, home, volunteer stuff, etc etc etc, I have little time to read. My “to read” pile had at several times been taller than I am (to be truthful, I’m short), so now there is a “to read” pile and several stashes from which to replenish. But I still buy. I think I have a serious problem.
March 28, 2009 at 5:08 pm
OK, total bookaholic here – but really people, what economy are you living in? We have lost 40% of our income and can’t buy books – and now, needless to say now the library is totally ONLINE, you don’t have to go look in the stacks. Just order it and they EMAIL you when the book/CD/video is ready to be picked up. Then you send your unemployed spouse to go pick it up! Perfect!
April 7, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Sounds like me. Yesterday my husband (who doesn’t read much) told me that I have a book fetish. He always complains that there are too many books around the house, but what I am supposed to do? There isn’t an English-language library anywhere near by and I need to read books!
April 9, 2009 at 10:41 pm
http://www.half.com
?