An ultimate test of my willpower is having me walk into a bookstore with my wallet.
I love books. Love them.
I love the stories and information that a book can provide.
Even more than that though, I love the way a book feels in my hands. All the thick paper and dark ink, the smooth feel of crisp new pages, not to mention that “new book” smell. It is all a little too much for me to handle sometimes.
I think I could take up residence in a book store. Really. I can walk around bookstores for hours just picking up books touching the pages and looking at the covers, never reading more than the title and the summery. Books are so, beautiful.
My love of books is a great thing for my mind but not such a great thing for my To Do List or my wallet. I would love to buy piles of new books to read. That, however, would get very expensive, very quickly.
Besides the expense I always feel a little guilty after buying a new book. All that paper will just sit on my shelf once I am finished with it, (which is usually within a few days because I am an obsessive reader once I start a book).
It makes me feel so wasteful to buy a book that I will read once. I am not perfectly green, but I try to live life in a way that gives thought to the earth’s resources and the guilt bubbles up when I walk out of a bookstore with a new book in hand. Which is one of the reasons I am such a big fan of my local library. All the books you want for free, as long as you return them on time, and when I am done reading each book they go back to their library shelf to await a visit to another persons home.
I mentioned that books are not great for my To Do list because I become totally wrapped up in every book I read and spend every free moment flying through the pages. Thanks to some of the lovely mommies in at Monkey’s playgroup I have recently discovered audio books. Now I can listen to books while doing all the boring nagging things on my To Do List, (and you know I totally write a To Do List everyday, right?).
My library even has digital audio books that you plug your head phones into and listen to the book. It’s like walking around with a cute little book necklace. I listened to a book the other day while I cleaned my house. I’m in love. Now the only excuses I have for not getting things done is blogging and laziness.
Audio books could never replace books with paper and glue and ink. There are still multiple piles of books on my nightstand just waiting to be read. Maybe someday I will get through them all. But with the way I keep adding new books to the pile probably not.
