I am a voracious reader. I should start by stating that – because it makes a difference – because unlike the lady with a basement full of packages of diapers (and no baby), my fascination with acquiring books has to do with actually really loving books and fully intending to read them all. Someday.
A few years ago, I challenged myself to read 250 books in 1,001 days. And if you’re even mediocre at math, you’ll know it averages out to about four days per book. Well, I accomplished the challenge with over a month to spare.
In the past, I would go through spells of reading and then hit a wall – I’d have read every book in the house, I had two weeks until all the magazines came (yeah, I’m hooked on magazines too), and the library wouldn’t have anything I felt like reading.
My gosh, those days I felt like I would climb the walls.
Somehow, I started to catch up with myself. I have a bookshelf full of books I have yet to read. I go to the library at least once per week these days – whether I’m out of reading material or not. I am always picking up books and stockpiling and I feel like one of those freaky couponers, except I’m not really saving any money and I’ll actually use these books.
Reading is solace to me – I can’t fall asleep at night without reading to tire my eyes and slow my brain. I love picking up a new book. I love even more to pick up a new book and find myself engrossed within the first chapter and just wanting more. The weeks when I zip through two or more books make me unbelievably giddy.
Even though I have a Kindle, I still rely mostly on “book-books” – for the smell, the feel, the heft of holding a book in my hands… doesn’t mean I don’t have three unread e-books waiting for my eyes on Kindle.
I find it reassuring to know there are so many books waiting for me, that I won’t run out, that there are pages of new characters to meet and their adventures to discover and hours of comfort and drifting off to sleep, and sigh…
I love books.
Like a big, silly book nerd.
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Currently reading: Unsaid: A Novel
by Neil Abramson
On deck:
About sarah
Yep. This is me. I am a serious organizing freak and no one – NO ONE – can get rid of stuff like I can. But books… books I keep. And I try and read on my iPad but it’s not the same. And *ahem* couponers aren’t freaky;) xoxo
Oh, this is so me. I just finished packing up my house and I had 23+ boxes of books…and I even got rid of like 5–books not boxes of them. I haven’t read all of them but that’s not the point. My dream is to have a house with floor to ceiling shelves and I need something to put on them… e-readers can kick rocks. I LOVE books.
This is so me. And my goodreads list is a symptom of my online book hoarding – I don’t just obsess about the actual but also hoard lists of books now. 🙂
Back before we bought the house where we live now, we looked at a few different places, and could put on our finger on why we didn’t like particular houses… Then it occurred to us – no books. We have books all over the house… Stacks of them, all over the house. Somehow we have also managed to pass our love of reading on to the children too 🙂