My Old Friend
As I was out running errands in the chilly, dreary, rainy weather today, I drove past a very old friend. There my friend sat, up on the hill, rain dripping down the front of his face, beckoning me from up there. I felt awful as I drove past, barely acknowledging him like that, with the wipers swishing across my field of vision. But if I had looked, if I made eye contact with him, the urge to visit would've become unbearable. I would have crumpled and cringed under his blank, lonely, wet stare. I would have turned the car around and raced up that slippery hill!
I am ashamed to admit I have been ignoring his daily emails as well. I don't even open them anymore. I delete them, because I can't trust myself to read them. I am not a strong person. He tempts me with coupons, to come and visit. And sales, he is always having sales.
Oh, did I forget to mention that my old friend is a Borders Book Shop? Hee hee!
It's been over 6 months since I have stepped foot inside that store. We used to rendezvous once a week. I always swore to him that I would walk out with just one book. But his bookshelves would taunt me, flashing their new, fancy releases at me, trying to catch my eye.
It was a clean, hard break. I decided to stop visiting cold-turkey. However, books are not an easy thing to separate yourself from. See, my old addiction for buying books has now morphed. It's changed, evolved, into something else. Something that is, quite probably, even more out of control than my Borders shopping days ever were.
The New Addiction
I am addicted to galleys and ARC's now! I cannot stop myself from agreeing to work with publishers, and authors, and asking for copies of their novels to review. What started out as a fluke, a what-if, has now become an all out obsession. Every day, I send and receive emails about books. Which books I want, which books I'm reading, Which books I have waiting to be read... It's a disease.
The Line Up
If you don't believe me, take a peek at the books that I have waiting to be read at this very moment. Books I have not spent a dime on. Books that are eagerly waiting for me on my doorstep and in my mailbox when I get home. Books that I love and am dying to read right this very moment!
The titles and authors, in the order they will be read
(which was the order in which they were received):
Dear Everybody - Michael Kimball
The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb
Hot Springs - Geoffrey Becker
Call It What You Want - Keith Lee Morris
Mentor - Tom Grimes
Agaat - Marlene Van Niekerk
Them, The General is Asked His Opinion, Thin Snow - Omar Shapli
Ore - Christophe Casamassima
Almost Dead - Assaf Gavron
Lean on Pete - Willy Vlautin
The Embers - Hyatt Bass
The Secret Keepers - Mindy Friddle
The Life in the Wood with Joni-Pip - Carrie King
The True Backlog
These should be the least of my worries, though. I mean, that amount of books? That's what, two... three months worth of reading, tops, right? What about the other 260-some odd books that I own that are sitting here unread? Oh yeah, you heard me correctly. I have close to 300 UNREAD books here, there, and everywhere in the house... When will I ever find the time?
I think I am beginning to feel like this poor sap!
The idea for this blog was brought about by reading the following blogs by The New Yorker's Book Bench, and Boof's Book Whisperer Blog.
Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.
0 comments:
Post a Comment