*whine*
As anyone who knows me in real life will tell you, I have a lot of books. Even after several major purges, my bookshelves contain over 450 books. These are the friends that I cannot bear to be parted with, even for the wonderful cause of making room and $$ for more books. These are the books that stir me, that I fall into with unimaginable ease. These are the books that bring me to worlds of adventure, romance, thrills and comfort.
And yet I am book starved right now.
*bigger whine*
With Xmas just around the corner, my apparent inability to quit smoking, and some issues with the company I work for (the bastards) that have cut my paycheck to the bone, I just don't have the cash flow to be out on a book buying binge.
Nice alliteration, that.
Anyway. I have scoured the local thrift stores. Either the folks around here have seriously abysmal taste in books, or they are holding on to all the good ones. Grrrr. I want to surround myself with fresh reading material. Light, but not too light. Exciting without keeping me up at night with the terrors. Fun without being insipid. I want to explore new worlds and meet new characters. I want to be swept away to exotic places.
And I am finding nothing but crud.
So I am gonna whine a bit. Mr. Barefoot tells me to make a list, because Xmas is on the way. Ugh. He doesn't understand the importance of the actual book shopping experience. This is why I have trouble ordering from online book sources. I like to walk into big old bookstores with shelves too close together and books just crammed into the shelves. I love the smell of the books and the dust that inevitably goes with them. I adore the chairs that sit at the ends of the aisles, where you can page through your prospective purchases. I love the lines of colorful spines of books marching along as far as the eye can see.
You just can't get that from a list or an online book source.
I keep telling myself to just head my little self on down to the library and see what I can find there, but there is this huge problem with the local libraries. They want their books back.
See, I am not the kind of person that can give books up easily. Even if I don't like them all that much, getting rid of a book is guaranteed to make me want to read it again. So I don't often do it.
*sigh* Oh, well. Patience is still a virtue....at least some of the time. Soon the holidays will be over, and the last of the family birthdays (at least for a bit). Then I will run away to my favorite bookstore and gorge on the sights and smells of my beloved books. Until then, I will revisit some of the stories I haven't read in a while......
and whine a lot.
3 comments:
I - so - get it! I'm a bibliophile, too, and I hold on to books - even ones that I didn't really care for (like Nabokov's Lolita, which I hated, but it's a classic, and so I'll keep it!).
That said, however, I have found that I love PaperbackSwap.com. You pick a dozen books, which you're pretty sure you can let go, and list them on the site, and right away, you have three credits, which you can use to order books from other people. Ordering books costs you nothing. So, you place your order and within the next two weeks, you have a "new" book. When someone orders one of your books, you pay to send it to him, and when it he receives it, he'll post that it has arrived, and you get another credit.
It works out really well. I've gotten all sorts of great books - some of which are hard to find or out of print and costs a pretty penny on sites like Amazon - but people are giving them away. Pretty cool ;).
I joined their sister site, SwapADVD, too, and it's the same deal. It's great getting "new" movies, some of which are difficult to find.
Anyway, I recommend giving it a try. It's better than *not* getting books ;).
I too agree with your love of books! And while nothing can EVER take the place of an old bookstore with dusty well loved books, the library is a good option for those of us who are broke.
Now, I know that it is rude of them to want their books back, but here's the thing. You can borrow them again and again!! That's an obsessive-compulsive behavior I can live with!!
Wendy,
Sounds really cool. Hmmm...I might have to dig through my shelves and see if there aren't a few that I could possibly get rid of....maybe.
Lisa-
But what if someone else has the book I want out already?! Or (horror of horrors) what about all the chocolate-y fingerprints that are always on the books. I am keeping libraries as a last resort, but I am keeping them in mind....
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