May I Have Another

I always wanted to grow up and buy a house where I would dedicate a full room to all the books I would own. There would be hundreds if not thousands. Now that I am technically, age wise at least, a grownup I do own hundreds of books but not, alas, a room dedicated just to them. The picture above is a prime example of an incursion in progress. Although it was a lovely view and cozy corner it has now been taken over by piles which obscure the growing plants, the windows, and even the corner where bench meets bookshelf. It is now a dark, cluttered space holding a chair as well which conveniently doubles as a cat bed.

This multi room epidemic has caused a certain kind of slow down in my book gathering by which I mean I now only bring home books found at my local Goodwill where they're going for so cheap that it would be absurd not to buy them or at work where ARCs are up for grabs. All this leads to the end effect that I have cannily devised a counterattack to this indignity. I have begun an affair with my local library. It lets me return to the days when I could pick up any book with impunity and say nanananana to any sort of reigning in. True a new pile may appear in my walking space but in two weeks time it will be gone. Satisfaction guaranteed.

But there is of course a serious flaw. Although these titles are returned new titles still continue to trickle into the stacks and creep forward into the spaces not yet lost to the mists of book dust. I have in fact self fulfilled my wish when all is said and done. I am a grownup who has their own library and though in my dreams it is a grand room dedicated to the task in reality it is an apartment slowly disappearing under the magic of endless piles of unread, yet to be discovered wonders. I am an addict, a bookaholic who is not looking for an intervention but another inch of space to perilously stack another pile of books. And as I construct new and bizarre ways to stockpile more I can only think of one thing, I wonder what I'll come across next.

This is for my Fairy Book Mother who knows only to well my sweet addiction. Thank you for aiding and abetting me in my nefarious ways.