Your Honour, I confess!
I have a huge problem! HUGE!!! My crime? I cannot stop buying books! Honestly, I think I have a book-buying disease. I swear only last night as I was fishing around my shelves for my next book I decided that I need to stop this madness once and for all. Why did I decide this? Because I found myself surrounded by a pile of several hundred books and they were all crying my name and pleading “pick me, pick me!”. Oh my poor, poor neglected books: my heart broke for them all lying there staring up at me praying that they would be the chosen one. So there it was: my new hard-core resolution!
“Thou shalt not buy any more books until thy hast read at least 10 of said several hundred already owned.”
Well, I felt empowered! Yes, I thought adamantly, I will do this! Strong like bear!!!!
So what is my problem I hear you cry? I’ll tell you what: today I was up in Newcastle for some client meetings with a colleague and we found ourselves with 2 hours spare in the middle of the day. Now, I’m not familiar with Newcastle at all, so Alex told me to meet him in the centre of town and we could grab some lunch in the sun (yes, the SUN!) before our next meeting. Great idea, I thought. Anyway, there we were chatting away while walking down the main street and Alex bumps into someone he knows and they start talking. Instead of standing there like a lemon I start to look around and take in my surroundings and guess where we were stood right outside? I swear, Your Honour, that it wasn’t in any way engineered. Honestly, this must have been what the Three Wise Men felt when they looked up and saw that glowing star and just knew they had to follow it. There it was – the huge W, winking down at me like a huge beacon of light, calling me to follow. Waterstones – my holy grail! In my daze I barely even remember telling Alex that I would meet him at the next meeting and before I knew it I was inside this emporium of treasures. Here I am, my lovelies, here’s mama!
There is something so comforting about being in a bookshop that only other bookaholics will understand – it’s my home from home. Infact, given the choice I would rather live there than in my actual home. So as I wondered and admired and cooed and the temptation grew stronger and stronger I thought to myself “maybe just one – I deserve it; afterall it is a Tuesday”. So I browse some more cradling my one book like a newborn babe, and then “oh, maybe just one more; afterall I have driven 2½ hours already and will have to drive the same back home again, so it’s only right that I should compensate for my lengthy car journeys with 2 books”. I browse a bit more, still cradling the twins, and finally “no, really I should have 3 – afterall it’s Wednesday tomorrow and everyone knows that Wednesday is the worst day of the week ‘cos you feel like you’ve been at work for ever but really you’ve still got 3 days to the weekend so to cheer myself up from these inevitible midweek blues, I really should buy three!”
And that, mi’ Lord, is how I came to end up with these three beauties:
My babies
Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell (‘cos I just read North and South and loved it)
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (‘cos I’ve heard it’s really cheesily over the top and that makes me want to read it!)
by Alexandre Dumas fils (‘cos my French friend Virginie recommended it)
La Dame aux Camelias
And here are those books again, this time with my other fame-hungry cat The Boof:
My other baby - The Boof
Aww well you only live once after all! Unfortunately I’m going to have to shed a lot of my book collection as I want to move to a flat next year and I simply won’t have any room for them, so there goes my dream of a small library in my house! Thing is, once I’m done with a book, I have no further use for it so I think I’ll give them to charity and let someone who benefits from the charity from the sale of it and whoever buys it can enjoy it too, so win win!
Branka, I am a willing charity case if your books happen to fancy a ride up the motorway to Yorkshire
Oh, I know the feeling – those book stores (especially with a big W), how can you NOT go in and buy something?
Well, my unread TBR at home is a mere 20 books, and even that is bothering me. Because for me, the longer I have a book, the less appealing it becomes. So I tend to read the newest books first. No more of that! I’m now trying to really reduce the pile so I can read new books only. Won’t that be lovely?
20??????????????????? Oh my goodness, how lovely that would feel to only have 20 unread books on my shelf! What self-control you must possess, Lee!
The Boof is a cuty pie, you just want to pet him !!!!!
I kind of like your new babies as well and you know I understand perfectly what happened to you when you saw this Waterstone store winking at you, they do the same with me !!!
Love this post Boof……
Enjoy your babies, I hope you will like “La Dame aux Camelias”
Hugs, Virginie
Ahh, Virginie, I know we share the same book-buying disease – it seems to be an international affliction (still it’s good to know you’re not alone in this madness
)
The Book says thanks for the cutie-pie comment but she now has a complex that she looks like a boy when infact she is a girl!
She’s says she’s going to put a bow in her hair for the next photo.
I can solve your problem.
Option 1)
Buy as many books as you want – but you buy for me!!!!
Option 2)
Join me in a book-buying embargo for June. (I have my own “sins” to atone for.) Together we can be strong ….. oh yes, we can. Teamwork, my girl!
Ha ha, Lizzy-Marcia – I love your optimism! A) for trying to get me to buy books for you and B) for thinking that we could go a whole month without buying books!
I am really tempted to join you but I go on holiday in June and it’s the law to buy books when you go on holiday; in fact I’m pretty sure I would be arrested if I didn’t buy books in the airport!
I will give it a go though!
Airport bookshops I can resist. I always have pre-planned holiday reading. I’m travelling too in June – my books are already packed – nothing else is though!
I must embargo in June because July will bring a flurry of purchases in the run up to the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Such is the life of a fellow sufferer of CBPS (compulsive book purchasing syndrome).
I love how you have your priorities straight: books packed, nothing else is! Good girl!
Edinburgh book festival???? Oh man, that sounds like something I need to look up.
i only buy once a month now ,i had cut down like you i m a compulsive buyer ,all the best stu
Ah but how many books do you buy in that “once a month” sesh, Stu? I admire your will-power though
According to Good Reads, I have 308 books to be read – I think their adding up machine must be faulty (psst, it’s a lot more but I’m just not organised enough to catalogue them all). To be fair, I don’t buy a lot of new books but swap (via an online swap site), mooch and do a fair amount of charity shop browsing oh and I go to the library once a week.
Erm, there really is no hope for the poor books on my shelves – I often picture them as wallflowers languishing in the Ballroom of Romance as I pass over them in favour of latest acquisitions. Perhaps we should all employ a more logical, pre-planned approach like 4 oldies for each newbie – see that pig flying by!!
Good luck with your quest!
Teresa, that very same pig has just flown past my window too!
Good idea, though.
Hehe, I’d be a lost sould without my library. Gaskell is wonderful, North and South has been sitting neglected for a while now. I love Dumas pere’ but haven’t read any of Dumas fils yet. Tell Virginie to knock it off
Ha ha, I know – that Virginie is such a bad influence!
Oops, that would be soul not sould. Long day.
It’s sooooooooooooooooooooooo hard to say no to books! lol
Exactly!
At least they all look interesting
Good point, Emily Jane. In that case, I should be excused any such behaviour; really I’ve done myself a favour haven’t I?
I am a fellow offender — I cannot resist bookshops. I wouldn’t have such troubles if there weren’t so many good books to read. I probably have at least 50 on the to-read shelf, and it never seems to get smaller.
It’s so good to have company in my affliction, Suzanne
my husband is alot worse than me but not by much! He keeps his books stuffed in boxes under the bed so he doesn’t have to look at them. I think at one point he made me ban him from going into waterstones which lastest all of two days
At the moment all my books which are 500 pages plus are really bothering me so I’m trying to work my way through those, plus they are quite big books so they create more space when finished.
LOL, I love that your husband only lasted 2 days! That sounds so familiar!
My thick books are bothering me too, but I figure if I read the thinner ones first then I get rid of the pile. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way as I just keep buying more!
Otronto IS incredibly over the top, but that’s part of what makes it fun – I was laughing all the way through it
That’s why I want to read it, Nymeth. I love books that make me laugh but aren’t meant to!
)
I haven’t bought a book in 5 months – it is possible to be a reformed book buying addict! I was finally shamed into stopping buying books when I moved house and it took FOUR car loads just to move my books. Most of which I hadn’t read. I do have moments of temptation but it’s been surprisingly easy – you should give it a go!
Rachel, I don’t know whether to applaud you or comiserate, but either way I am mightily impressed!4 car loads of books? WOW! I am salivating just thinking what that might look like.
I know the feeling. I think I have around 160 books waiting to be read. I have not bought any books this month (which is, I must say, a record) but I am having a hard time fighting temptation. Also, not buying doesn’t include getting books through bookmooch.
Oh, of course not! The books I swap through Readitswapit don’t count at all
I say good on you, you’d only have regretted coming home empty handed!
Exactly, Emma Jane! I love an enabler!
I totally sympathise and understand. And I love:
“maybe just one – I deserve it; afterall it is a Tuesday”
I mean, we deserve it, don’t we??
Absolutely! Although, you di realise that the same rule applies if it’s a Thursday or a Friday (or any day really) as well, right?
I can’t stop laughing but I am on the verge of desperation, my husband is mad at me because there isn’t any space left in our room, my housemates reclaim space on our shelves. I can’t help myself. Is there such a think as AA for a bookaholic?
I don’t know Emily but if you find one please let me know! I am on the edge of madness here myself
I have exactly the same affliction! And today is Wednesday, a day I don’t have tutoring or gym or anything and so I usually spend an hour browsing… and then sneak four, five books home. I completely agree – a bookshop, any bookshop, is a home away from home!
I need more Gaskell! I have a couple of unreads at home, but I want everything! Haven’t seen this one around anywhere.
The severley afflicted must stick together, Shannon!
)
I love your excuses!
And the picture, complete with gorgeous kitty, is drool-worthy. (And I don’t even like classics.)
Not excuses, Kim, genuine reasons why I MUST buy books!
Boy, can I relate to this post! I too have many on my shelves I haven’t read and thought of making some sort of rule that I couldn’t buy anymore until I went through at least five. That lasted perhaps a day…
PS. Thrilled to discover you live in North Yorkshire!! I was there last October for two weeks visiting my sister, who lives on the base in Leeming. In less than a week, I decided I must live there someday (i.e., when I can convince the hubby). My heart pines for it still, every single day.
Yorkshire is gorgeous isn’t it, Steph? I actually live in West Yorkshire but we go up to the Dales and Moors and coast as often as we can in North Yorkshire. In fact we are considering moving there too
Well, I cried all the way home. I just didn’t want to leave. And from my first freelance cheque when I got home (I am a copyeditor) and all the ones after, I pinched a bit and have about $900 saved for my next trip back.
Hey, perhaps by then we’ll know each other better and can meet for Earl Grey and a fat rascal (Joanne had a hilarious story about someone she knows calling them fat bastards – as I did!) at Betty’s!!
Oh yes, I can always find time for an Earl Gray and a Fat Rascal (yummmmmmm!). Have you been to Betty’s Tea Shop in York or Harrogate? If not, then the next time you come over I’ll take you there – their cream teas are to die for (I’m salivating just thinking about them now)
PS again. By “live there” I don’t mean the base. I mean somewhere in North Yorkshire!
You make me giggle. I swear if it’s a disease I’ve got it too. The Waterstones in Newcastle is lovely and there used to be two in the same square. You prob won’t have noticed but the H&M near to Grays Monument has beautiful stained glass windows with the ‘W’ on it. I shall have to take a picture next time I go home for a visit! I was VERY grumpy that they made it an H&M even though I love clothes too as I have many happy childhood memories of that shop.
Polly, the store there is gorgeous – so big! I did notice the H&M next to it actually but not the W in the window, although I did take a photo of the shop on my phone (how sad am I?) so I’ll have a look and see if it’s on there.
Yeah, clothes are great but books are better
They really are lovely books.
P.S. Can totally hear you saying “mi’ Lord.”
I’m such a sucker for buying books! I have several unread books on my shelf and I am absolutely forcing myself not to buy any more until they’re all read! Well, apart from two books that I absolutely had to pre-order, of course. My aim is not to buy any more until the end of July at least, when it is my birthday and I will celebrate with a spree. Oh, 3 for 2, how I love and hate you.
[...] 1) Guilty As Charged, Mi’ Lord! [...]
I have the SAME problem. I really ought to get it under control…. can’t-stop-
[...] Guilty as charged, Mi’ Lord! [...]
[...] Guilty as charged, Mi’ Lord! [...]
Its not just bookshops, I used to play truant from school to hang out in the local library.
Now that’s something worth playing truant for!