Addicted to Books?



My Living Room Bookshelves

Books, books and more books. Like most readers, I have zillions of books and they can be found all over my house. On bookshelves, in boxes under the bed, in stacks in the closet, in smaller stacks gracing tabletops. Books are everywhere.

I figured out the other day that I have enough books to keep me reading for at least the next thirty years, assuming I keep reading at my current pace. So why do I keep buying more books? Because I have to. There is always another book I have to own, I have to read, I have to love. Addicted to books? Definitely.

My favorite authors keep writing more books, so I have to buy those. Then I keep finding new-to-me authors that I fall in love with and have to buy their books too. So the cycle goes on and on and on.

I've always worked in high stress jobs. So every time I had an extra stressful day at work I'd go buy a book or two during my lunch break. All my lunch money went into books. I stayed skinny and my bookshelves bulged. The books kept me grounded and calm. I could always escape into the wonderful world of books.

Now look at it from my husband's perspective. He doesn't love books. But through the years he's learned to deal with and tolerate my "addiction to books." Every time we moved, which was numerous times through our working years, he graciously (usually) loaded my boxes of books onto the moving van. I have to admit he did grumble a bit that my books weighed a ton (probably more than a ton). I'd always promise to reduce my number of books by taking a few bags' worth to the local library. It was always a minuscule amount compared to all the books I owned.

Now that my husband is retired, we'll probably stay in place, which means I can keep adding more books to my already over-crowded bookshelves. No, I'm not an extravagant spender. Retirement means a reduced book budget, which means I'm a bit more selective than before.

Of course, the answer to a reduced book budget is buying eBooks to read on my Kindle. I've had a Kindle for a year and a half now. I have the Kindle Keyboard 3G. Just like my bookshelves, my Kindle is bulging. It's filled with free classics. Every classic I read through the years and every one that I've always wanted to read. There are also free books from Amazon's Best Sellers Top 100 Free lists. Many of these are from authors I've never read before. Then there's bunches of backlist books from old favorite authors and new books I must have at the touch of a few clicks. I honestly believe the Kindle was designed with the "book addict" in mind, because I can buy a book any time of day or night. I've been known to make purchases at 3:00 am.

Now that we've come to the conclusion that I'm addicted to books, what about you? Now's your opportunity to admit that you too are addicted to books. I hope you'll attest to your book addiction and comment below. What kind of books do you have to read? What books/genres fuel your addiction?