3.12.2010

The siren song of the bookstore

Some days it is hard to pass by the bookstore without getting juuuust one book. Sometimes you need to know when to quit buying, and to read what you already have.

I actually did this for about a year (not because I was being moral about book buying, but because all my money went to "housing" and "food" and other such things), and it was actually pretty fun.I read, among other things, Band of Brothers, The Bell Jar, World War Z, and half of Catch 22 until I wanted to stab out my eyes with a fork and quit. I finished books I had abandoned and titles with ugly covers that I had been avoiding (it turns out, they have very nice personalities!).

The best part was that it confirmed that I do, in fact, have great taste.

1 comment:

  1. I have managed to sublimate my book-buying urges into a long list on LibraryThing of books I want to read. I handily tag them "Get from library" or "to buy". I allow myself the occasional purchase when I happen to be on Amazon buying something else, but most of the time when I get booklust I pull up the "Get from library" list, open my library's website and put the next 3 books on hold.

    Having said that I am promising myself ALL THREE VOLUMES of the de Goncourt journals as a reward for finishing my WIP draft. I am drooling as I type.

    And then, of course, there's Bargains: ex-bestsellers for $6 in B&N, ditto in the library's "for sale" cart. They don't count.

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