So. I have this horrible habit of book shopping. I don't require any more books (I have approximately 318 books right now and I haven't read about 60 of them.). I think I have a problem.
I've always loved reading. Over my lifetime I've probably read close to 2000 books (That's not including books that I've reread. That doesn't happen too often unless it was really really good and then there's a year of buffer zone to let the story line to fade a little. I have a very good memory for plots. I can summarize any book that I've read in the last 16 months very well. If the book is extremely good I can remember everything that happens in it for years afterwards even if I can't remember the titles.). Every Christmas I would always get four or five books. I believe my obsession with purchasing them started when I was in grade primary. I don't know if your school had it but mine had this lovely thing called the book order. Scholastic put out a sort of catalogue once a month with 40 titles in it. Each month the titles were different and you could get a book for about $4 and if you were lucky it came with a small toy that was related to the books. Once a month my parents would shell out around $10 to buy me a few books to read to me and to have me read (at that point I still wasn't the biggest fan of reading because I couldn't read fast enough and I didn't like to do things that took up a lot of time. I'm still very much that way but I've learned more patience and I can stick with things now). Over the years my book collection grew month by month and the books got more expensive and I starting getting a monthly allowance for making my bed and keeping my room tidy. Instead of saving the dollar I got to spend on sweet I would save them and buy books. As my allowance grew so did the buying. My parents started refusing to buy me books claiming I had too many. So I kept saving and kept buying. Christmas and birthdays became some of the best days of the year because there was always the hopes of new books or money to buy them with and my collection grew.
Then I read the Hobbit. I was enthralled when I opened it. I still remember what it looked like. I got it from the library. It was 6th edition with colour illustrations in mint condition. I devoured ever word and picture of that book and it quickly became my favourite. It came time to return that book my heart broke a little. Parting with suck a lovely book just wasn't an option for me. I started pressing my parents for a copy of the 6th edition with the colour illustrations in it. I looked it up on eBay and found a nicely priced one in England. It was the only one that didn't cost an arm and a leg that was in excellent condition. No dice. I was Hobbit-less. I went to the library and found that lovely copy of the 6th edition again only to find it in shambles. I was heart broken that one of the last people to rent that piece of art was so careless with it. I took it back to the library and showed them the damage and told them if they couldn't fix it I would buy it from them (they have a yearly sale. It's not an odd request). They replied simply that it would be sent in for repairs. I left again heavy heartily and Hobbit-less. I was starting to lose hope. I search the used book stores, thrift stores and many other locations for the book but I could never find it. Then two years ago on my birthday I opened a package from my parents and there it was. A 6th edition of the Hobbit with the coloured book sleeve with minimal damage considering how old it was. I quickly leafed through only to find that the illustrations were in black and white but that didn't matter. i had the book that I searched for years for and I couldn't be happier.
That was when I started referring to my books as "my collection". The Hobbit was the joy of my collection and it is still one of them. I started buying more and more books and looking for older ones to make the value of my collection go up. That's when my problem got to where it is today. I'm like a shark that smells blood when I walk into chapters. I see the books and smell the coffee, paper and ink and I get all ruffled and need to buy everything in my line of sight. In the past year I've probably spent well over $600 just on books.
I have a problem. It's not getting better. But with every book I buy I feel a sense of calm knowing that that edition of that book by whatever author with be taken care of and preserved for future generations. People think the age of print is dying. I'm not going to let it.
If you like this check out the other blog. It's all about the books I read. link's in the side bar :)
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