I Have Done a Bad Thing: Confessions of a Book Hoarder

As I mentioned last post, I am moving back to New York from Seattle very shortly. Part of that is getting rid of most of my stuff, which I have been successfully doing over the last couple weeks. I had a plan, and I was on track to succeed.....

Until I found out a local book store was going out of business. At first I managed to avoid the store and it's 50% off discount. But then, something horrible happened. They made a new deal.

If you took one of their tote bags, you could fill it up as much as possible with books and only pay $20. Ugh! How dare they. I heard this and got super excited, already imagining myself tearing through the store grabbing everything I wanted, but then reality hit. You only have so many suitcases dummy! And they have weight limits! So I promised myself that no matter how much the temptation grew, I would not step foot in that store. Nope. Not gonna happen.

Well obviously it happened, or else I wouldn't be telling this story. What made resisting super difficult is that this book store is on my route to both work and the grocery store, so I pass it nearly every day. Last weekend I was on the way to get groceries when I glanced inside. I saw the emptying shelves and the tens of people going through was left. 50% off eh? I could afford to get just one or two books for myself, I reasoned. Fool.

I took that blasted step towards the store and opened the door. Immediately I saw a day planner for one dollar. A day planner? Really? I have never used a day planner in my life. But, it had a pretty picture of Scotland on the front! I just had to have it. And besides, it was only a dollar....

I made my way further into the store, eventually heading to the second level. First I went to the travel section, then the women's lit section...and soon enough my hands were full of books. Lost in some kind of haze, I just stood there looking around the many bookshelves, wide eyed and confused. Should I grab a tote and fill it? There was a box of them right there. It would be so easy to just take one and go to town. But the suitcases! I shouldn't. But I did. I grabbed a tote. I was in there for over an hour, going through every shelf. I could barely think straight by the time I dragged myself up to the cash register, my tote filled to the brim. I paid my $20 and left the store, the bag extremely heavy in my hand. Mistakes were made.

My shame laid out for all to see

When I got home I looked through the books again, to make sure in my sale induced madness I hadn't gotten anything I wasn't actually interested in. On the whole I think I did pretty well. I want to read all the books. The only major problem is one of them is massive, nearly 700 pages. What was I thinking? Oh yea and I have less than 3 weeks to read all of them and then sell them off to another book store. Yea...right. I can do this.

I have decided to keep three for myself that will go back to NY with me, and two have already been mailed off as gifts. That leaves 6 books to read by my departure, including the massive one. I just finished one of them, The Welsh Girl, and have picked which one I will be reading next.

I am fairly determined to read all of them, but it is a pretty daunting task I have given myself. One book down, five to go. Why do I do this to myself? Wish me luck....(and for the record I have been using the day planner, and it is actually working pretty well...so take that me! You aren't an total dumb dumb)