There are two major types of books in my life: knitting books and Nabokov books. I don't really buy books otherwise, depending on the public liberry and the private collections on friends.
If I were to show you all the places that I keep books in my life, you'd see pictures of my kitchen counter, the pantry, the top of the refrigerator, under the couch, inside the coat closet, by the laundry stuff... this isn't even including the actual "book shelves" and the book cyclone that is my bedroom. And this is even AFTER I have trimmed the number of books in my life repeatedly, because I can't take the toppling towers and parade of boxes.
There are two things that one should NOT do if one wants to keep her book collection to a managable number. The first is work in a bookstore. The discount (and in some cases, the monthly-credited "house account") makes it all-too-easy to take a book or two home every week, especially since most of your shift is called "shelving" which is actually a tedious form of shopping. At my last bookstore job I used to spend my breaks browsing the literature section (because the people who shelve the lit are the ones with seniority, because we ALL want to shelve lit) trying to fend off customers who think that I am on the clock. In all of my bookstore jobs, I started working only after being a frequent, known-by-name customer for years. Bookstores, sadly, do not pay very well and it's hard to make any sort of living while working at one (even owning one). It's a labor of love, I guess sort of like working at a yarn store.
The other thing the book-shy should steer clear of is the monster known as BookCrossing. As one of the first active BookCrossers in my area, I spent all kinds of time (and money) trying to promote the community only to find it had taken over my life. I was mailing more books overseas than I was actually reading. I was carrying extra books in my car trunk for lack of space inside the house. I came across so many fabulous books that I otherwise would not have read, but at the same time I struggled through a number of books that I felt compelled to read because they were part of BookCrossing. [BTW, whether she knows it or not, I know Lolly first through BC... the knitting came later!] I no longer participate in BC, which is ultimately a mixed blessing, as I'm still getting used to not knowing what to read next!
Right now, I'm reading People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, hundreds of dense pages of history from the perspective of the disadvantaged (blacks, women, Native Americans, the poor). This comes on the heels of a lot of fiction, so I was ready for some heavier reading. I'm not sure what's next, but goodness knows I'm not hurting for choices.
1 comment:
um, where's the YARN ?!
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