I have become a hermit since moving to Ohio and have become heavily reliant on books (and the Internet) to get me through the day. I am not a person who claims that "books changed my life". Books continue to change my life. I don't just carry around a book "because you never know when you might find spare time" I carry spare bookmarks. The fact that I carry a book is inevitable. I read everywhere. I used to read being driven to work, while walking to work, at the mall waiting for my Mom to hurry the hell up and buy her crap at Sephora. Having worked at a bookstore (we'll call it Stables & Grand) and a public library just made it easy to amass a collection of books. I also buy books "wherever books are sold" (a phrase I hate by the way).
However, I don't keep majority of the books I read. Even so I hauled at least ten boxes of books over with me. I separate my books into two bookcases. One is of books I will read and give away and one is of classics and old favorites that I have already read and intend to keep. I only unpacked the first bookcase with the intention of bulldozing through those easy reads. I have read thirty-some books so far. I never unpacked the second bookcase, just stacked the boxes in the closet and didn't think much about them. Sometime early in the week I decided to make opening those boxes a priority and a project. The apartment had become especially damp and I was afraid the books were going to get water-damaged. As I was opening and making piles of children's books and adult classics to pack back up I came across books that I wasn't sure why I kept. Modern bestsellers and diet books mostly. I belong to Paperbackswap.com and I decided I would eliminate, approximately, a box of books by posting them on the site.
Now I know there are people reading this screaming "How can you possibly get rid of books?" It's very simple. As a book lover and advocate for literacy I believe in sharing the wealth. Plus, imagine if you kept every book you ever owned from "Pat the Bunny" to the OED. There has never been a time I have looked at our bookshelves and lamented that I don't still own every Babysitter's Club book. You know because they would have complimented David's collection of Third World dictator biographies so nicely.
Working at the library gave me the opportunity to witness the donation of entire libraries of deceased bookworms. We would get excited at the unopened boxes. So many possibilities! Only to open the boxes and find every dime-store novel ever written. Bummer. We would groan and toss the books aside. As far as we were concerned, it was a box full of coasters. I'm not saying you can't read trashy books. I'm saying read as many trashy books as you want just don't think they are gold bricks. Pass those trashy gems to the next person, check them out from the library, recycle them for all I care. They are made out of paper it doesn't hurt them. What hurts them are leaving them in a box to get moldy and bent. I know books are memories but that's why I keep a list. Just seeing the book title takes me back to where I bought the book and holding it in my hands where I read it and if I passed it along to someone else.
Working at Stables & Grand was awesome because I was able to see all the new books as they came out and I never had to buy them. I just mentally noted the titles and then I requested them from inter-library loan for free and BAM! pile o' books on my desk every other day for me to devour. I try to avoid Stables & Grand now that I am no longer employed with them. My hands itch and my vision blurs when I go in and see the shiny new books. I'm trying to work through what I've got at home. More is not what I need right now. That means I'm not going to the local library for the same reason. Plus, the library is a 30 minute walk down a busy road with no sidewalk. I am sparingly ordering books from Paperbackswap.com but I think it's enough to keep the Mail Carrier annoyed at having to take time out of his route to knock on my door. Oh well, a girl has got to stay occupied somehow. Soon I am going to be forced to drive and go to work and other boring adult stuff and all my reading time is going to vanish.
List of books read since moving (not including the book I read on the plane):
Because She Can - Bridie Clark
The Partly Cloudy Patriot - Sarah Vowell
Fat Girls & Lawn Chairs- Cheryl Peck
Looking for Mary - Beverly Donofrio
The Year of Living Famously - Laura Caldwell
26a - Diana Evans
Spilling the Beans - Jose Antonio Burciaga
Mr.Maybe - Jane Green
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon
The Wife - Meg Wolitzer
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff
Shutterbabe - Deborah Copaken Kogan
Boonville - Robert Mailer Anderson
Sleeping Arrangements - Laura Shaine Cunningham
Maneater - Gigi Levangie Grazer
Limbo - A. Manette Ansay
By the Lake of Sleeping Children - Luis Urrea
Neurotica - Sue Margolis
Your Oasis on Flame Lake - Lorna Landvik
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe - Katrina Firlik
Hanging Up - Delia Ephron
Joe College - Tom Perrotta
The Discomfort Zone - Jonathan Franzen
Lucky Girls - Nell Freudenberger
The Inn at Lake Devine - Elinor Lipman
The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn - Janis Hallowell
Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Brendan Halpin
Then She Found Me - Elinor Lipman
Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Jeff Kinney
Bed Rest - Sarah Bilston
The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll - Jean Nathan
The Ruins of California - Martha Sherrill
Manhattan Loverboy - Arthur Nersesian
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules - Jeff Kinney
Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella
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