I have in my possession, in either print or e-version, thousands of books. Every one I have read and loved and yes, read over again. And I still go out and buy more. My DH doesn't understand this. He doesn't believe me when I tell him that yes, I do re-read my books. I compare it to his love of purchasing movies. You see, we're the opposite there. I'll watch a movie and enjoy it, but I don't have to OWN it. If it was a good movie and I happen across it in the future, that's fine. If not, no worries. But my husband has to own the film. And yes, he'll watch his movies repeatedly--just as I'll read my books repeatedly, I tell him.
I've learned, however, that not many will re-read a book. Wait, let me clarify, books. Plural. There may be a particular, singular book that some people will turn back to time and again, but to have a virtual library on hand to go back to...takes a special person. Like you and I. 😉
My dream is to have my own library. I did have one, briefly, in the short year and a half between getting married and having our first child. We had the space then, and I had an entire room that I lined with bookcases and all my books (that was over fifteen years ago. My book collection has obviously grown exponentially since then). I remember the joy of setting the books on the shelves. I arranged them by genre, by author. Some by size. But, as usually happens, life goes on and when we knew a little one was on the way, my library went the way of a nursery. Now with seven people in-house, I may not get another "library" until I'm a little old lady. 😄
Since the little ones started coming along, my book collection went the way of boxes and storage. I have these boxes scattered all over, too. Some in the attic, some in a cottage out back, some tucked away in closets or in corners here and there. Every so often, I'll dig one out and I'm like a toddler discovering a box of toys he'd forgotten existed. I coo and sigh over the titles, the smell of paper and words, and then I'll start stacking them into the order I want to re-read them, then I do. And once I've gone through the box, I'll tuck it away again.
So even if my darling movie-loving husband doesn't believe I actually re-read the books I've bought, you and I know the truth. As avid readers, how can we expect to go on without the pleasure of rediscovery?
*photo from fotolia
When life pushes you and all you want to do is crawl under a rock and hide, do you take anything with you? Me? I take a book. Rather, I take books. That's where I've been lately. No, "life" isn't all that bad overall. Nothing more than most any other person I imagine, but I've been binge reading like crazy.
Some books I've read are good, some are great and some are...eh. Great books I've been immersing myself in are stories by Lori Foster and Marie Harte, for example. Mara, Daughter of the Nile kept me captivated. Several box sets have kept me entertained for hours (and I've picked up a few new authors to add to my to-buy list from these sets).
On the other hand, one of the tales that made me go "eh," believe it or not, was the Hunger Games trilogy. Wait, let me clarify. I truly liked the books and the fact of so much death and violence resonated with me in a very edge-of-my seat way, but I did not like the way the books ended. No, I'm not giving spoilers for the very small percentage of people who have not yet read Mockingjay, but let me simply say the last ten to twenty pages made me at turns mad and feeling cheated. And this is before the epilogue. I can take the epilogue, but the ending seemed depressingly rushed. How did you like the ending of the book, for those who did read it?
On another note (but still about book reading) is that my TBR pile is growing by leaps and bounds. See, I make note of books I want to buy on my Kindle by gathering samples. I have well over two pages worth of books I'm in the process of buying and reading. Yikes! Add to this, my DH sells books and he recently brought home a box full of various erotic romance titles I've not yet had the pleasure of reading. Yes, I've already sorted them though to the books I want to read the most to those I'm not sure about. I think I'm set for awhile. Or, until my next binge reading episode. hahaha
I've brought my head out from the pile of rocks and told myself that I need to hunker down with the written word more. Heck, I'll still read, but for the next while my free time will be spent in front of the keyboard and my reading time will cut back to resemble that of a normal bibliophile. Now nod your head with me, as if we all believe any reader will cut back their reading time.
I invite you to lift your coffee cup with me and cheer on the many pleasures of reading the written word.
Happy Reading,
Ayla
