Hello, my name is Lady Erin. And I am addicted to books.
This is not just a slight or passing addiction. I am hardcore addicted to books (which turns out to be decidedly convenient since I am also a hardcore reader). And let me tell you, it is a job in and of itself acquiring as many books as I have over my long running obsession. I will search and hunt and scrape up books from every possible source. There is no simply walking into Barnes & Noble and poking around to satisfy my need for books. Will I walk into Barnes & Noble with no plan to buy anything and inevitably leave with half a dozen books that I never knew I could not live without? Yes. Would some people say this is unhealthy? Yes, but... whatever.
But it does not end there.
My addiction to finding and attaining books started when I was very young. I remember very clearly getting the Scholastic catalogs in elementary school. I would take my allowance that I'd earned from doing horrible things like emptying the garbage and setting the table and other horrible tortures designed to humiliate and destroy the soul of 9 year olds, and every time a Scholastic came I would search through it and find all of the 50 cent and dollar priced books and order every single one, almost regardless of what it was about. And when they were finally delivered to the classroom I would get so excited and promptly read each and every single one of them and absolutely love it.
And thus began two of my life goals: 1. Own (and read) as many books as possible, ideally enough to have my own library at some point in the distant grown-up future 2. Never ever pay full price for anything, ever.
(I am very good at both of these things)
Now, gathering the books for what will some day be an obviously epic library while remaining true to your life goal of "Never spend money" turns out to be rather difficult if you're not willing to work for it. Which I am. It involves lots of time committed to combing the 99 cent books on Half.com and Amazon, to searching through the (mostly crap) in the discount sections of Barnes and Noble, Schuler's, Borders and any other store you can find, and convincing all of your friends to give you all of the books they no longer want or have no desire to read or re-read.
It's a job.
But the end result is that you 1. are exposed to many, many, many books that you may never have even imagined would cross your path, 2. have spent virtually no money while somehow acquiring an awesome collection.
And now we come to the whole point of this blog.
Last night I went to a bar for the first time (which is less than a block away from my house, and so is somewhat amazing that I still had not managed to once go there before last night), and discovered my own personal jackpot.
A thing that occurs sometimes, much to my great surprise and delight every time, is that people give away books. Free! For nothing!!
And, it just so happened that of all of the places I could have possibly gone last night, at this bar less than a block away from my house, sitting at a table with my friends I look over and there next to me is a small bookcase, full of books, and a box underneath it labeled free books. And so obviously I dug through all of those books (mostly crap) and walked away with four books (an anthology of Roman drama, a memoir of a man coming of age in the 50's, a book about a woman in her 30's discovering herself, and ... something else that escapes me at the moment, but I'm sure it was awesome) and a feeling that I had accomplished something. Part of that something of course was convincing my friends who kept saying "Are you sure that you're allowed to take these?" that "Hello, the box said free! If they didn't want me to take them they should never have put such false advertising on it!"
So what does this mean to you?
It doesn't mean anything. Except that I love books. And that if you want to send me your old, no longer wanted books, I will gladly accept them.
Best wishes,
Lady Erin
(currently reading: Dr. Nina and the Panther by Shirley P. Wheeler)
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