books

so i have, what i’ve coined as, “book ADD”. basically, i love books. i love to read. i love the king county library system and their fabulous website. i love clicking the “place hold” button. i generally have upwards of 35 books checked out, a hold list a mile long, and a running ‘tab’ of fines for overdue books. but here’s the problem. i generally have so many books and i want to read them all, that i never wind up reading any of them. i’ll bring home a book, read a chapter or two, and then the next book on my list will come in. repeat. eventually, i will have read 2 chapters of a dozen or so books, they will be due to go back, and i’ll never get around to finishing them. ugh!

well, i’m officially attempting to ‘kick that habit’. at my husband’s repeated suggestion, i’m learning to make use of the ‘freeze’ button on the library’s website. this enables you to keep your hold on the book, but not receive it until you want it. it just moves other people’s holds ahead of yours. this is great for me, because the reason i place so many holds is because i hear about a book i want to read, check if the library has it, and immediately place the hold – basically so i don’t forget that i want to read it.

so anyway, i finished a book the other day. really! it’s quite an accomplishment for me. :-P and i was so inspired by this event, that i immediately grabbed almost every other library book out of my house and returned them! hahaha! illogical, i know. but most of them were just ‘i might be interested in this sort of thing someday’ sorts of books. so now my (hopefully realistic) goal is to 1) read only 1 book at a time, and 2) to finish it! to that end, i’ve set up a bookshelf here on my blog, which will feature the books i’ve finished, the book i’m currently reading, and the next one ‘on the docket’. my bible will be a permanent fixture on the shelf, as that’s ongoing. hopefully i can avoid a book ADD relapse!

so what is it i like to read? lots! i generally prefer non-fiction – somehow i have trouble justifying reading fiction when there are so many pertinent and important non-fiction books out there that i just have to read. (please note: making fun of self here.) my interests vary to some degree, and to some degree stay the same. occasionally something will fly in from left field and that’s okay too. sometimes it’s one of those, “i’ve never read that before and i probably should, just so i can say i’ve done it” situations. other times, it will be a book referenced in another book i’m reading. sometimes i’ll see something on tv or someone else will mention something and i’ll have to find out everything i can about that particular subject. sometimes i read knitting books, sometimes cookbooks. as an example, the stack of books i just returned covered the following subjects: beekeeping, bread baking, spinning, soap making, pioneer living, homeschooling, gardening, reading instruction, feminism, religion, housekeeping… need i go on? sometimes i will read books on topics that i want to ‘do’ or ‘be’, other times they’re topics i’m interested in because i’m curious how these things affect other things. sometimes i read books that don’t appeal to me at all, but i want to know about whatever is in them because i’m just plain curious. so don’t freak out if you find ‘the communist manifesto’ or something like that on my list. it doesn’t mean i am or want to be a communist! ;)

what can i say? i’m a curious person. i love books. the end.