My Thoughts: A Confession and A Promise

Hi! My name is Melanie and I am a book-a-holic! I have realized this over and over again in my life. I am physically, emotionally and intellectually drawn to them. If I am in a room where I can see books I am not satisfied until I have inspected them and if appropriate touched them. It’s so bad that when I go to Ikea, I have to read the titles of the books in the bookcases…anybody with me here?

I think it all started when I was a young girl and my mother went on a trip. When she came home she brought me a book “A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson. She inscribed the flyleaf with my name and a small note from her. I do believe it was the first book of my very own. After that I was always picking up a book here and there. By the time I was a teenager I had quite a collection of my own books. I remember that summer when my family moved to Arizona. I was fifteen. We didn’t know anyone yet, so we would go to the Mesa Public Library every week. Libraries are sensory overload for me. It seems that I would go home with about 10 books a week. That was the summer I discovered Potok, Du Maurier & Betty Smith.

By the time I was a young adult and earning my own money, I often spent that money on books. I would often glean the shelves of Deseret Industries and Goodwill of any book that seemed interesting. I amassed quite a collection. I may be the only missionary returning from their mission with only books to declare at customs.

When I was married, my husband decided the books needed to be corralled and we bought two, five-shelf bookcases only to find out it was not enough, so we went back for another. As our marriage progressed, so did my book collection.  One day I came to the realization that I could not keep every book that came into my possession.  So I tried selling books back to the used books stores.  For years, I carried a three-figure credit at Bookmans. 

Along came the internet and some brilliant mind came up with PaperbackSwap.com (PBS).  What a inspired idea!  I can post my books-to-trade online and send them all over the US.  I pay to send the book (usually under $3) and then I get a credit. With that credit I can ‘purchase’ and book available on PBS (currently there are over 5 million books available).  I’ve been using PBS for five years now and I have mailed over 451 books.  On the other hand I have received 428!  It is sooo easy to find what you want.  All I have to do when I read something about a book I want is go to PBS and order it.

Now I have a five-shelf bookcase in my bedroom containing all the books I have that need to be read.  Currently it numbers around 100.

 
This entire story is a segue to my current confession.  I ordered six books from PBS today.  I DON’T NEED SIX MORE BOOKS TO READ. So I am hereby making a promise to my blog readers and to myself.  For the next five months, until my birthday on September 27^th, two out of every three books I read will be from my shelf. I will tag them on my blog as “FMS” so you can help keep me honest.  Books that I have for my two book clubs will not count and any book I have ordered, but not yet in my possession will not count.  Anybody else out there with a plethora of books to be read that would like to join me?