I Love Books

If there are any material objects I have too much of in my life, the winner hands down, would be books. In the last week (well, maybe the last 10 days, but that's probably just me trying to make myself feel better about it :) I have ordered 5 books from Amazon.

Now in my defense, one of those is a cookbook, but before you start thinking, Ok, well that's not so bad, let me explain that prior to ordering those 5 books, I also ordered at least 4 other books - all real books, none of which I have read yet. And actually, I'm not sure you can really count 2 of those as "real" books because they are makeup/beauty books by Carmindy, which, after I glean the information I need from them, I need to sell or just donate.

Ok, so I'm just trying to rationalize, I know, I know, those books are as "real" as any others and they do count.

On the upside, I did just finish reading 2 of all those books I recently ordered from Amazon, I have started on the 3rd, and will soon be reading a 4th.

I think the point I am trying to make is that I have too many books, and it is because I order too many books (from Amazon, mostly). Now, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Amazon.com and I love ordering books from them even more, because let's face it, if you're going to buy books, they usually have a way better deal than places like Borders, Books-a-million, etc. Plus they have a much better selection too, at least in my experience.

I love books so much and giving them away is really hard for me to do, even when I KNOW I probably won't ever read them. I always think, but I might want to read this someday. And then someday never comes so I am left with many books that I

A) don't really have any interest in reading at all

or

B) might have an interest in reading but know I will most likely never get around to reading them because I have so many other books that are higher priorities

or

C) have read but will never read again, so do I really need to keep all of those? Bite your tongue! While I probably do not need to keep all the books I have read, just my favorites/special ones, for me to say that I will get rid of the vast majority of them is complete heresy! Not to mention absurd. And crazy. Immoral, even.

So, I was thinking the other day that I need to solve this problem of having too many books, which is a two-fold problem. Firstly, my impulsive book buying from Amazon, and secondly, keeping books I do not want or need anymore, which could be enjoyed and used by any number of people if I would just get rid of them!

My solution to the first problem is simple in my mind, I just need to actually DO it! I need to get myself a library card. Don't judge, I love libraries and I used to have a library card a long time ago, but don't anymore. There are many reasons for why I need a library card. One of which being that one of the reasons I have too many books is because instead of previewing the book I am thinking about buying in person, (i.e. at a library), I peruse it on Amazon and usually, hastily decide I want it even though perusing it on Amazon usually tells me next to nothing about whether or not I will really want to buy and have this book forever. A library card would enable me to check out the books I am thinking about buying so I could read them BEFORE I buy them (what a concept!) and then decide, after reading them, whether or not I really need to own them.

I also need to go through my books and give some away or sell them to downsize my collection of books. I also have to get better about evaluating my book purchases, instead of impulsively buying books without assessing whether or not I really need to buy and own every book I want to read.