Why I'm Destined to Own Entirely Too Many Books

It became clear to me this week why it is just in my destiny to own way way to many books. This has nothing to do with my early reading ability, my family genetics (trust me if your mom is a librarian you are practically required to salivate over books) or anything of that nature. This story highlights the absolutely ridiculous situations I find myself in with frightening regularity (things that seem to happen to no one else).

Earlier in the year I ordered a textbook for one of my online classes, no big deal right? However, there was a screw up with shipping and I ended up with two copies of the textbook. I promptly stuck both of them on a shelf (because even if I "need" the book for class the likelihood of me actually opening it is slim to none) figuring I would deal with the book later.

This week I decided to deal with extra book and I logged onto Amazon to sell the book back. When I discovered I would be getting a 49.00$ credit on my account I was thrilled! Dreams of new books on my Kindle danced in my head as I happily packed the book up and sent it off with the handy prepaid shipping label (and wrapped neatly in a Brahm's bag). Yesterday I get an e-mail that my trade in had been denied and they were sending the book back to me.

Turns out this book has two different ISBNs (two different hardcover editions, one that is significantly cheaper than the other). Turns out I was sold the wrong book (sold the cheaper book at the higher price). At this point I was furious and spouted off a massive ranting email to Amazon (one of my many fabulous hobbies). Because Amazon is an awesome company who always tries to do the right thing they issued a credit of 49.00 to my account and then forwarded the information on to the investigators.

Great! Right? Well, kind of. See the other textbook is still jetting its way back to me and I still have two copies of the same book. When I have the courage to actually get rid of a book it just boomerangs back to me and takes up precious space on my shelf and now I'm too scarred (or lazy) to try again.

In other book news (apparently I have a lot of that) I finished Laurie Notaro's book and I expect to have my review up Monday-ish. (It's shaping up to be a busy weekend). I've selected my next book "The Badlands: More Stories from Midnight in Peking". This is a special e-book companion to the fabulous book "Midnight in Peking" by Paul French. This book was the best book I've read so far this summer and I was thrilled to drop the 3.99 on the companion book (and to be fair this book has only been floating on my Kindle for a week or so, much less time than my other books).

The First Book

Part of the problem is that I'm a serial re-reader. If I find a book a like I will re-read it countless times, finding something new every time. Dave Barry, Jen Lancaster, Elaine Viets, Janet Evanovich, Sara Shepard and J.K. Rowling are all authors whose books I've read hundreds of times, often to the detriment of other books on my shelves. It delights me to wait a year or so and then reread my favorite books, it seems like every time I open the book I find something new and something that speaks to me in a different way. It helps that I'm in my early twenties and each year I change dramatically. Who you are at 23 is very different than who you are at 24 and the amazing thing is that books change with you. The people in your life may not (I think we all have those friends who we loved in high school, but by the end of college you want to stab them in ear), but books always will. Relationships are something that must constantly evolve in order to be successful (and according to my fiance I also hold the belief that your house should change every four months so you still like it) and my relationships with my favorite books is constantly changing. Take for example Dave Barry, I started reading him when I was in middle school and while he was funny I couldn't really relate to a lot of the things he talked about as I wasn't an adult with a house and family. Fast forward to last year when we were desperately shopping for a house (and failing miserably because apparently you can't have a brand new house on many acres of land for less than $500,000) I re-read his book "Homes and Other Black Holes" and I finally realized exactly what he was talking about. He was spot about absolutely everything and I couldn't stop laughing (and reading passages aloud like some sort of awkward parrot-Trust me it wasn't appreciated no matter how funny the book was). Just like dating I struggle with meeting new books, just like I would totally be with one person for my whole life (because that's socially acceptable and because change is scary-except when houses are involved) I would love to read one book for the rest of my life. However, I can't stop checking out the selection (it's totally natural) so I find myself with thousands of books. Because I'm a complete pansy I decided to give myself an easy book for the first book, don't want to overtax my brain on the first go round.

I'm starting with "I Love Everybody (and other atrocious lies)" by Laurie Notaro. I picked it mostly because the title makes me laugh every single time I even look at the book on the shelf and it comes highly recommended by an author I admire. It's also reasonably short at 226 pages and the last thing I want to read during summer vacation is a lengthy academic tome. I already have to read enough of those for graduate school, when I'm done with my homework I want fluffy and funny and Notaro fits the bill. Plus, I'm cheating in a way because I've read several of her other books and I know I like her (I know, I know...But Rome wasn't built in a day).

Buy the Book: