100 Word Challenge: Obsession

I have a lifelong obsession with books… mayhap I should more accurately say addiction. In my house, between my husband, children and myself, we have close to 1000 books. That’s correct, four figures. Enough to open our own small bookshop.

Add to that another 360+ ebooks… well, you can see the problem.

I just turned 57. Even if I read a book a week, I’ll be into my 60s before I get through my horde. That doesn’t take into account all the books I could will add before that time limit expires.

There aren’t too many books, there are too few bookshelves.

I should consider loaning them out for a small fee.

Did I mention the library books I also borrow – both hardback and ebooks? In the past few months, there have been dozens of those.

This got out of hand a long time ago. I’ve been known to buy the same book twice because I didn’t remember already having it. I pick out books just because I like the cover. If I enjoy a book by a particular author, I MUST read all the books by that person.

Series… yeah, got to go through each one until the end.

I finally gave up my prejudice toward digital books. I used to think books made of buckram and parchment were the only true reading material, that was until I finally calculated how much I was spending on books. It was a LOT and I’ll leave it at that.

Ebooks are my new obsession. I put a price limit on purchases, and lately only buy books by authors I know, but still, my To Read stacks are piling up to heights unattainable.

I’ve even been reading… dare I say it…. non-fiction. Who am I!

The hardest part is deciding what to read next. It’s like a bunch of little kids screaming for attention… “pick me, pick me!” I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so I have several books going at once. It can be maddening.

There aren’t enough hours in a day to read all the books I want and still get anything else accomplished.

“Where is human nature so weak as in the book store?” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

This week’s word is:

Obsession

What to do:

Using “obsession” for inspiration, write 100 Words – 100 exactly – no more, no less. You can either use the word – or any form of the word – as one of your 100, or it can be implied. Include a link in your post back here, and add your story to the Mister Linky list. If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your submission in the comment section, or as a Facebook status post. Remember to keep spreading the love with supportive comments for your fellow Wordsters.