Musings: Should I Buy/Checkout More Books? (Yes. Always.)

I follow a few reading groups on Facebook. Most of them mostly post pretty drawings of pictures of books in all their glorious beauty. Sometimes cats show up in the photos, sometimes dogs, sometimes coffee or tea. (Yes, this seems to be as far as I will interact with strangers, even on social media.)

I often click Like on these and, sometimes, I even share. For instance:

Yeah, that's really what I'm going to write about today. Because you can never have enough books. Not ever.

Right now, on my night table, I have close to thirty books. That's not counting the ones on my bookshelves. And the ones in the dinning room that I haven't put away. Oh, yeah, also, doesn't include my husband's books, which take up quite a few shelves in the basement. This also doesn't include the books I check out of the library.

And you know what? At this very moment, I have at least two other tabs open on my browser that give me access to more books (i.e. buying more books and checking out more books). 

Is this an addiction?

Yes. Probably. Most likely. I'm not sure. I don't really care.

Should I blow my money on alcohol, junk food, or cigarettes? Hmm? Is that what I should do?

See, unlike some addictions (shoes, clothes, cocaine), this one has the potential to make me a better person. 

I can read as much as I want and still function in society. 

In fact, I can read as much as I like without spending another cent. Libraries are wonderful places and I don't know where we would be as a society without them.

You think about that. Right now, we have retail workers that have to deal with so much shit (sometimes, quite literally) and that's with relatively easy access to all kinds of printed media. That's with thousands of years of humans living in settled communities.

Seriously, where would we be without books?

Think about how much time we waste on mindless tasks or about how much money we spend on things that go out of style. I'm totally guilty of both of these. I can't tell you how much clothing I have and I can't account for all the time I've wasted on YouTube watching Buzzfeed videos. Seriously, it's embarrassing.

But! I will never ever feel any kind of embarrassment for the amount of books I own and/or checkout from the library.

Will I ever get through all of them? Of course not. I won't live long enough to read the ones I already have, much less the ones that will come out during my lifetime. (And I do hope I have quite a lot more years ahead of me.)

That doesn't matter. Maybe, if I have children someday, they will inherit all of my books. They will remember me by these books. They will have some insight into who I was and what kind of people I hope they will be. If I have children someday, I hope they can't drive or walk past a library without feeling at least a little bit giddy.

Because, for some of us folks that have little to no athletic prowess or that don't exactly have a desire to go off and sky dive:

And they have given me some of the best highs of my life.

Except wine. Maybe wine. Wine and books=best Friday night ever.