I go absolutely gaga for books. The way they look stacked together. Even the way they smell. I’m addicted to buying them. I buy online. From book stores. From garage sales. From little stands that also sell water and Doritos beside Moche ruins. My very large five shelf book case was filled years ago so I have boxes of books all over the place and haven’t decided exactly what to do with them all. My book collection are one of the things I miss most when I travel, well other than family, friends, dogs and cats.
I ducked into the bookstore today after getting measured for a vest for my tux for my brother’s wedding. It was my first real time in a bookstore since I left for Peru six months ago. I went berserk and spent $65 on books. It started off with just a magazine and as I walked around the store my load kept getting bigger and bigger. I had a gift card that I needed to use before they started deducting $1.50 each month so it gave me enough of an excuse. I purchased:
-Tony and Maureen Wheeler’s Unlikely Destinations: the Lonely Planet Story
-William Heat Moon’s Blue Highways
-A very, very cheap sale hardback copy of Elliot Hester’s Tales of a Continental Drifter
–Gourmet Editor Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone
–The Complete Mexican, South American, and Caribbean Cookbook (if you haven’t noticed already food is what you might call my secondary platform)
I browsed through the magazine section for probably longer than I needed to and found several obscure travel magazines I didn’t know existed such as Desti Nations, Porthole, and a few others. I also realized my subscriptions are running late as the new issues to a couple of magazines I subscribe to haven’t arrived at home and were already sitting on the shelves. I think I might lock myself in the house this weekend to get a head start. Wish me luck.
nice collection! i’ve had my eye on that cookbook for a while.
I’m addicted too. We should start an “anonymous” group :). I just got Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The God of Small Things, Kafka on the Shore and The Inheritance of Loss…
Not much of a cook myself 🙂
I read Adventures of a Continental Drifter last year after hearing Elliott Hester speak on a panel at the LA Times Festival of Books. Even if I’ve lapsed in my book buying/reading, that event always seems to get me into the bookstore the next day…and stuck in a coffee shop for the next week.
Like you, I love books, and like you, I’m swimming in them. Bookshelves filled. Stacks on the floor. Boxes, bags, you name it. As you go through your books, considering sending your extras to the New Orleans Public Library. The books can be sent book rate (the bigger and heavier the box, the better), and the donations are tax deductible. Help the people of New Orleans rebuild their library.