My Crack Cocaine

OK, before you go getting you panties in a wad, I am not a drug addict.  I have never snorted cocaine and I have never smoked crack, but I do have an addiction…books.  Love them!  My favorite thing is a trip to the bookstore.  I love the big bookstores like Barnes & Noble.  I find small, independent bookstores to be quaint and I love the feel of them, but I want…need to have more selection.

I grew up going to the library as a kid.  Every week my mom would take me to the library to get books and the smell of the library made me imagine the endless opportunities and adventures I could read about.  Being a child of the ‘60’s, I watched Captain Kangaroo every morning.  He read the best books on his show, so when it was time for our weekly trip I was so excited if I could find a book the Captain had read.

When I was in junior high/high school, during the summers I would ride my bike to the library and check out 10 Harlequin romance novels.  I would check them out then put them in my white plastic wicker basket and pedal home.  It would take me a week to finish them, and then I would head back to the library for more.  They had a whole row of romance novels and that clearly is where my love for trashy romance novels started.

I was privileged enough in college to work at one of the University of Illinois’ libraries.  I worked part time at the Physics library shelving books, helping students find resource materials and I worked at the checkout desk in the evenings and on the weekends.  It was the greatest job because as a student myself, the staff never minded that I studied if I had all my work done.  I think this was the only time I really hung out with super smart, rocket scientist kind of people.  They were scary smart.

After working in the Physics library for a while, I was offered the opportunity to work at the small town library I grew up in.  I thought the Physics library was cool, but now I got to work a few blocks from my house, work Monday through Thursday from 4:30-7:00p and 9:00a-noon on Saturdays…right back in the very building I spent so many years at as a little girl.  I got to see people I grew up with, their parents, their children and I got to influence a whole new generation of young readers.  My favorite time was in the evening when it was close to closing time.  If I had finished studying and there were no customers, I would sit in the tiny little chairs in the children section and reread my favorite books from my childhood.  Just touching them and smelling them always brought a sense of peace to me.  I enjoy taking my daughters to the library and watching their faces as they pick out a week’s worth of books.

I rarely borrow books from the library myself because my habit is greater than that.  I need to own the books.  I need to dog-ear the pages and when I’m finished I love to look at a wall of books I’ve read.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment.  I always have a stack of books under my nightstand.  I read legal thrillers, historical novels, non-fiction, period romance novels and trashy contemporary ones.  I rotate an easy read book with a book about the history of oil, then another trashy romance with a book about Che Gueverra.  I reread my favorite books, sometimes once a year.  I don’t think I have a most favorite book, I have several, but the Laura Ingalls Wilder series is a favorite along with Gone With The Wind and The Endless Steppe by Esther ****.

If my stash pile of books starts to get low, I start to panic.  Oh my God!  I’m running out of books!  Quick, get in the car…we have to get to Barnes & Noble!  I always have a book with me.  When we go on vacation I take four or five.  If I know I am going to have some downtime while running errands, there is always a book in my purse.  If I finish a book when I am out and about, there better be a grocery store or a pharmacy readily available, because otherwise I am going to have a panic attack.  And, there is no way I can walk into a bookstore and not buy books. Impossible.  I can drop $100 in a heartbeat and not blink an eye.

I haven’t really embraced the idea of an electronic book reader…like a Kindle.  I understand its value, but I am a tactile person.  I need to see the book, hold it, smell it, and turn down the pages.  And if you had a Kindle, how can you read on a plane as you are taxing and taking off.  You have to have your electronic equipment turned off.  Then what do you do?  That’s 15 to 20 prime reading minutes.

I take pride that my daughters are becoming readers.  Elle can read faster than me, and that’s saying a lot.  I come from a family of readers and to see the excitement on their faces when I tell them we are going to the library is priceless.  I have made my addiction an expensive little hobby.  But when you compare it to other addictive hobbies such as hunting and diving, it comes out on the cheaper end.

I will continue to feed my habit.  It is healthy and allows my mind to keep working as I learn about new things and people.  So all you crack cocaine users out there…you can have your needles, mirrors, pipes and rolled up dollar bills…I am quite content to being a reading addict.  And I won’t get arrested for it.