Maybe it’s an unconscious mental reaction to the days getting shorter. Maybe it’s like squirrels gathering nuts. Or maybe it’s just a bibliophile’s version of binge eating. Whatever it is, I’ve been on a bender buying books preparing for winter.
Here’s a glimpse of just the last three weeks. I checked out 10 books from the library (although I returned four abandoned or unread) and I have five more on hold. I bought four books from one of those online sales a person can’t resist. I bought four used books at a local store. I bought five ebooks for my Nook and Kindle. Today I took advantage of another online sale to order two books from the History Book Club. (But, dear wife, they were 50 percent off!! Look at how much money I saved!)
None of this counts the variety of ebooks that accumulated on my ereaders in the month or so preceding this flurry of hoarding building a written nest egg. Plus there’s the roughly half a dozen books set to be released between now and the end of the month that are on my radar.
In my defense, I’ve read 10 books in those same three weeks. And I’ve got 17 weeks between now and the end of the year to read the 26 other books I picked up or are on the way. You know what that means. Capacity for more!
No wonder [humans] were a species of primitives. By the time they had read enough books to actually reach a state of knowledge where they can do anything with it they are dead.
Matt Haig, The Humans
