Recently we cleaned out the garage of moving stuff so we could reorganize it into something more usable. Texas in the sun, I so miss working at a job sometimes. We also found out why our insurance was always rejected whenever I went to a doctor. The insurance company had my birthday confused with our eldest child's. I promptly told my wife that I'm done working for the day and because I'm seven I'm going to play now. She didn't go for that.
She does think that I have a problem. I've already unpacked numerous boxes of books into my library. Many of the boxes in the garage are totes of books. My wife counted them and said I have a problem. I am aghast at her lies. She's a cop and she has seen addiction. I'm not addicted, I don't have to read them all. I just want to read them all. Again and again. What's wrong with that?
True, I need to buy more shelves. These totes are about 7-8 cubic feet of books. I know, you're thinking that's not a lot of books, but I have 27 of these totes to unpack. I don't have a problem. I'm still appalled at her allegations.
Many of the books are from when I had different tastes in books. Would I still like them or not? My tastes have majorly changed in the past three decades or so. Back then I could read Anne McCaffrey and clamor for the next in the series. Give me some Piers Anthony and I would devour it in a night. I read the 8th book in his "Incantations of Immortality" series recently and I forgot how much he hates men, but at least it didn't deal with buckwheat honey hair or horses. Although I did read a short story of his ("The Fleet" series) that didn't make me cringe. If he wrote more like that I would be very excited about any new book of his. My books are not a problem.
Now I read more mystery or crime noir. If the main character is someone that I wouldn't want to invite to my house then I might read it. As an example, Andrew Vachss is an author whose main character is Burke. Most of his books deal with child molesters, somewhat disturbing to read a lot of them. As long as I don't read them back to back I'm okay. I think of them as having a happy ending, normally the child molester dies at the end. Mr. Vachss has a job as an advocate for children and has worked with them in "the system". He brings a level of reality to his works that kind of get to a guy with children (me). That's why I don't read them back to back. I don't have a problem with books.
I definitely have some odd ones. A book on how to make canoes. Plans for building homes. Training horses (recommended by a dog trainer), books on martial arts, books on chocolate, business books, and even things that I have no idea why I bought and read them. I read them, I put them down. I don't have a problem.
I'll go through the books and start culling. There's a website I use for book trading, I'll get a hundred requests or so like last time. The post office wasn't too thrilled with me that day. See, no problem.
Drugs are a problem for others. Books are not a problem for me. They are windows into the soul of the author and sometimes they are a mirror for your soul. Maybe you don't like what you see and maybe you do. Books are not a problem, storage on the other had may be. But I don't have a problem.
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