An Old New Discovery

I am coming clean today.

I am obsessed with books.

I have an entire wall of them in my study - 34 shelves of books, people!

I have a TBR (To Be Read) pile on my nightstand.

I have an under bed box of books.... you guessed it - under my bed.

I have two baskets of them sitting by a chair in my bedroom.  These are the ones I pick up and slowly make my way through a little bit at a time - mostly non-fiction.

When we were moving into this house, my mom wanted to remove those books from the baskets and put them in the study bookshelves.

The horror!

I quickly told her that I needed to have these books around me, close at hand.  She gave me a strange look and backed away slowly.  I chose to ignore her.  Some people just don't understand.

Now that you know one of my deepest, darkest secrets, what do you think was one of the first things I did when Lily was diagnosed with autism?

Buy a book, of course.  And not just one, my friend.

Here's a partial list of books on autism I currently own:  "Facing Autism", "How to Be a Sister", "A Real Boy", "Let Me Hear Your Voice", "The Out of Sync Child", "The Child with Special Needs", "Dancing with Max", "Act Early Against Autism"...... I could go on and on.

We finally reached a point where Ryan gently and sweetly told me to STOP BUYING BOOKS!  Other members of my family like to spend their money on less important things, like food and toilet paper.

Since I cannot live without books, I had to find another way to feed my obsession.  A cheaper way.

So I have rediscovered the library.  I have a friend who makes fun of me for going to the library (and you know who you are, CB!) but I look at it this way - I'm saving my marriage while still getting my fill of books.

But the library I prefer is kind of "exclusive".  You have to live in a certain zip code to be able to use it for free.  And alas, I live in a lowlier zip code.

So I cheat.

People will do anything to get a fix and I am no different, though it shames me to say.

I have another good friend who volunteers at this particular library.  And at the risk of blowing our cover, she gave me my own library card - registered under her name!  The joy!

All I do is wear a hat and dark sunglasses, answer to a false name, and get ready to run like the wind to my getaway car if alarms start going off when I exit the building.

The risk adds a certain element of mystery to the whole experience, I must say.

But the really cool thing is that when I log into "my" library account online, it shows me how much money I've saved by checking out books instead of buying them.

And that's when I go to Ryan and say, "You thought you could control my habit.  But if you try to deny me, I'll just get it somewhere else, buddy boy.  And I'll save you money at the same time.  Tricky me!  So stick that in your pipe and smoke it!"

I feel so much better now.  Confession is good for the soul.