I did it again this morning. I bought more books. I already have more unread books than I can probably get to before I die. And yet there I was, sending more books to my Kindle. Is there such a thing as too many books? I think not.
It started innocently enough. I am currently listening to Philippa Gregory’s Cousins’ War series. I didn’t know a lot about the War of the Roses when I started reading this series, and the second book has brought up some questions. So I went on the Internet to read up on it a bit. Then I checked my wish list to make sure I have the rest of the books in the series in there. I do. I also had Gregory’s non-fiction history of three of the women who are protagonists in these novels. I read the blurb. Then I stared and stared at that non-fiction title, and before I knew it, I hit the “Buy with One-Click” button. Done. Book appeared instantly on my Kindle.
Well, as long as I was in the bookstore already, I just had to look at a couple of the titles mentioned at the book club I spoke to on Wednesday night (they’d read A Vote of Confidence as this month’s book). I intended to just add those two books to my To Read bookshelf on Goodreads. Honestly, I did. But then I saw that one of them (a New York Times #1 bestseller from a number of years ago) was marked down and was an especially good deal if purchased for WhisperSync (buy both the Kindle and Audible versions). I couldn’t pass that up. The novel is close to 600 pages in length. Being able to switch back and forth between reading and listening—or even better, the ability to read and listen at the same time—is always wonderful but especially nice for the really big books.
No, there simply cannot be such a thing as too many books. However, there is such a thing as not enough book shelves. So once again I am thankful for the technology that has made reading ebooks such a pleasure. Not all that many years ago I would have sworn I would never use an ereader. Was I ever wrong. That massive book I bought this morning and even the massive companion audio version fit without effort on my device and they take up no additional space in my house.
I think I need to work a two-week vacation into my schedule where I plan to do nothing but read, read, read from morning to bedtime.
What’s at the top of your To Be Read pile? Any impulse buys lately?
~robin
