Book-worm? More like book-magpie!

I have a confession: I am obsessed with books.

It all started when I was only eight years old. My Dad gave me The Hobbit to read, to stop me trying to read The Lord of the Rings over his shoulder. At that age, there were things I missed, my eight year old brain just not able to assimilate the story. Re-reads over the years revealed the details I had previously missed. From there I fell hopelessly in love with the fantastical.

Years later, I have amassed over 600 books. It may be less than some more voracious collectors and readers, but it is still more than many others. On average, that’s a book every one and a half weeks.

I have paperbacks and hardbacks, both new and second hand, and I have signed books, some are dedicated, some are not. All are cherished.

However, I’m aware that I have a problem. I can buy books by the pallet load, but I don’t always read them. There are poor neglected novels in my collection that I have owned for years, but I haven’t read a single page.

Before Christmas, I decided to make a little shelf space by actually selling some of my books. All of them were either unread, or simply disliked for various reasons. Including my read-once, and pristine copies of Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse. The most I can say of them at the moment is that they’re not for me. Maybe I’ll write a post about them later.

The books were advertised on our town forum, and eventually, someone asked about them. The requested tomes were packed up, picked up, a small amount of money changed hands, and I closed my front door without any drama or ill effects. I could in fact get rid of books without turning into a gibbering wreck, sobbing uncontrollably over losing my ‘babies’.

In the long term, I want to try to streamline my collection, and stop hoarding quite so much. And stop impulse buying books in charity shops. And try and whittle down the existing list.

Long term… not just yet. Baby steps!