I love books. I’ve loved them for pretty much my entire life, and I don’t know what I’d do without them. That said, there’s no denying that sometimes, it can be hard to be a book lover. Here are a few problems you might have run across:
-Moving. What a nightmare. You have to pack all your books. Then you have all these heavy boxes that no one has to carry. Then you have to figure out how to fit all of your bookcases into your new home, and then you have to unpack all the books, which takes five times longer than it should because you keep getting distracted by flipping through your favorite books.
-Finally getting your shelves perfectly organized — and then you buy a dozen more books.
-You find the first book of a series at a used bookstore. You read it. It’s amazing. It ends in a cliffhanger. The rest of the series is out of print.
-You go to the bookstore just to pick up a new release you’ve been hankering for. Two hours later, you leave the bookstore with $100 worth of books and stuff.
-Two of your favorite authors have new releases on the same day. Which one do you read first?
-You finish reading an eBook and your eReader program helpfully informs you that you could purchase the next book in the series with a single click. The next thing you know it’s three in the morning and you’re only halfway through the book and you really want to know what happens next, but also you have to work in the morning.
-Friends and family ask what you want for the holidays/your birthday so you give them a list of the books you’ve had your eye on — and then you can’t buy any of those books until after the gift-giving occasion, just in case someone does buy it for you.
-Reading all of these great books inspires you to want to write a book of your own, and now you have to constantly balance your time between reading and writing.
-You go for a shopping trip in the big city, and your first stop is the bookstore. Now you have to spend the rest of the day lugging around that big, heavy, hardback art book that you couldn’t say no to.
-You forgot the password to your online banking account. The security question is “Your favorite book.” Uh oh. When did you set up this account? What kind of mood were you in? Did you use your favorite novel or your favorite non-fiction book?
-A Facebook friend asks for book recommendations. You now have to clear an hour in your calendar in order to not only make your own suggestions, but also peruse the rest of the thread to write down all the titles that sound interesting and silently judge all the people who are suggesting inappropriate books. (“I know you asked for recommendations for WWII fiction, but have you read Kushiel’s Dart yet?”)
-Voting is open for best book of the year. You’ve read most of the recommendations and half of them were absolutely amazing and changed your life. How are you supposed to choose just one? Would you ask a mother who her favorite child is?
I could sit here and write these all day! What are a few problems you’ve experienced as a book lover? Have your shelves collapsed under the weight of the books? Did you get a job at the bookstore only to spend your entire paycheck on books? Tell us in the comments!