I was having a terrible day yesterday. I’ve been working on a personal project for some time now and I knew going in to it that it would not be easy . I sat in my room crying for hours, contemplating giving up. My friends called to see if I was OK but I said I needed to be alone for a while. Sometimes you need to just let yourself wallow to get it out of your system.
Once I was ready to stop feeling sorry for myself I decided to get out of the apartment. I’ve had tonsillitis and haven’t stepped outside in days. I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up a reference book I needed. Every time I go in there I want to buy everything in sight so this time I went with my To-Read list so that I wouldn’t get distracted, even though I shouldn’t be buying anything at all right now.
I walked past a book that had a catchy title that made me think of a certain boy and picked it up, debating buying it for him. I read the author’s name and couldn’t believe that it was someone I knew. He had told me he was writing this book 2 years ago and it was funny to have stumbled upon the finished product, on the Discover Great New Writers list, nonetheless. I flipped through the first few pages and had to buy it. Before I got to the Reference area I stumbled upon another book by an author I knew. Jesus. I want that to be me. I had a mental breakdown right there at the New Non-Fiction table.
I texted the boy to tell him: I found a book for you. And I’m losing my shit at B&N. He replied: Pull your shit together, woman! What a simple suggestion. I decided to listen to his advice and left B&N. I’m so excited for my new purchases but I feel slightly guilty. I came home and looked at my bookshelf and decided to pull out all of the books that I haven’t read or haven’t finished because something newer and shinier came along. I counted 12. Twelve! I’m putting the books aside on their own shelf so that I know what to read after I’m done with the 2 I just bought.
Books I have that I haven’t finished:
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
- Tourist Season by Enid Shomer
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
- Smile When You’re Lying by Chuck Thompson
- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
- Early Bird by Rodney Rothman
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
When I’m done with these I can purchase books from my To-Read list:
- Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott
- I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
- Perfection by Julie Metz
- It’s Not Me, It’s You by Stephanie Wilder-Taylor
- Lost and Found: Stories from New York by Thomas Beller
- You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier
- Beg, Borrow, Steal; A Writer’s Life by Michael Greenberg
Have you guys read any of these? Is there one that should be moved to the top of the list? OK, I’ve got a lot of reading to do!
nice list! Ive read The Bluest Eye and Jane Eyre, both really great!! The Bluest Eye made me cry, you end up feeling sorry for the little girls opinion of herself. I’m like you–I collect books, looking at your book shelf in the background, Im jealous of your collection! Wow..Im almost there, not quite. Ive been going to Goodwill and finding a lot of neat titles there, I was suprised how many good books are donated!! And they’re like $3 each.
thanks raven. i swear i’ll get to this collection sometime this year. I would love to check out goodwill books but I kinda have this bad habit of loving a brand new untouched, unbent, book. I really need to get over this. esp with how poor i am! hah.
understandable– there’s just something about a bookstore–cant resist buying a brand new shiny one for yourself!