I had to laugh the other day when I read Kristin’s post about buying remainder books. I, too, am a cheap book buyer. I can’t resist yardsales, library booksales, Salvation Army racks, — anything or anywhere that sells cheap books. As a college professor, I also get offers to buy new books inexpensively, too (For instance, I am allowed to buy 5 new books a year from Random House at the great bargain price of $3 each!). I will buy almost anything except romances. The problem is that while I don’t spend a lot of money on books — the books sure do pile up.
When Anthony and I moved, I donated eight boxes (of varying sizes) of books to the local library. After finally getting my books unpacked, I discovered three more boxes of books that I could live without. What does amaze me is the constant number of books in my personal library that I have not read. Right now, the list is at 20. These are not poetry books — I do a pretty good job of keeping up with my poetry reading — these are novels, memoirs, and works of nonfiction. I even have a couple of short story collections I have not read.
So, my goal for the summer? To work through this stack of books. I have them placed on my endtable in the spare bedroom. By the end of August, I want that stack gone. I don’t know if I am going to be able to do it — a few of the books have 800 some pages — not exactly beach reading — but I am going to try.
The Scrapper Poet 