Book Problem

It is Sunday morning again, and there are many things that I want to get done today. Too many things! I have been wanting to go sit and read in a coffee shop on the weekend for weeks, but I never get to it, because there are too many other things that actually have to get done. Other people manage to do it. How do they do it? I don't know. I did actually sit in a coffee shop and read yesterday, but it doesn't really count, because it was in Seattle and I was kind of in a hurry and instead of having a nice cup of tea, I had a bagel and cream cheese to ward off starvation. It was yummy, but there was no lingering. I want to linger.

I have a book problem. Last fall, I told myself that I could buy more books only after I read 3 of the 15 or so unread books I already had. So I read 3 books. But then it was Christmas-time, and you can't buy yourself things right before Christmas, so I didn't buy myself any new books. Instead, I received 5 books for Christmas. So then I had to read 5 books before I could buy any new books. I read one. Four to go. I am working on 3 concurrently, plus some other long-term books. Then my birthday came, and I received 2 books, both of which are the next books in two series, thus opening up access to 3 other books which follow those 2 books, so if I wanted, I could get 5 read in one or two fell swoops. Except that I don't want to rush through them. Still, that is good, but now the number of books to read before buying new ones was up to 6. Yesterday, I worked in my office for awhile, and then decided to ignore my plan for reducing the unread book burden at home, and spent an hour or so browsing at Elliott Bay Books, finally buying two books. So now I am up to 8 books to read before getting any new ones. The book burden increases. So does the stack of books on the floor by my bed. On the other hand, the need to buy new books has been temporarily assuaged.

Here is what I bought yesterday:
Better, by Atul Gawande. Gawande is a staff writer for the New Yorker, and a surgeon, so he must be very, very busy. I have read some of the essays in Better already, I think, because they appeared in the New Yorker. He is a good writer. Hopefully I have not read all the essays already.

The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath. I have never read any Sylvia Plath, and the only way I will read poetry is if I own the book it appears in. Does anybody check out books of poetry from the library? Only die-hard poetry-loving freaks, and they would also buy it, unless they are poor. So only impoverished die-hard poetry-loving freaks.

At any rate, now I have filled up the card from Elliott Bay Books, so I can now get $20 off my next purchase. That store is one big enabler, that's what.