Question: At what point does owning more reading material than you'll be able to get through if you live to 100 years of age...become an issue?What's that? When you continue to buy more books, more newspapers and MORE magazines without an ounce of regard for the all the poor, lonely unread words already on the shelf at home?
Well then, Houston, we have a problem.
**Borrowing recent themes from the blogs of Fab Boy and Amblus at left**
I don't like to shop. I go into a store with an assembled list of necessities and pretty much shop the list. Hence it's name, The Shopping List.
I admit to sometimes throwing a blouse or vegetable peeler into the cart, but I otherwise conduct my business and get the hell out.
The idea of the feminine pass time of browsing for shoes, bags, clothes and tchotchkies has always completely bewildered me. Shopping is not a sport, it's a chore.
Please do not take offense, Readers of the Shopping Persuasion. I see you out...wandering happily...picking up things, admiring them, envisioning them in your home and on your person...you seem to be enjoying yourselves...but you are as foreign to me as a hair brush is to James May (bless his heart).
The LONE EXCEPTION to this consumption handicap is books. Books in catalogues (see Book of the Month), book stores, the charity book shop in the public library...it doesn't matter. I can't keep myself from... wandering around touching the books, flipping through the magazines, checking out the new reference materials....
Maybe if the next time I see women out and about, fondling handbags I should pretend they're ogling the soon-to-be-published 40 volume edition of the Oxford American Dictionary?
PS - Are those "book shoes" not wicked cool?! Leave it to an artist...Here's the link: http://www.medway.gov.uk/book_shoe.jpg
Comments
I used to have a problem with buying books. Used book stores were particularly hazardous for me. I love the smell of old books. And the look and feel of them. I could totally zone out, and end up buying a stack that would strain both my wallet and my bookshelves.
Lately, though, I've found that the lack of time for reading books for fun has led to an improvement of my addiction.
As for shopping, I was never into purses until I finally got to give up the "kid pack". Now, the smaller the purse, the better. And I never liked shoes much until I broke my foot and had to wear ugly shoes for four months. Now, I'm a shoe freak. But I'm cool with stuff I find at Target, so it doesn't mess with my budget too much...