💬 Friday Thread: A Mid-Month Check In

What books, listens, shows/movies have stood out to you so far

Hello and Happy Friday!📚

I read an article last night in my Oh Reader magazine (issue 017) titled “The Sanctity of Buying a Book” by Camille Beredjick in which she asks the question…

what do we lose by buying books we may never read?

I’ll admit my initial answer to myself was “nothing.” Personally, I’ve spent the past couple years buying print books at the bookstore, grabbing one here and there from my little free library, and buying “can’t pass up” bargains at my local library sales. I’ve found joy in curating my own library at my house. I have to say the fact that I ran out of shelf space and have books stored in cabinets (that I rotate out depending on my mood) has made me happy because I love having possibilities of books to choose from. You may sense a “but” coming and you’d be right….but in the past year or so I’ve probably only read two books from these shelves, so I was intrigued to read on to find out what discoveries the author of this article had to share.

She does acknowledge the joy that buying books can bring and of course buying books is vital to supporting authors and bookstores. What she discovered and what resonated so much with me was that her “book buying habits have become less purposeful.” She does on the explain that in the past, when she bought a book she was excited about reading, she went home and immediately read it! Now, and this is what speaks directly to me, when she buys a book it’s more like

I’d like to read this book one day, so I’ll buy it now…it feels much less magical to bring home a book, only to put it on the shelf for later…I have too many books whose purpose has been to sit on my shelf while I ponder reading them eventually, and then to make their way to the donation pile when I decide I’ll never get to them…

Yes to all of this! When I read this the proverbial light bulb when off in my head- this is exactly the point I’ve reached in my book buying and shelf curation. A prime example of my own behavior in action is the fact that last month I was at the bookstore and I found a book I’d never heard of that sounded so good (and after reading the first page and liking the writing style) that I decided to buy it. Spoiler alert, I did buy it and it’s been sitting on my shelf unread and untouched since that day. In case you’re wondering I’ll pop a pic of that book (and another popular backlist I’ve been meaning to read that I also bought) below. So, where do I (or we if this also resonates with you) go from here…