It's school holidays, which means the boys like to go to the museum, which means we happen to be in very close proximity to the University Book Shop.
Oh dear.
Downstairs I finally brought one of those titles that has been on my I must get that list for a long time, and which finally just jumped into my hand - Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins. It has received much accolade and every one tells me I must read it, so who am I to argue?
I love the upstairs section of The University Book Shop as they have what they call a continuous book sale and it is chokka with obscure and fascinating books. It is often where I find curious little research books, and they're dirt cheap.
I'm fascinated by Graffiti Art. Not the mindless tagging that makes me so angry I want to bang the little sod's heads together heads, no, I like the witty, the beautiful and the artistic. I've been eyeing up a book on the British street artist Banksy that I will no doubt succumb to soon. I have a growing collection of photographs of the graffiti art around Dunedin, so I snapped up this book when I spotted it - InForm: New Zealand Graffiti Artists Discuss their Work, by Elliot O'Donnell. This book is more about those that do large scale work, but I am interested mostly in their stories, why they do it.
I seem to have a habit of acquiring more books than I read. I'm sure I'm not the only one, in fact Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise recently did a reader poll on how many books people had in their TBR pile (To be read, for the uninitiated) The results left me feeling not so bad about my pile as the majority of respondents had over 250 books in their TBR piles, yes folks, over 250! I'm not quite there yet.
It has made me think, perhaps I should go on a book buying fast - you know - no more books until I've read what I've got. Could I manage that? Do I have the discipline to read everyone's blogs and reviews on books that tweak my interest, or get me salivating and then say no, I can not buy that book until I've read what I've got?
I didn't think so either.
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3 comments:
I read Emily's book last year and loved it. Enjoy.
When I was a very poor single parent on DPB I relied almost entirely on the library to feed my reading habit but my lovely mother-in-law always gave me a generous cheque for my birthday and I always spent it on books. I'd spend at least an hour cruising the shelves of my favourite bookshop gathering an armful of books until I reached the money limit, then exchanging the less desirable for others until I'd looked at every shelf in the shop, heading home with my treasure trove. I had less books in those days but I think I loved and appreciated them more.
I also use libraries a lot, but have a real thing about owning books now. When I was a kid we didn't have many books we owned at home, we just lived at the library, but I'm making up for that now! I neeeeeed to possess them, so when anyone asks me what I'd like for my birthday I say book vouchers please.
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