In all fairness these really don't count as "confessions."
I have been this reader, this library-goer, this story-enthusiast, since I was about 9.
It was Tuck Everlasting that did me in. It was one of the oldest editions I've seen 'til this day, possibly even an original 1975.
That's what you get in a small private Catholic school with books older than some of the teachers.
It was thrilling, captivating, everything I had never had in a book before. And that was it. From there on out I carried a book with me wherever I went. Even if I didn't have a chance to crack it open, it was knowing that if given a few moments, I would have a story, right there in the palm of my hands.
Since then, I've been a reader. Yes, a writer too. But I am first and foremost a reader. An always reading more than one book at a time reader. A blog reader. A fiction reader. A news reader. An e-reader. And a book collector.
No, not hoarder, though some may argue differently.
I've got Kindle books, thrifted books, brand new books, hand-me-down books. I've got more books than I have time for. Right now I have more books that I haven't read than I have. And despite the fact that my 'to read' list keeps getting longer and longer, I getting more.
Just yesterday I stopped into my local second-hand book store to grab a copy of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.
Which, has a story entirely of it's own, that includes a lot of Ebay hunting and a free Amazon Kindle copy...another day.
I didn't need the copy, I wanted it. And I really did not need, nor did I really have the time, to spend the 45 minutes wandering through the tight aisles with creaky floorboards. But I did, and in the end, I walked out with my Dalloway and a copy of Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Not because I need it for class, actually I've already read it for a class. I got it because I wanted to have it as a piece, a part of my collection. It is one more book that, if I somehow find the time, and find my way through 40 or so other books, I can read, I can fall back into that story.
That is how I've acquired more books than I have room for. That is how I've found that I am currently in the middle of six books. That is how I have started to see that I have an amazing book collection that I so adore.
It's ridiculous. I know it's ridiculous. But I love them. I love all of the books I have. I love reading them. And marking them up. And caring them with me just in case. I love that I am a reader. That I have this backlog of knowledge that all started with a girl that figured out she could live forever.
Oh, if only this girl could live forever. The books she would read-oh, the books she would write.
I don't see it stopping anytime soon. Actually I only see it increasing, multiplying, gaining speed, and growing so much that I end up with a library. Which, really, wouldn't be too bad at all.
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