walkingman

I am a bibliophile, a book worm, a book lover, and I am happy to confess it. My sons have picked up this addiction from me as well. My wife enjoys reading but does not like being surrounded by books 24/7. I, on the other hand, always have a book with me. When I leave the house I have a book in hand, in my backpack, or stuck in my back pocket. One never knows when the opportunity will arise to read so one must be prepared to take advantage of the moment. A first time visitor to my office will often comment on how the books seem to have taken over the place. Once the shelves overflowed it only made sense to pile them on the floor. Now there are some really nice and neat stacks and there are some really precarious piles that defy gravity and have created living Jenga. I marvel at how they remain upright as over the years I remove and add books to the piles. The only ones that seem to topple over are the neat stacks. The precarious ones only grow more innovative and creative. At home one must multiply the readers by 3 in order to contemplate the piles and stacks. There is no order and organization. Only chaos and clutter rules and this drives the poor wife crazy. While she encourages reading she is not a fan of books. Her philosophy is that once a book is read it should be passed on to the next reader. The boys and I view books are friends to cherished and cared for. One would never cast off a friend, so why get rid of a good book? So there is our dilemma. Too much stuff for one small place. We realized we needed help and we realized we needed to help the wife and mother out. So we made the harsh decision and decided to cull the herd. It was hard at first but we knew that it was us or them. Books were donated to book sales, given to friends, and dropped off to shelters and groups. We made a new rule that if you brought a new book into the house that you had to get rid of one old book. We also started going to the library and checking out books instead of going to the bookstore and buying books. It was amazing how much money we were saving. And the wife and mother was so happy to see the clutter and chaos get smaller. One of the boys came home all excited about a new electronic reader that would hold 1500 books. He raved about all the great features it had and how he could reduce his pile of clutter to just one electronic gadget. We let him go on and just smiled. Several hours later we found him in his favorite spot with a book in his hands and we asked him if he wanted the book or the electronic reader then. He looked around and smiled and said he guessed the book. We are not sure if one can use that fangled electronic device while hanging upside down from the swing set. I will admit he is a strange kid, he takes after his father afterall, but when he drops the book the only thing that happens is it gets dirty from the sand. He just shakes out the sand and climbs right back up and goes back to reading. I am not sure if the electronic device would survive either the fall or the sand. We are a family of addicts. We like the paper. We are bookworms and we are proud to call ourselves readers.