Book Abuser

This is so totally me! It's an essay about abusing books by writing in them, folding down the corners, cutting them in half, etc. I believe in all of it. I also believe in NOT keeping my books. At this point in my life I have kept only a VERY few (fiction) books, maybe 2 or 3 from my adult life and a dozen or so from childhood. I like to pass them on or get rid of them. I absolutely don't keep them. Perhaps when we move to Madison and have a home in which we hope to stay for years and years I will create a library but at this point I feel no need to keep them.

I also don't really buy books. I definitely use my public library (so easy now with online reservations!) and borrow books from family and friends. Of course, the family and friends have to buy the books for me to borrow them but I would be almost as happy to get them from the library. I actually read them faster since they have to be returned. I am terrified of accumulating fines at the library and use an email reminder service to help me remember to return them!

I would say I have read more in the last 3 years than ever before. Perhaps it's because I'm not in school, or not working (much), or getting in bed earlier because I'm tired from parenting all day. I think the main reason however is.... TIVO. I rarely watch TV at night anymore (we have no TV in the bedroom) and just Tivo my shows to watch while I'm cleaning etc. Also, Ron wants to watch the Jim Lehrer news hour every night and frankly it bores me. He has this moral superiority about how it's the NEWS and it's on PBS so it's infinitely more important than say, America's Next Top Model or Project Runway. So he will watch the news and I'll go upstairs and read. I guess that's good for me!

I'm attaching the link to an essay in the NY Times Book Review last weekend. I would just copy and paste the article here but somehow I don't think that's right...? http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html

I know the NYT links to articles only work for a week or so...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/books/review/Schott.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=review&pagewanted=print