Stacks of Books

Rummage sale season has ended and now I'm not sure what to do.

Where am I going to find 10-cent books for the rest of the winter?

Where am I going to find a place where I can clear off a table of novels or pack a few boxes for under five dollars?

It doesn’t matter that I’ve already acquired stacks to read and it is irrelevant that I have shelves to look through. What is important is that I’m not sure where I will continue to get new books (new to me anyway) at ridiculously cheap prices.

Books-a-Million is nice if I’m looking for ideas, but rarely do I fork over the cash to buy anything in their store. It’s not that I mind giving thirty bucks a book but I could log on to eBay or Amazon and buy ten for the price of one from B-A-M.

What I really want is an unlimited supply of books.

What I would really love is my own library (like the one from Beauty and the Beast).

What I am tired of hearing is that I have too many books and not enough room to store them. No matter how many boxes I acquire I always find a spot for them somewhere.

The nice thing about books is that they are infinitely stackable even if they do tilt a little drunkenly after awhile.

I would understand the complaint about how unsightly it is for books to be stacked under the furniture, except that it's my room and it doesn't bother me (if this complainer would build me a bigger bookshelf...).

I can understand how stuffing the trunk of my car full of books may seem odd.

I can even understand how someone might become disgruntled when they have to walk through the rain carrying said books, but it wasn’t very far, and I did need them (and said disgruntled person didn’t mind taking them from me to read later). Plus I couldn't let them be thrown away.

I don’t see that it’s ridiculous of me to buy books, what I do see as ridiculous is letting them mold and rot away in someone’s basement or garage. I would much rather throw them a quarter and relieve them of a few stacks.

And I will eventually read that book on Charles Darwin I happened to pick up at that weird man’s house. I didn’t have to do anything to get it, just smile and pretend like what he said was worth listening to (even if a discussion on the diet of his extremely fat cat completely freaked me out).

I am not a hoarder of words; I am a collector of knowledge.