My Top Ten Bookish Problems

It's Tuesday!  That means that over at The Broke and the Bookish, we're talking about a bookish topic.  This week it's bookish problems.  I think I can contribute!

1.  Buying all the books!  I don't know how many times I've written a post about my inability to just buy one book or buy books at a reasonable speed.  My life is the embodiment of the Erasmus quote "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes."  Like most book junkies, I view books as a good investment.

2.  Finding time to read all the books!  I used to have so much time to spend reading books.  But now there are things like work and NCIS marathons and family stuff.  Eventually, there will be a husband and kids demanding my attention.  There are only so many bubble baths you can take before people will think you're avoiding them!

3.  Storing all the books!  They have to go somewhere.  I'm not a huge fan of leaving my books piled on the floor, though that has been known to happen.  The resulting avalanches signal a pressing need to do some shelf maintenance.  I have no more room for bookshelves.  The ones I have are all differently shaped and sized.  One day I will have nicer bookshelves that look rather similar...though I will find them hopelessly lacking in character.

4.  Short story collections.  I just haven't ever really gotten into short stories and not for a lack of trying buying options.  I don't know--I just can't ever get myself to pick up the short story collection by the author whose novels I really like.

5.  Poetry collections.  Similar to short story collections (see above) I just can't get into poetry.  I like it.  But then I get frustrated because I am not as enchanted by it as I am by paragraphs.  I don't know.  Dorothy Parker poetry is awesome, but I can't just read several of her poems in a row.

6.  Sticking with one book all the way through.  I flit from book to book.  It may take several tries over several months before I actually finish a book.  I rarely DNF a book; I just kind of set it aside because something else is more interesting and I fully intend on picking this one back up again.  Possibly even soon.  Some books, like the missing wife books, force me to not be able to put the book down until I finish.  But they are in the minority of the books I read.

7.  Two copies of favorites.  My mom refuses to understand this.  I write in my books.  OK, I write in my paperback books.  Not so much my hardcovers for some reason.  Anyway, if I have a favorite book, I want two copies--one that I have marked to death and one that is just lovely and pristine.  I have no explanation for this.

8.  Culling.  I've got three containers of books I no longer want.  But I can't get myself to actually get them out the door.  Part of the problem is deciding what to do with them (I've decided that I want to sell what I can and donate the rest to a library).  Now I just have to find the time to go through the boxes once more and actually load them into my car and drive to the used bookstore.

9.  Employee discount.  I have a new job at a bookstore.  The employee discount is awesome.  I've only worked four days.  Of those four days, I made money one day.

10.  Leaving town.  Whenever I leave town, no matter for how short a period or what I am actually going to be doing on said excursion, I can't help bringing along a few choices.  And by "a few," I mean anywhere from three to ten books.  Even when realistically I know I'm not going to have much time to read, the possibility of having a few hours with nothing else to do is just too real for me to not prepare for.