So Many Books, So Little Time

Anyone who knows me realizes that I am a confirmed, steadfast, and lifelong bibliophile.  I could go longer without eating than without a book.  I blame my mother, who taught me to read before I went to school.  We each had cards at three different libraries because she wasn't allowed to take out as many books as she could read for the allotted time frames.  My reading was never censored, and I quickly moved out of the "Dick and Jane" stage.  When we moved here, I made a list and realized I had over three thousand books to pack.  Who knows how many are on the shelves, in stacks and bags, boxes, and falling-over piles now.  Steve was not a reader, but he loved stories, and so our entertainment while camping or during power outages was me reading to him (sometimes by candlelight).  Linda sends me care packages full of books from Seattle, and others, like Arden, give or loan me books...bless 'em all.  I've been introduced to new authors that way whom I've either loved or hated.  I'm eclectic and will read anything.  If there's no book on the horizon, I'll settle for cereal boxes and toilet paper wrappers.  I shrink from gift cards, because I can never bring myself to use them...what if I make the wrong choice and waste a gift.  However, I once received a card for Barnes & Noble, and couldn't wait to pick and choose!  This is the topic of the day because Deb loaned me a book this weekend, "The Other Boleyn Girl."  Two days ago, while cooling down after my sojourn in the barn, I picked up the book just to glance at.  Daily chores notwithstanding, I read until 11:30 that night...five hundred-some pages...deep in a great story.  I swore yesterday I would not pick it up again because I had to go to town and I have company coming for dinner with a pretty complicated menu tonight.  Yeah, how's that workin'?  I finished the last couple of hundred pages with utmost satisfaction (and a little guilt), dashed down to the grocery store (always a three-hour trip), came home and started prep work for the dinner.  When Gabriel sounds his horn, I won't go until I see "The End."