I Got 99 Problems But Books Ain't One, or Angie's Top Ten Five Book Related Problems

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted @ The Broke and the Bookish

The truth is that I never look at anything book related as a problem. Books (and everything they encompass in my life) are the bright spot. They save me on a daily, sometimes an hourly basis. They are where I go to recover from the 99 problems calling for my blood at any given moment. They're the plane, and the train, and the road, you know? What I'm trying to say is that when I do stress, it's never about the state of my mountainous TBR, or when I'll get around to picking up the seventh book in that series I love, or how I'll ever scrape together the money for those shelves I really need. 

That said. I know that the people near and dear to me would be able to slap together a list of my book related problems in no time flat. So I thought it would be fun to compile a list of ten five problems they would definitely say I have and that I would think fondly of their extreme patience with me (and my books) as I did it. So.

She would loan out the last surviving copy of Shakespeare's First Folio to a random stranger on the street if s/he asked just right

I freely admit this, and I flat out refuse to feel guilty about it. It's just that when I realize there is someone out there who has not read a book they clearly need to read, I am incapable of not moving heaven and earth to resolve the problem ASAP. I press the book into their hands and go to bed feeling all warm and fuzzy inside (and hoping they'll text me their favorite lines as they go).

She fails to keep good track of who she's loaned which book to

This is unfortunately true. Six months after calling mischief managed, I realize that signed, first edition never made it home again and blearily begin casting about for where in the world it could have disappeared to.

She will rec books all the livelong day. but when the tables are turned it's like pulling teeth

Sigh. Okay, I am the actual worst when it comes to other people's recommendations. I know I am. It's crazy because I never had a problem with required reading in school. Ask me to read a 1000-page classic and write a five page essay I was going to be graded on and I was your girl. And recommending books is like breathing to me. But someone slaps a book in my hand, tells me they loved it, and gives me that eager, expectant look and I am paralyzed by guilt and obligation. What if I hate it? What if I can't get through the first chapter and then am forced to return it shamefacedly? Never mind that it doesn't phase me at all when someone returns one of the books I handed them saying it just wasn't their cuppa. So I ask you—what is wrong with me??? 

*It's worth noting that this is true only of in-person interactions. Online recs are my jam and please to be keeping 'em coming, people!

When it comes to reading, she is a leaf on the wind

This goes along with the other people's recs problem. It appears I left formal schooling and can no longer be tied down. It's also why me and book clubs just never seem to make it off the ground. Tell me I have to read this book and only this book by this day and you will guarantee that book is the very last thing I pick up. These days I am entirely led by mood and, honestly? With my days as full as they are, full of my job, my kids, my husband, my house, etc? When I do finally climb into bed at night I am going to read just whatever the hell I please. You can check your guilt at the door.

She is a compulsive collector

I confess to the occasional smidgen of guilt about this (four copies of Jane Eyre and The Blue Sword, I'm looking at you), but on the whole I remain essentially unrepentant. I adore different editions of my beloved books. When a new and shiny one (or a previously unknown and beautifully old and worn one) flits across my radar, I become fixated on owning it. And really, given the above problems, it's in everyone's best interest if I have a couple or three lender copies of my favorite books. This is what I tell myself as I fork over the cash. 

Hm. I feel as though I may have come off a touch defiant when it comes to these "problems." But, as I hope I've made perfectly clear, when it comes to books—I sleep well at night.