Addicted to Books

"The (person) who does not read good books has no advantage over the (person) who can't read them." Mark Twain

When I tell people that I read too much, they give me that indulgent smile that I save for skinny people who complain about not being able to gain weight and say, “That’s great!” Then they tell me it isn’t possible to reach too much. They have no clue.

Last year, I read a book with the irresistible title, So Many Books So Little Time by Sara Nelson. The author made the bold decision to read a book a week for a full year and write about it. Her friends warned her that her goal was overly ambitious, as if nobody could possibly read 52 books in 52 weeks. Ha!

I’ve been reading an average of ten books a month, more than twice Ms. Nelson’s goal. My selection is a mix of fiction (mostly mysteries) and nonfiction. Right now I’m reading The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols, which Mayor John Hickenlooper picked as this year’s One Book One Denver entry. It’s one of my favorite books and one I haven’t read for almost thirty years. I also love the movie by Robert Redford.

I’m also reading several business books: The Everything Blogging Book by Aliza Sherman Risdahl, Multiple Streams of Internet Income by Robert G. Allen and Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson. For my spiritual side, I have Flow-dreaming by Summer McStravick and the audio version of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. A true addict never reads just one book at a time.

And a true addict stockpiles books. I go to the library about three times a week and usually have 15-20 books checked out at a time, with another 20 or so on hold. Addicts never want to stand the chance of running out. I visit amazon.com several times a day and the legendary Tattered Cover bookstore in Lower Downtown Denver every week.

I devote about three hours a day to reading. You know it’s a problem when your habit begins to interfere with the rest of your life. Sometimes it seems like I would rather read about life than live it.

I’m trying to cut down, but here’s my problem. About 50,000 books are published in the U.S. every year and I only have time to read 100 or so of them. That means there are 49,900 books that I can’t read every year. And every year another 50,000 come out. That makes me crazy.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved.