The Sunday Salon: The Problem with Buying Books

I distinctly remember complaining a few months ago about how much trouble it was to select a book from the library. There's always some other book calling my name. And knowing very well that most of those books go unread, I would usually prefer not to take a truck load, only to come back again and guiltily return half of those unread.

Since then, I kicked that worry out of my system. Lately, I've been having so much fun taking a random array of books home, and reading a book that I was in the mood for at a specific time. True, some, probably most, of those do not get read. But there's always a next time. Plus, I love the increased set of choices I have each time I'm looking for a read.

And now that I got that cured, what do you know, I'm having trouble buying a book. Uh-huh!

The same scenario played out all over again. I actually headed to B&N yesterday only for some fun time browsing the aisles. It had been ages since I had been to a bookstore or actually bought a book, and I was hoping to simply check out what's hot, pick a book to read at the cafe while I sip some yummylicious coffee. But when I got there, I was eager to go back home, because all through my drive to the store, I kept thinking of the half-read book on my nightstand, which I suddenly had an urge to read. So, rather than browse at the store, I figured I might as well buy a book and go home. (The option of leaving empty-handed didn't really cross my mind.) Who knew I was going to have trouble with that! Seriously? You can have a problem buying a book??

Though, I should say that the booksellers at my local B&N are to blame. They had all their summer reading tables nicely laid out. About three-fourths of those books are in my wishlist. How does one even go about deciding what to read? And to make it worse, there were some new-to-me titles on display that I simply wanted to read right away. Every time I go to B&N, I spend a lot of time perusing their Discover Great New Writers shelf. I would already have read and loved most of those titles, which makes me warm up easily to the other titles on display. This time, they had Please Look After Mom and My Korean Deli put up - both of which I've been itching to read. I finally walked out of the store with The Imperfectionists, which has been on my TBR since last year, and mentally taking an anti-book ban promise - to buy books more frequently to avoid the kind of deadlock that I went through.

Does that ever happen to you?