Scared of a bookstore!!

Inspired by "Scared of a book!" post ...

Yesterday my sister wanted to take a trip to Barnes and Noble. I actually had a moment of .. well something like fear. I knew that if I went I would buy more books!

I have $90 worth of gift cards in my possession, and ten books or so on the way to me by mail. They thought of having to find shelf space for even more was a little scary.....

Seriously, I dread going to the mall sometimes, because that's where Walden's at.

And I took my daughter into Goodwill last week to get her some summer clothes, and when the lady greeted us with "shorts and short sleeve shirts are $1 each, today only!" I said, "wheeeeee! I can buy more books!" Which, by the way, the store is not set up for resisting the books... the dressing stalls are flanked on both sides by the books.

There's a block on 5th Street that I just walk around because the Catholic thrift store's on it. 25c paperbacks, 75c Hardbacks... I've pretty much picked them over, though.

Yes, sometimes I'm a-scared of the bookstore!

Well.. its all over tomorrow... I am taking my sister out for a birthday breakfast, and she wants to go to B&N on the way home.

I got a delivery from B&N online today... I know that I will be adding to that tomorrow.....

I love bookstores.. but sometimes, yes... they scare me.

Now see, a physical store I can get out of with some dignity. But that silly little one-click button at Amazon has meant some poor choices have made it to my doorway. Talk about impulse buying.

It's not the store itself so much as the bill waiting from me when I try to exit said store....so perhaps its more a case of being situationally agoraphobic ;)

ohh woe is we jillmwo I agree

all is lost .. we have no place to hide from books..

It is indeed scary. I think I may need therapy; of course, I will have to go read up on how it works and what the possible options are.

*Wonders what the password is for my account on the site*

You know how some people can down an entire carton of ice cream in an evening? I've never gotten that urge, but I have come downstairs in the middle of the night to place an order with Amazon. More than once. I think it's basically the same thing.

#1 mckait - $90 in gift cards? Such riches!

#4, 6, 8 - Amazon is my weakness too. I should get my address and credit card number out of their sneaky little system, but I'm weak. I can't (if I buy $25, there is free shipping! I can't afford NOT to buy the books!)

Henry Ward Beecher said, "Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"

Although he died in 1887, his question resounds today!

MidnightRain - that is exactly how I feel. Things are tight financially..but I have have to buy books. I just have to. It doesn't matter that the to-read pile just grows and grows...I need more! It's the feeling of collecting them, of knowing that I have over 200 tales and stories to just pick right off my shelf, at any time. I love it...

My wallet doesn't though...

In Milwaukee, on the west bank of the river, there's a used bookstore called Renaissance Books -- the only one we had time to go to. They advertise '5 floors of books'. I wrote a review of the place for the Favorite Bookstores group.

It's awesome! It's probably the length of a soccer field, and there are, in fact 5 floors absolutely crammed with books. The shelves are very similar in construction to those you'd see at Half-Price Books, but they're all about 12 feet high, and old, and warped and stand at odd angles despite being juxtaposed at the bases. The elevator, if it ~does~ work, is too crammed with books to allow human occupancy, I suspect, and the light doesn't work in it. The stairs are wide and steep, and use of the handrail is more than just a good idea. It's a necessity. The floors are bare wood, easily over a hundred years old. They creak and sag when you walk on them. They're worn down from the foot traffic. The floor at the road side of the building is easily a foot or two higher in elevation that the opposite (river) side. You can scratch away the mortar from between any two bricks in the walls with ease just using your little finger. It's got lots of character. I ~love~ that bookstore, but it scares me to death!

We had gone to Milwaukee to attend a wedding. We left with over 30 pounds of books.

Oh, my golly gosh. That sounds like a dream bookstore. I'd probably spend a day and more exploring. Sure, it might fall down, but that's just extreme book hunting!

I once calculated that spending time in a bookstore costs me €1 per minute. If I don't want that, I have to stay out!

Still cheaper than some phone services, though...

edited to fix euro sign

I'm scared of bookstores too because I can't not leave w/o a book or two or three or more. The only time in the past that I didn't buy books was December thru mid January when really not a lot of books were published that I was interested in. I actually was disappointed when I went to the store and couldn't find any to buy. That rarely happens. But then that feeling left me around mid January and I was back to my old book buying self.

12 - OH! *catches breath* sniff...

I know it's time to leave the book section at Wal-mart when I'm saying,
"got that one, got that one, got it, got it, got that..."

I'm more scared of those who are not scared of bookstores....

#9 riches indeed..I am properly grateful. I do not spend one gift card until I have another to replace it though..that is indeed as neurotic as is sounds..

#17 too true!

Try working in a bookstore!

For a few months I worked as a teacher for a speed reading school in Portland, OR. I lived downtown... within walking distance of Powell's City of Books, perhaps the most magnificent bookstore I've ever seen. It was already a legend in my head before I went there, and living within in walking distance meant I was dead meat. Every night, I was tempted. Every time I went in, I purchased at least ten books. It was reaching deadly proportions, not only for my budget, but for the purposes of transporting it all back to Los Angeles at the end of the term.

Powell's is a dangerous, deadly place.

(The Tattered Cover in Denver is a close second for its destructive capabilities.)

#19 goddessladyj: My application for work there would say "WILL WORK FOR BOOKS!!"

I'm not scared of bookstores, but I am scared of what my husband will say when I come in with yet more books! Fortunately, he's not very observant, and I have lots of bookshelves and stashes, so I can slip them unnoticed on a shelf or in a stack. The boxes from Amazon are a little trickier. Usually, I get home from work before he does, so I can get them out before he notices. ** (chuckles in a sneaky manner) **

Who, me? I aint afraid of no bookstore.

I worked in the campus bookstore at seminary while earning my M. Div. We allowed students to run a tab for purchases, ceiling (late 1970's) was $100.00 and pay off balance at end of each month. No such ceiling for us staff, so our tabs were often higher. And instead of to be read piles, we had to-be-purchased piles in the back room.

Access to books at cost (or close) was something else! The gotcha came due at graduation when I had to pay off the tab. When I took a different path and did not become a pastor I later sold off a large portion of my collection - to other seminarians. *smile*

#19 I have..... bliss!

22: hobbitprincess
I'm not scared of bookstores, but I am scared of what my husband will say when I come in with yet more books! Fortunately, he's not very observant, and I have lots of bookshelves and stashes, so I can slip them unnoticed on a shelf or in a stack. The boxes from Amazon are a little trickier. Usually, I get home from work before he does, so I can get them out before he notices. ** (chuckles in a sneaky manner) **

for a minute, I thought I wrote that!

me too! Hehe

Sadly, I have this compulsive urge not only to buy books, but to look at him shamefacedly and say 'I, er, bought more books today' - usually with a 'but I had a 40% off coupon' or 'but one of them is useful!' or 'but I traded for them' or 'but I had to have it'...

I think the last is the most common, and perhaps most honest...

I had a panic-attack in Borders the other day, because there were too many books and I had a $50 limit. I was running around clutching about ten books.

I need a new hobby that doesn't make me crazy.

My friend found three boxes of books discarded on the side of the road the other day. She very thoughtfully sent me one, kept a couple herself and bookmooched more.

Free books! Side of road!

*thinks about how to make boxes of books appear*

#22 i do that too! only not with husband, with my dad, everytime he catches me its "I thought we agreed to stob buying books, there's no space for them, and you've got no money" but I have secret spaces hidden behind books and chairs, if he knew he'd make me move books into those spaces and give the emptied space to my little brother.

I asked my husband if we could stop at a bookstore on the way home from work last night, and I got the look that said "Are you trying to tell me that YOU don't have ANYTHING to read??"

I then proceeded to blubber on and on about how the book I just read ended in a cliffhanger and I had tried to purchase the next in there series when I was on vacation, but the store I went to didn't have it, and I wasn't familiar with any other stores in the area, and now I just REALLY needed the next in the series even though I had already started another book and could we just PLEASE go have a look and see if it was available.

This only ended when the car was fully stopped and turned off in front of Half Price Books, and my poor husband looked like he was going to rip his hair out. I can only imagine what was running through his head when I walked out with 6 books instead of 1 (I did find the one I was looking for, though).

#27 Ellevee--that was me too the other day in Borders. I only had enough to buy 2 paperbacks and I had like 5 in my hand. The 3 I put back were screaming when I put them back on the shelf. I kept saying--next time, next time!! Actually I have to wait til the next coupon.

And I like koolaidmom's bookstore application--Will work for books--I'm with you! I keep threatening to quit my current job and work in a bookstore--problem is I would never see the paycheck as I would leave it in the store and bring home the books.

Screaming books are very common in bookstores... I often hear them.

Sometimes they are the ones I put down.

Unless my current Amazon box comes tomorrow, I might be in trouble. I am going out of town for a few days, and my husband will be at home. Oh no!!! I just knew it would get here before I left! Elizabeth George has a new book out, and you know I just had to have it because, well, they might run out of it or all the copies might disappear into thin air, then I would never know what's happening next and it will look so good on my shelf next to all her other books and you know, if I get just one more book, I get free shipping and, and . . .

#20 Oh, I LOVE both Powell's and The Tattered Cover!!! Heaven on earth.

I was out on a Friday night with some friends a few weeks back, we had just a drink or two and were wandering the town in search of dinner... when we passed an open second hand bookstore! It was fatal! We are all avid bookophiles and trying to get all of us back out...

Needless to say at dinner we all had a discrete brown bag in which to disguise our purhases....

Ahhh..I feel so at home here...

(Just read out Momom's story to my husband who understands just what her husband goes through hehe...)

fingers crossed for your Amazon box HobbitP.

I have a 50$ gift card from there.. I am going to shop today...
goddess help me! I will spend 25$ and leave the other 25$ for another time...or to pick up used books..

My last Amazon box came this past week.. and I did get to it first..

Mr Andrew said in another thread, on another topic.. there is no point resisting.. you will be assimilated ..

So true when it comes to buying books...

This is one of the few times I'm glad I don't have a husband yet. I can buy all the books I want without the guilt. I'm lucky in that, although I've moved back home, my mother is pretty supportive of my bookish tendencies. If an Amazon box shows up, she always wants me to open it first thing, often repeating, "What did you get? What did you get?" in an excited tone. She can't read independently very much anymore -- too much eyestrain -- so I often read books aloud to her and she's very eager to get first dibs on a book: "You have to read that one to me!" She read to me constantly when I was a little girl, so I'm more than happy to return the favor.

what a blessing you are to her Rain! How dreadful to be unable to read

And I love to read aloud. You are inspiring me, Rain. I must find someone to read to. My 82 year-old mother does just fine, thank you. But I can surely find an adopted granny somewhere who wants to hear me perform!

Rain, that is a wonderful story you have shared. Thanks.

You ROCK. MR!!!

#17 so...so true.
i understand...although i don't know any myself...that there are actually people who do not read books or own books! really!!

Oh Rain how wonderful that you read to your mother. She is very lucky to have you do that for her.

I do love this place because I can so related to so many of the posts above!!

I love the one w/ free shipping at Amazon so you have to buy that 2nd book to get the free shipping--it just doesn't pay to buy one and pay for shipping :)

39, 40, 41, 42, 45: Thanks so much guys. I'm sitting here blushing!

I made it out of B&N today with two books, under 12$ !! yay me!

Nice, mckait! What did you get?

Saving Fish from Drowning: A Novel by Amy Tan

and

The Lady in Blue: A Novel by Javier Sierra

I put back The Grays by Whitley Strieber

I've been wanting to read Saving Fish from Drowning. I really enjoyed The Joy Luck Club but haven't read anything by Tan in awhile. The Bonesetter's Daughter has been on my wish list for ages, since I share my first name with the main character.

I will be putting it up on mooch soon..do you mooch?
if not I will just send it to you if you put a message on my profile....
it will probably bee about two weeks though.

You have great timing, last night I was sorting through my shelves and found a couple of books I wanted to part with, I just signed up with Bookmooch this morning!

cool!

still post on my profile though.. they have a thing where I can reserve it for you...I don't want to forget who what book...
add mooch to your also on or something so I can find you to reserve it..

:)

you will be so sorry! Mooch is as much a devil as LibraryThing...

but in a good way

I resisted its pull for so long, but alas, I could not resist the lure of BookMooch. It was really only a matter of time! Heading over to leave a comment on your profile now. Thanks!

I think I'm scared of BookMooch...

Me too...

you should be...

I really don't want to get sucked in, because I have no job, no income, so I just lurk there all the time wishing I could, thinking one day, I will join and get many books, but not now...

But oh, so many books, a whole new world of books for me to get many books.

NO, NO, NO!!!!!!

Yeah, BOOKMOOCH... much scarier than a bookstore. I'd have to make the effort to go to the bookstore. I can mooch away from the comfort of my bedroom in my pjs. I was so excited earlier this week, because for the first time since I joined BM, I had over 10 points! (still got 7.3 right now, so I'm doing good. Of Course, that's just because my wishlist has gotten down to the rarely posted and quickly mooched, so I'm sure it has nothing to do with self-control.)

i have one whole shelf.....stacked two deep...full of books to be read. i largely blame LT. someone recommends a book..i go to amazon to read about it...i am compelled to buy it...it is beyond my control. it's not my fault!!
so no bookstores...no amazon until i get that pile under control!

well, maybe one or two if something looks really good. after all. books don't so bad.