ONCE UPON A TIME...

There are many cleverly named bookstores and websites that use the word, 'bookaholic' or 'bookaholism' in their titles. I cannot say for sure that there is no Webster's Dictionary definition for either term. Nor do I know if it appears in any medical books or journals that I have seen (albeit I didn't look very hard or at all). To me, it's sort of a made-up word. One that you might find in an urban dictionary. In today's world, you throw 'aholic' behind any other concept, and it means to be addicted or obsessed with something. A bookaholic, in my estimation, is a lover of books or someone that is addicted to reading. Some of these individuals may attempt to read multiple books all at the same time. I believe that as long as there are libraries and these cleverly named bookstores, that this is a disease for which I hope there is no cure.

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I love to read, and I pretty much have a book of one kind or another in my hand at any given time. It is a habit that has been handed down to me by my mother. Mom loved to read and would read stories to me when I was a small child. That is quality time in which I encourage every parent to participate.

Learning the Dewey Decimal System - Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia.com

The first time I ever set foot in a library was in elementary school. Once a week, my class was brought into the school library. We learned the fundamentals of library etiquette, as well as how to use the Dewey Decimal System to look up a book. Once we mastered these skills, we were allowed to check out one or two books every two weeks. The first book I checked out was 'Little House in the Big Woods.' It was the first book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series. I brought the book home, and while it wasn't exactly to my liking, my mother got a hold of it, read it, and loved it. For the next several weeks, I would continue to check out two books...one of the Little House books for mom and another book for me.

As I got older, I cherished that memory of sharing books with my mother. My love for reading inherited from her grew out of that, and I am truly thankful. These days, I've added to my reading repertoire of works of fiction, to include books on history and biographies. I also love genealogy, so if I can combine my favorite type of books along with my passion for genealogical research, it's a win-win for me.

Recent events that are pandemic in nature have ground to a halt my ability to obtain books conventionally. Before the stay-at-home order currently in place as of this writing, I had been on a kick of reserving books from the public library. It's so much easier and cheaper to feed my reading addiction that way. The risky part of borrowing or reserving a book is that you only have three weeks to read it. If a library allows me to reserve as many books as I want at one time, they obviously must think I can get through them all in 3 weeks... right?

Since there were several books that I wanted to read, I reserved five of them. It would be no big deal if I were a speedy reader, and these books were less than 200 pages or were auto-renewable. Note to self...some are not. Also, if sitting down with a good book and a steaming hot cup of coffee were all I had to do all day, it would be no big deal. Hmm, if only that were true.

It's not difficult to reserve books. All you need is a library card and knowing what it is that you want to read. Nowadays, the public library makes it quite effortless. I never even left my sofa. All you need to do is select the book, reserve it and wait for it to become available. The library then sends you a notice to tell you that the book is in so that you can pick it up.

My problem began when only one of the books I reserved was available. My queue positions in line to receive the majority of the others were anywhere between 49 and 300. I believed that I had a good, solid month or two before the rest of the books would be ready. Foolishly, I thought it was safe to go ahead and reserve a few more. After all, one or two were bound to come in within the next week, and I would be able to get through them before the other books became available. I reserved an additional five books, bringing my total number on hold to ten. If I haven't said it before, let me repeat borrowing books or reserving them from the library is a good thing! Unless you reserve ten or more at one time, and eight of them come in all at once!! I knew I should have reserved audiobooks!!

The moral of my story is twofold. The love of reading is an intangible gift that can be handed down from parent to child through a simple gesture such as the reading of a bedtime story. It is a gift that will last a lifetime. Also, while taking advantage of this gift, try not to go overboard when reserving books at the library. One or two books at a time should suffice. The others will be there when you're ready to read them, and whatever you do, don't place too much stock in queuing positions!!

Hello, I am a bookaholic... 

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