Breaking Old Habits and Breaking In New Ones.

[Image from Freeimages.com]

Confession time [it's ok you don't need to run for the hills I am not about to air my dirty laundry in public!] I am a book addict. Always have been and always will be. Despite previous pledges to myself to curb my habit by not buying new books, I simply worked out effective ways to get round it- you can get your hands on a surprising number of books via the charity shops, jumble sales, freecycle and even friends kindly passing them over. This freestyle approach brings me into contact with all sorts of unexpected treasures along with the odd shocker or two which are rapidly abandoned. I have no patience with anything that doesn't engage me quickly or is badly written! Part of the joy of this is the sharing of my passion- books are quickly passed on for the next reader to enjoy [or not as the case may be] and for this reason alone I am not a Kindle devotee [having said that I can see the many advantages of owing one]. Until they manage to make the Kindle smell like a real book I'm sticking with the old technology.

Back in the day I studied English and American Studies. It was a degree with a huge amount of reading involved which took me along many avenues. Sadly one the lasting legacies for me though has been an absolute aversion to reading any type of book which might be termed a "classic". The problem has been that it has killed the reading for pleasure aspect for me as the overwhelming urge to pick up a pen and start marking up the text has become so ingrained. In reality the only book I have read since that period which would fall into this category is Jane Eyre and even that was many years ago. However, dear chum W has just passed her English MA and she passed over a couple of copies of duplicate texts she had. Initially when she asked me if I was interested my natural instinct was to decline, but I accepted her kind gift. The two books have been moved around my reading pile since the summer and you would be amazed at the level of resistance I put up to even actually starting them. This week though I have made a breakthrough and begun "Far From the Madding Crowd". Having spent forever studying Tess of the D'Urbervilles I swore that I would never read Hardy again. Even a chapter or so in I was still contemplating jumping ship but I have persisted and am now up to chapter eight. I am so thrilled that I have finally got into it and I am really enjoying it. Long may it continue- next up is Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde!

As for my book buying habit- why only this morning the marvel that is the second hand market place on Amazon provided me with my latest title- The Reader's Digest of Folklore, Myths and Legends. Yes siree- I have bought myself my Christmas present to me from Mr GBT. That way I haven't "really" bought it have I!!

Arilx