Buying stock in purell...

When I moved to New York City, I became a bookworm. I was never that kid who would read for hours or would be found with a book in hand. But when I moved to NYC, I found the wonderful world of books. I couldn't stop reading. All I wanted to do was BUY BUY BUY! When I moved to my current apartment, my mom had the joy of buying me a bookshelf! I had that many books. I would never have thought to have been the one to own a bookshelf and use it for books. Because I now had this weakness, I was told by my friends to go to the library. Free books. Tons of them. But I saw it as a limitation. That I had to check out the book and then return it by a certain date. Well you can renew it they would say. I kept buying books despite the fact that I had gotten myself a library card. My friend Catherine (who I loving call Kiki) told me about this book called The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I think you will really like it! She says. Being that Kiki is a librarian, she tells me that there's a library across the street from where I work. Seriously!? Oh, this is exciting. I'm going to activate my library card and check out my first book! I go there, they don't have the book in stock. "We can put it on hold for you. You'll receive an email when it's ready." Well, being that I am a New Yorker, I wanted the book now. We are firm believers of instant gratification here in this city. So I go to Barnes and Noble. They don't have it. "The minute we get this book in, it just flies off the shelves." A few days go by, I see another B&N and I go in. They don't have it. Go back to the original Barnes and Noble to see if they've restocked. They still don't have it. I FINALLY get an email "You're book is ready to be picked up." WOOHOOO! The next time I am scheduled to work, I leave my house a little early so I can make a stop at the library. I get my book. I have this massive thing sitting in my hands and I can barely hold myself together. I'm just dying to tear into it. I sit it down on my desk when I get work and I examine this thing. Its a hardcover (Paperback comes out in Oct of 2006) so it's wrapped in plastic and my OCD kicks in and I suddenly feel dirty and want to wash my hands after every time I turn the page. If I want to become a hardcore bookworm, I have to get over this quickly. So I keep my purell close at hand. There's a little slip of paper that they've put inside when I checked it out that said "checked out on June 21st - due by July 12th". OH MY. I have 3 weeks to read a 642 page book? Now, this is not something I can't do. The matter of the fact is that my subconscious now has a deadline. The ENTIRE time I was reading this book, I kept thinking "Ok, page 234 - due by July 12th." "Ok, page 386 - due by July 12th" You get the idea... I WAS FREAKING OUT. "But you can renew the book if there are no holds on it." "Just check it out again and then you can finish it then." "Don't worry about it. If you don't finish it, you can borrow my copy." Ummm....HELLO!? Do you not know me? Do you not know about my OCD...Now that I have the deadline I HAVE TO FINISH IT. I can't return it unfinished. ARE YOU CRAZY!?!

OHMIGOD, it's July 11th and I still have over 200 pages left. See, this is why I didn't want to become that person who checked out books from the library. I don't like deadlines on things I'm supposed to enjoy! Oh and look at that, the original B&N I went to in search of the book with all intentions of buying it now had a plethora of copies. Bastards. BUT...I did it. I finished the book at 12.41am July 12th. Woohooo GOOOO ME! So I have returned The Historian and of course, while I was in there, I had to see if there was anything else I liked. There was. I have checked out another book. 4th of July by James Patterson. (DUE BACK AUG 2nd, oh dear another deadline.) I think I can, I think I can, I think I can... So I think I'm going to like this whole library idea. It might be something I can get used to.

OH! And The Historian is REALLY good....especially if you have a thing for Vampires! :)