Over the last few weeks I purged the house of a few shelves worth of books. I donated some, sold some, transported a couple and even traded a few. I carefully reviewed the remaining paperbacks and decided I’d get rid of a bunch more after I reread them.
While I was looking through the shelves I couldn’t help but notice that most of the books focused on personal finance, health and/or cooking. My purchases of true pleasure books, like classic novels and bestsellers has really dwindled over the years.
I’m actually pretty bummed about that fact, because I love to read for pleasure. To be perfectly honest, I got a little depressed looking over all of the pain management and healthy living books piled up before me. What happened to those days when I’d ignore the rest of the world in favor of a great novel? Oh that’s right, that all took place before I had medical issues.
I was bummed that I couldn’t find a great beach read for my trip. You know the type, a lighthearted novel that can practically be read all in one sitting. Despite all of the books on my shelf I couldn’t find one single book worth bringing on vacation.
That is until yesterday when I passed the last chance $1 bin outside of Books-A-Million. I bought a couple of books for myself and two or three I think my mom might enjoy.
Isn’t it funny how one day I’m happy with my decluttering progress and the next day I’m back filling my house with clutter? I felt so uplifted last week as I carried boxes of books to the car and here I go this week buying new ones.
The good news is that these books only cost $1, so I won’t feel guilty when I get them wet with pool water or sticky with suntan lotion. (I only take personal books to the beach, never library books, because they inevitably end up battered by the sand and wind.) And technically I’m not filling my house with more clutter, since these books will remain at the beach for my renters to enjoy this summer.
I’m actually hoping that a few good beach reads will get me back into the old swing of things. I hope that this year’s list of great reads will include less and less pain management and health books and more and more books for pure pleasure.