Throughout my life I've had 3 main passions: loved ones (both human and animal), my work, and books. Since my early days, I've always been able to identify a time in my life by relating it to the book which I'd been reading at the time. Words have always been able to cast a special magic on me, transporting me to other continents, and ages, giving me insight on lives that resembled, or not, my own.
I was never to be found without an open book by my bedside, balanced on the edge of the bath, only resulting in the obvious once (or maybe twice) or tucked into my handbag bag, because you never know when you may have 10 minutes to kill!
So it was no surprise that I'd assembled a pretty packed library in our French home, and I knew them all: like old friends...
Now, if you've been reading from episode 1, you may remember that we significantly “lightened the load” in terms of possessions before closing up our main French home, and having had the nasty experience of unpacking mould-ridden books after a similar (European) move, I decided I'd rather distribute my well read collection of “escapism” to new readers. Hence me finding myself, for the first time in my life “book-less”.
My husband has accepted, and even embraced, my “book fetish” with remarkable patience over the years, so hoping, no doubt, to head off a crisis before it appeared, had found a great “stack it high, sell it cheap” bookstore. Well, it was like being let loose in a sweet shop: all these books, in ENGLISH! After 16 years in France, I was used to paying something resembling a ransom demand for the privilege of buying books written in my mother tongue.
So, once we'd struggled back to the car (luckily we'd parked close by, 'cos boy, those books were heavy) and “said husband” had installed me, a latte and a box of chocolates onto the couch (see how well my husband knows me) I lost myself in getting to know these new friends.
The only thing I'd sort of forgotten was that I read at the same pace I live my life...and that's not slow!
So before I knew it, I'd read, and re-read my first purchases and I was en-route to the bookstore: again.
This was when I realized that unless I was willing to dedicated a large part of our monthly budget to literary works, I was going to have to find another solution, and soon. Now they do say that you come up with the best solutions when your budget is restricted: and this is so true! I remind myself regularly not to let a luxurious budget limit “clever” solutions, so when hubby came up with the idea of registering with the local library, I knew my days of literary "feast and famine" were numbered. (OK, so I'm pretty darned good at finding clever solutions for everyone else, but I kind of run out of steam when it comes to my own problems: But that's what good husbands are for no?)
So, I am now an official, and regular member of our local library, and the sweet shop analogy continues: only now it's with no guilt, lots of pleasure and limitless escapism. Thank you the authors of the world, thank you wonderful husband, and thank you local libraries!
ps. my books are regularly returned past their due date, because no matter how fast I read, time to relax seems to shrink at relative speed ! but the knowledge that I always have a book close by, to turn the pages of, makes the “overdue” fine well worth it.
It's official: I love books!
pps. Helen Malkin, our Press and Customer Relations Director, is joint-authress of the leading books on Montreal and Toronto Architecture. Check them out, they make great reading.
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