The Downside of Book Addiction

I'm in the middle of a pretty big conflict of interest with myself.  (If that's even the appropriate phrase?)  I'm getting very tired of waiting for available books at the Portland library.  I'm tired of the Waterboro library having such a poor selection of books.  When I want to read a book, I want to read it NOW, not when someone else has finally returned it, and Don finally has time to make it to the library.  This is just getting obnoxious.  I've had this whole perfectly good rainy weekend to read, and not a single book for me to read.  (Yes, I KNOW I have a house full of books, but there are only so many times you can read some of them...)  My point is, I want to OWN books.  And this is where I find my dilemma, because I don't have money to be spending on books.  It used to be ok when I could scoot over to Borders on my way home from work and pick up something with a 30% or 40% off coupon, but now, Borders is gone, leaving me with only my local bookstores. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of supporting local businesses, and I LOVE bookstores, but the bottom line is, I just can't afford to pay cover price for the amount of books I consume.  It's just not a financial possibility for me right now.  When they released the new George RR Martin book this summer I bought it at my local bookstore because a trip to Portland was out of the question, and I paid $35 for the book.  $35!!!!!  Borders was selling it for about $10 less.  I just don't have that kind of money to be spending on books, especially since I had that book finished in about 3 days.  I need another solution.

Which is where the new Kindle comes in.....

I have sworn that I did not want one, that I'd much rather own and collect beautiful books, and that is still completely true.  But, I've discovered that there are e-libraries where you can download books for free, making a trip to the library obsolete.  Also, many books are offered at a substantial discount to purchase the e-book version, and there's no shipping...it's also instant.  So now I'm torn.  I LOVE books, I love looking at them, I love holding them, I love collecting them, and I love sharing them with people.  But, to keep reading at the pace I'm currently going, I'm either going to go out of my mind with frustration and boredom waiting for the library, or I'm going to go broke buying them at bookstores.  And now you see my dilemma.

Today I'm heading to the local bookstore to scour their used book section in hopes something interesting pops up.  When the library lets me know the book I have on reserve is ready, I'll read that one.  And I think perhaps I'll start setting some money aside to breakdown and buy myself a technologically advanced e-reader and hope that I won't be contributing to the demise of the hardcover/paperback book.  I really do love books, you know.