…Just a little bit.  Sometimes I don’t know when to stop.  It’s a particular character flaw of mine: I get carried away in libraries.  I don’t think there’s a cure.  It happens in tea shops too, but usually not to this extent.  (That involves spending money, which tempers me a little bit.  Darn free public library.)  The seeds for this particular binge were sown a few weeks ago.  I had two books on the Holds shelf at the library, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time.  On the one hand, I’m excited to read the books I get from the Holds shelf.  That’s why I put them on hold.  But I can’t just go in there and get a couple of books and then leave.  I have to make a loop through the stacks.  So I did.  Mistake 1.  Then, while I was wandering the stacks, I whipped out my Blackberry and checked my Goodreads app to see if there was anything calling my name from my to-read list.  Why yes, there was.  Mistake 2.  45 minutes later, I was struggling through the back door of the house, juggling a stack of five books – including two chunksters – while hubby stared at me in abject horror.

“What…” he gaped, “did you DO?”  He gently took the books out of my arms, steered me to the couch, and sat me down.  “I’m going to make you some tea,” he said.  “You’ve got a lot of reading to do.  Which book do you want first?”

Love that guy.

But that was weeks ago.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, I really thought I had hit rock bottom with this little book-borrowing problem of mine.  I knew I wouldn’t finish all of the books before I had to return them.  I had to prioritize – read the new releases first and make my peace with the fact that I would have to… gasp… renew a book.  And I did.  East of Eden has been sitting on my kitchen counter for three weeks now.

Fast-forward to this weekend.  Saturday, January 7, 2012.  The books were due back, and I had more books waiting on the holds shelf – five more, to be exact.  And even though I knew I should return East of Eden, I renewed it online, then loaded the rest of the books into my Strand bookbag and headed for the  mothership  library.

I won’t take anything out except what’s on the Holds shelf, I promised myself.  Counting East of Eden, that’s still six books.  That’s a lot.  So just the books on hold.  But it can’t hurt to take a little spin through the mystery section.  I just want to see if Maisie Dobbs is there.  For another time.  Another, less busy time when I don’t have books on the Holds shelf.  Really.

Do I need to tell you that Maisie Dobbs came home with me too?  Plus everything I had on hold?  I didn’t need to tell you that.  I know I didn’t.

Now every time I walk through my kitchen, there they are – staring at me.  Read me, they beg.  You addict, you.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear
The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown
The Coffins of Little Hope, by Timothy Schaffert
We, the Drowned, by Carston Jensen
The Dean’s December, by Saul Bellow
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

Due back January 28, 2012.  Game ON.