Man's best friend

Not dogs.. While I love them more than some of the friendly people around, for now, I am talking about books. Mark Twain once said ' Good books, great friends and a sleepy conscience contribute towards a blissful life'. While I have a good stock of the second and third items in that list, I just do not seem to have enough of the former. The result - my home looks like that of a crazy cat woman.

There are books on the floor, under the cupboard, over them, near the bed, on the bed, under the pillow, near the TV (in case there is a power cut!), in my bag ( well .. I need to confess something, I have two of them in my bag and I am reading both the stories at the same time) .. well , you get the drift.

And here I am , sitting and contemplating, how did I get here?

First there was the need for a few to put me to sleep every night ( I am one of those creatures who cannot sleep with out a book in hand) , then came the desire to collect - other books by favorite author, classics, the must haves.

The next stage was the experimentation stage - read the books suggested(aping is also a possibility here) by the other book worms - biographies, psychology. And since every loony bin in the world is coming out with a book, this point covers a lot of ground.

Then there were those intermediary stages where I bought bags full of books while I took others to the book store, or the phase where every gift that I got was a book ( birthday, anniversary, farewell, get well soon, Happy 40th Happy 50th, err..somebody stop me).

And finally, the compulsive stage where I cannot stop myself from buying books.. I go out for a movie, I come back with 2 books, I go out for dinner, I spend 40 mins at the roadside bookwala's vehicle, I go to buy clothes and I end up in Blossoms. Who needs a new cardigan when I can read about Egypt eh?

Sigh.... The situation has reached a stage , that I carry books every time I visit my folks.. its an ideal place to store books. That would stop with immediate effect since mom has threatened to start charging me for using up space there.... So I think I do not need to spend too much time thinking of a resolution this year.

By the way, did I hear someone say the latest Mathew Reilley is out already??