It's always difficult to have a book plan and follow through, but since late January I've been keeping to my plan: I've not bought any books.(1A)
Every week without fail I receive a book coupon through e-mail from Borders. (2A) I click the link to see the coupon and stare at it a bit. (2B) I then close it and get rid of the e-mail. (2C) Sometimes I give a friend the link so someone will be using the coupon, and it makes it a little easier for me to not use it. At the same time a guilt comes with that knowing it's like making this someone else's problem, and I decide to not link the coupon knowing their book spending habits are sometimes worse than mine had been. (2D)
Sometimes I get coupons from Barnes & Nobles and think, If I don't use this coupon, they won't send me anymore, so I have to use it. It's more difficult to get rid of these ones, and I click the link, read the two week away use-by date, and print it. Ugh. I usually misplace the coupon somewhere on my other desk after this, and since I hardly look there, I'm likely to forget it. Other times it stays in my mind saying use me! and I silently scream No, you can't make me! Sometimes I link these coupons to a friend, too. (3A)
I haven't been counting the cost of sending books out from BookMooch to others though I get books in exchange for it. It's very little to pay, people don't mooch from me much, and it's not that often that a book from my wishlist turns up in the system. (4A) I have limited my mooching from others to only from my country in order to save points, however. (I will always send out of country mooches - the extra points pays for the extra cost of first class air mail, in my opinion. (4B))
I walk through Target all the time. Sometimes I'm too early to work and browse there to waste time. I head to the stationary and office supply section, I go to the purse section, ... I (5A) go to the book section. I rush past the YA books (5B) then quickly walk down another book aisle (5C) before fleeing from the book section.
Sometimes I get bored or feel like something's missing and then I take a moment to think Oh yeah, it used to be normal for me to go in bookstores all the time. I think I should go to one so I can feel more restful and happy. Then I remember: my plan doesn't allow for books - I wouldn't get to buy any. (6A)
From the start I thought it would be an impossible book plan and thought I should reward myself every month. I have been good and if I keep being good I should still get to read, right? So I thought, What if I buy just one book a month? Well, I knew there would be the problem of what if I bought a book, and then gave in and ruined my plan with another! I decided this wouldn't do. I considered getting one book after each month that I stick to the plan. As I thought about it, I thought the price of one book if a hardcover is more steep than what I wanted to consider, but one measley used book? I changed my mind to $10 at a used bookstore after every month of non-book spending. (7A)
February is up, and I haven't gone to a bookstore yet. Turns out, my wallet can't afford it. Oh, well. In the meantime, I am continuing to not buy any books. (8A)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1A. I warn you if you read any further and are not a devoted book person, you're likely to think I am either crazy or that this is incredibly funny. Read on or no.
2A. Do the others matter? I think not!
2B. Which really means I keep it on the screen for up to two-in-a-half hours while using another tab. Every so often I open the tab with the coupon briefly, then go back to my other open tab.
2C. When I saw get rid of it, I mean put it in a file in my e-mail account. I put the coupon safely away in it's file before exiting the coupon tab. Who would ever delete a book coupon when it's still good? Keep this in mind because the term 'get rid of it' (re: book coupon) will come up again.
2D. January was bad. Bad, bad.
3A. I'm so sorry!
4A. The thought of even considering not getting books from BookMooch was too much to bear. I couldn't - no, I wouldn't not use it.
4B. This is bad. I should not send them out of country right now, right? But only three people have mooched from out of my country. / I would love the points! / Who'd mooch from me if I listed 'only to my country'? That's just mean. (No, I didn't mean that! I just feel more friendly by accepting mooches no matter where the moocher is from.)
5A. Darn it!
5B. Stop and glance at every book carefully checking for any I want, then rush away as quickly as possible.
5C. Though slow enough that I can see which books they have that I want ... and a week or two ago nearly fell because I picked up some books, read their backcovers, look at their prices, held them and debated, and almost fell by nearly getting a book or two by Phillipa Gregory.
6A. I'm not even going to begin thinking that I could just go and not get any. Who would stand a chance of not buying any books then? I would be setting myself up.
7A. Has this begun to sound defeating of the purpse to you yet?
8A. My BookMooch points have gotten awfully low - only one point left! ... I really, really want to read - urgh, *makes self not type any longer*.
4 years ago
0 comments:
Post a Comment