I confess. I’m a bookaholic.
While some people have trouble with alcohol and other substances, my drug of choice is reading material! I love books, whether they are e books or “dead tree books” (traditional books), I love them all. The problem is, where to put them? I’ve always had tons of books, and always had storage issues. My ex husband tried to break me of my book-loving ways. He said it was him or the books. Hence the “ex” in his title!
My current husband doesn’t mind my bibiophilia. He knows that lots of books = Happy Kim. He likes Happy Kim. So he doesn’t mind the books.
Until one day, when the cheapie Walmart bookcase ($27.84!) decided to inadvertently collapse in what looked like a dynamited demolition project. You know the kind where they set up the dynamite to implode the building slowly in on itself? That kind.
I was getting the kids ready to go out somewhere and suddenly we heard this huge, slow, strange crash coming from the hallway. We watched in slow motion as the entire bookcase careened over and burst apart. The noise was amazing. Thankfully, no one was hurt and none of the glass picture frames we had on top of it were damaged. That’s how slowly it fell. It was kind of creepy.
My teenager and I raced to pick up anything that the little kids could get hurt on, since we usually would put those items way up on the highest shelves when we found someone running around with something they shouldn’t have. As you can see, the toddler was trying just as hard to find treasures as we were to get to them before he did!
Once we got it all picked up, I was kind of shocked to see how many books had been in there. I could blame the cheapie Walmart bookcase. I could blame Goodwill and Amazon for having so many awesome discount books. (I can’t tell you how many 1 cent + shipping books from Amazon are in this pile!)
But I’m thinking the real cause of the problem is me. I love books. That’s probably not going to change. I remembering reading about “The Great Library of Alexandria”. I cried when I got to the part about how it burned. Maybe I’ve been secretly building my own!
So what’s the frugal takeaway in all of this? If you’re going to enjoy tons of discounted books, you may need to invest in really strong bookshelves! Just sayin’!
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