I Have a Problem: Book IV

I am stress buying.
Most people have some sort of persistent nervous behavior, a tell that gives them away when life becomes poker and the stakes are set strenuously high. There are stress eaters, exercise-a-holics, and within many of us lurks a closet shopaholic that emerges, debit card held high and legs churning to the closest depot for our consumption of choice. I am the last sort, if that has not yet been made clear. And as there are enough decisions on my shoulders to crush Atlas, at the moment, I spent all sorts of money that I don't really have on books yesterday. It was modest, as book hauls go, but it was significant for me.

The lad and I speak often about the rush of daily life- how the modern world does not lend itself to the sort of contemplation of one's surroundings that enrich a life. When I spotted this "country diary" and looked through its beautiful pictures and scripted entries, I knew that here was a woman who would have understood our distress.

I have this Great Gatsby joke that I tell strangers. In my defense, I always ask if they've read the book before I regale them with my recycled hilarity. About one awkward minute later we find that they don't really remember enough from that one high-school perusal fifteen years ago to decipher just why my joke was funny. This is always very sad and yet I am no closer to giving up on the joke as an effective ice breaker. Someday, the gathered crowd will howl in paroxysms of mirth and I will know at that moment that I have found my people.

I work with perfumes nearly every day and have really grown to love the intricacies of their compositions, as well as the cloudy history around each group of scents.This is an altogether different approach from what romantic write-ups I have read, almost always as part of a publicity file, and I'm looking forward to it.

To be honest, it was the title that attracted to me this.
Sometimes I struggle to do this.
Who doesn't?

148, 149, 150, 151

Okay. NEW RULE.

Before I can purchase any single new book that qualifies (AKA Books I Own But Have Not Read), I must read TWO from the existing list.

I Have a Problem

It's only fair to update when the list grows, as well as shrinks, so here are the facts. Yesterday I visited two different book shops and through an astounding demonstration of my unparalleled self control only purchased as many books. They were books 144 and 145 on the list. That's right. I have reviewed (and nixed) two books from the list and yesterday I added two more.

This project is never going to end.

I heard so much about this one from the Book Riot podcast that I couldn't resist taking it home.

If someone ever comes up to me and challenges my Lord of the Rings fan cred based on this book then I will fail. I actually waited to get the copy that was in my town library growing up because there's something so perfect about the big ol' font and sketch that has stuck with me, long after I tried and failed to absorb this masterpiece back in the day. Call me sentimental, because um- I am.

I also purchased A Separate Peace because come on- it's inspired by Phillips Exeter Academy and that is close enough to my home turf to inspire some misplaced pride!