Book Pile

This is a my bedside book-pile.

I received all of these books as Christmas gifts. Mostly from my family, and a few from close friends.

They feed my book habit, and waver on whether this is a good thing or not. But they still buy me books.

And knowing where to get cheap - or in some cases free - books, means that their book-budget stretches further. £7.99 might buy you one shiny new paperback in a high street store, but it will purchase at least 16 books of varying age and condition when used in charity shops, at school fetes, and second-hand book sales.

Know someone who works in Events, and occasionally hobnobs with well-known authors? Free books! (And in some cases - free signed books!).

Know someone who manages a second-hand bookstore and will rescue something precious but unsaleable from the recycling bin? Free books!

Set up a bookswap on an empty windowsill in your house and tell all your friends to donate and take as they please? Free books!

Oh my but there are so many ways of feeding a book habit for virtually no money at all.

This is one of the reasons that I have so many books. I just can't resist the damn things.

I've even turned over a whole room in my house to them. The Library - if you're the right kind of person - is a source of wonder and inspiration, somewhere to breathe in the scent of mellowed paper, and listen for the whisper of printed words. At night the books talk to one another.

But right now it's kind of a mess.

So this pile of books can live beside my bed, and I will work my way through them with relish.

My hand hovers over the pile, darts back and forth, unsure of which delight to first pursue.

Something light to start with I think. I turn the pages and begin to read.