This Meeting Will Come To Order Please

Hi, my name is Carolyn and I'm a collectoholic.

Who knew it it could come to this?

Well, actually, I should have; I've displayed these tendencies for years.

Started with recipes. Yes, terrible cook that I am, I once collected recipes. Came from working with a bunch of women who loved to cook and did it well. I copied recipes from magazines (still do sometimes) that never got used; I bought those cookbooks that Church Ladies put out to raise money. I bought ingredients that were used once and later (much later) thrown out because they were way past any kind of date you'd like to name and I didn't want to take the chance of killing a family member.

I think this phase lasted until my boys got into sports and then who had time for cooking? It was time for Mickey D!

Then I learned to crochet. Oh dear. And oh my. And good lord! I bought BIG loose leaf notebooks to keep my patterns organized. I joined clubs that provided their own loose leaf books; one afghan club had to give me two extras. I had three notebooks full of doll patterns and heaps of 'extras' to trim vintage clothing.

Then I happened to notice cross stitch. Counted cross stitch. And I was off again. Lots and lots of patterns, but very little finished product.

Now I have a Kindle PC.

I am doomed.

If you looked at my bank account you'd see lots of $.99 and two and three dollar purchases, interspersed with larger purchases of - oh, $5.99 maybe. Lots and lots. And lots.

I said in another post that perhaps the agency model saved me from nickel and dime-ing myself to death. I'm here to tell you I'm accomplishing it just fine all by myself. Even finding many free books doesn't ease the sting. I bet if I added up all the books, recipes and patterns over the years, I could buy a nice, cheap car or something.

There is one redeeming quality to my obsessions. They have given me hours of enjoyment and yes, even pride. But my obsessions are one reason I don't drink or go to casinos. Ha!

Those of you who buy epub - do you find yourself buying more? Do you get high with the instant gratification? Do you go hunting for more? Something - anything - to download?

I shall have to haul myself up by the bootstraps, because it's getting ridiculous.

But before I do, there's that newest Julia Quinn book that looks and sounds sooo good ....



Hi Carolyn, my name is Lori and I collect things too.

I blame blogs for some of it. How often do you go to one of the romance blogs you enjoy and they're praising one book that 100 people love and you want to read it too so you go and buy it only to go back and there's another book they're talking about that sounds so good!

Add onto that Amazon has a Buy Now button and paperback swap beckons and I can't even mention real books on real shelves in most stores you go into.

And I suffer with Carolyn too who is always going on and on about books she's reading, books shes bought, books she's downloaded (everything but books she's written but we'll discuss that later...)

What bothers me about the book collecting is that I can see books on my shelves that I bought because of high praise but I don't have a lot of interest to read.

I refuse to discuss all my obsessions here because that's what God made psychiatry for. However, because you are all my best and most trusted friends I will admit that my home improvement obsession is currently emptying my bank account and I do have about 4 notebooks filled with recipes currently...