Unchaperoned

You know that determined feeling you have when you park outside the library, the one where you're telling yourself that you're only going in for one book? What's more, you even know which book you're looking for, and exactly where it is shelved so you'll be in and out so speedy, nothing will be tripping you up today. You know that feeling?

I hate that feeling.

Because I know it's a lie.

I tell myself this all the time, and even trick myself into believing it, but even so, my inner self - the one nestled deep down in my brain, happily munching on popcorn and just waiting to revel in the fall out - knows that it is a complete and utter false belief.

All this is my way of saying that I've given up on the pretense. Having added the sixth book to the pile in the crook of my arm, I have secured myself a table and am sitting here telling the world of my inability to control my book gathering tendencies before I delve into my nice little pile.

 

 

• Written Lives - Javier Marías
  
• The Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories - HG Wells
• A Reading Diary - Alberto Manguel
• Letters from a Nut - Ted L. Nancy
• Should We Burn Babar?: Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories - Herbert Kohl
• 80 Great Poems: From Chaucer to Now - Geoff Page