Part of this journey has been acquiring the books on the list. It’s almost as fun as reading them. Spending lazy afternoons in used bookstores, browsing time searching for decently priced (and reasonable shipping) online, and stuffing my kindle full of free ebooks of all of the classics. In about 2 months, I’ve doubled the collection I started with, and now own (or have been lent) about 30% of the list. It’s enough to keep me busy reading while I work out how to get the reaming 700 without breaking the bank. So, while I’m trying to quickly finish another book for a review, here’s a lovely story about my book finding antics…
On Easter weekend, I went to my hometown to spend time with my family, help with the annual transplanting of the pepper club’s seedlings, and hope that Southern Ohio wouldn’t try to have 4 seasons in one day. Two weekends prior, my mother and I had stood in the crowded aisle of the largest local thrift store with dog-eared print outs of the list, filling a cart with books. We’d spent about 90 minutes and $15 between us and got some 30 books for the list (plus a few extras). So, after we were done at the pepper club, she decided it was time that I renewed my library card, which had gone dormant since high school.
The Cincinnati Library system does not seem to care if you actually live in Cincinnati, or in Hamilton County for that matter. I’m not even sure you have to live in Ohio to join, but you have to at least go to one of their libraries to sign a paper and get the physical card. After that, you apparently get access to thousands upon thousands of ebooks and audio files. So, both my mother and I signed up. Her, to help with getting books for her work’s book club, and me to have something to listen to for the drive home (which is the next book I’ll review!)
The only issue I’ve had with the library idea is that there’s waitlists for many of the books, and I’d mostly only be using the digital services, as trying to lug books back and forth from Cincinnati could prove troublesome. But, if I put myself on the waitlists, I can work on the books I already have in between receiving books from the Cincinnati library.
In addition, my mother gave me an eBay gift card for Easter (among some other interesting gifts… like a yo-yo that I am still trying to operate). Normally, I would surf Amazon or AbeBooks or Half.com for my book needs. EBay sort of moved away from books several years ago, I thought. Surprise for me, they were having a used book sale with everything under $5 and free shipping. So, 7 books are currently in bound and I’m sure my bookshelves silently shed a tear.
Oh, and I’m currently working on actually making the list into an actual wish list on Amazon so it can alert me if any of the books go on sale. Because as much as I love my ragged grouping of used books, every so often, I like the feel of a new book.
Library of 1000 Books 