Confessions of an eBook Junkie

Shhhhh.

Don’t tell my husband, but I just bought another four ebooks from an undisclosed online site. That’s another $26 and change on the AMEX.

Good thing he doesn’t pay the bills.

I’m bad, so very bad. Not only do I shamelessly clean out used book stores and have piles and piles of paperbacks all around the house (overflowing my brand new bookcases, stacked on my bedside table, the floor, the windowsill and the two small tables beside my chair in the living room) but I’ve been adding to my electronic files. One hundred and fifty-one books and counting. I know people who have many, many more than that. I tried to limit myself. I really did. Now it’s getting out of control. I’ve even read several of those ebooks more than once in an effort to slow down my spending. It isn’t helping.

How do I justify these expenditures? Multitasking. Yup. I knit or crochet while reading ebooks on the laptop. Right now I’m trying to finish up a baby blanket planned as a gift for friends who provide a place to crash when I drive north to do some research. Reading on the computer keeps me from going brain numb from watching the kid play video games. Or watching DH’s choice of TV (usually Cops or the Military Channel).

They’re like Lay’s Potato Chips. Just one won’t do. I’m addicted. I can’t stop. I want more of that good old escapism. I want it so much I resent intrusions. Father’s Day I didn’t want to take time away from reading to go visiting. I didn’t want to fix dinner. How horrible is that? I especially didn’t want to clean house before my friend from college flies up from the Lower 48 to accompany me north on my research trip to Circle, Alaska. Hey, she gets in at 11pm and we’re on the road first thing in the morning. She’s staying at my mom’s house down the road ‘cuz I don’t really have a guest room. Who needs to clean out the office when Mom has a spare room? Just saved myself two days of cleaning. Pretty smart, eh?

But I’m already feeling the withdrawal kicking in. I won’t have time to read for the whole week that she’s here. We’ll spend most of those days on the road. See Alaska in a week. Yeah, right. But I’m taking my laptop with me. Just in case… maybe I won’t be able to sleep. I wonder how long my laptop battery will last if I only read. Think I can sneak in a book? Make her drive so I can read? Nah. I don’t think so. Even my friend is more important that my obsessive desire to read.

What the heck, we’ll have plenty of hours to chat. I just bet she’ll give me a new story line. That’s it. I’ll make her write while I dictate and drive. It will be just as much fun as reading.

Morgan Q. O’Reilly
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