Bibliophiles Anonymous Unite!

I've mentioned my quest for the complete series of the original 56 Nancy Drew novels -- only the editions published circa 1978 - 1985, which is roughly when I was reading them as a girl. I have not yet mentioned one of my biggest hording secrets though. I own a lot of books I have yet to read. Some were gifts, some I bought and some were trades or loans. I can't stop collecting books. If I stay out of BookPeople, then I'm buying them on Amazon. If I ban myself from Amazon and BookPeople, then I'll buy more books at the airport, at Target or from the shelf by the cash registers at HEB grocery store. Call it an addiction, an affliction or a compulsion. Whatever you label it, it amounts to a lot of books and not enough time to read them.

Last book I finished: Cocktails for Three by Madeiline Wickham

Books I'm currently reading: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, The Velveteen Principles for Women by Toni Raiten-D'Antonio & In the Tenth House by Laura Dietz
Yes, I'm reading three books at once. I should be studying my script for two shows next week, and looking over material for an audition the following week, but I keep rationalizing to myself that I work best under pressure.

Books on the shelf waiting to have their spines cracked like so many bad backs in the chiropractor's waiting room:
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Dry by Augusten Buroughs
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein
The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey
Until I Find You by John Irving
Malachy McCourt's History of Ireland
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
The Writer's Legal Guide by Tad Crawford
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Wacky Chicks by Simon Doonan
The Mercy of Thin Air by Robyn Domingue
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
Marley & Me by John Grogan
Four Blondes by Candace Bushnell
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Scottish Girls About Town by lots of Scottish authors
Finbar's Hotel Devised and Edited by Dermot Bolger
Ladie's Night at Finbar's Hotel Devised and Edited by Dermot Bolger
Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Weekend by Helen Zahavi
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madeline is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Cat's Pajamas by Ray Bradbury
The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman
The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Italian the Easy Way by Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.
and LOTS of cookbooks, too many to list.

On my nightstand are the following periodicals:
Texas Monthly - several months' worth
Glamour Magazine, December
Rare Magazine, December
Austin Monthly Home, Winter 2007
Real Simple, December
Austin Chronicle for this week
Wired Magazine - many months' worth
Gourmet, December

I have got to stop amassing books and magazines. Help! If you see me lingering near any purveyor of books, grab my elbow and pull me away. Like so many sailors seduced by the sirens' songs, bookstores have an entrancing, magnetic pull on me.