mutuat [lending]

So, I've managed to leave y'all hanging for a little while and my only reason is that the utter lack of structure that prevails during Christmas break is making it excessively difficult for me to do routine things.  This mostly comes down to writing.

So be grateful for this blog post, because it comes at the opportunity cost of updating my journal, which is terribly out-of-date, or reading a book, since I have so many to read.

Anyway.  I decided that maybe coming to the library would help me crack down on my life and get some things done.
The only drawback is that it involves coming to the library :)

As many of y'all know, I am a bit of a library aficionado.  Just a wee bit.

So why would going to the library be a bit of a problem?

Well, whenever I go, I try to bring a book or two with me to return, implying that I have finished reading those books.  Today I successfully returned three books.

The problem then comes with when I have to walk through the library in order to leave.

You know how grocery stores put the necessary items way in the back?  So you have to walk past all the seasonal items, candy, and bacon just to get your hands on some milk.  Then you have to walk back through all those items just to pay for it.  And then they wave candies and tabloids in your face while you're in line to check-out!  The nerve.

Well, libraries are also guilty of marketing their goods in such a way.  Although I don't suspect it's intentional.  It's just that bibliophiles are so terribly succumbing to it.

So, I walk into the library. I manage to make it straight to the computers without even picking up a book.
I know that I have heaps of books at home, waiting to be read.
I know that I don't even have time enough to read all of them before they're all due.
I know that I only have about a week left in town before moving back to university, so borrowing a book here would be futile anyway.
I know that there are books in my possession that I actually OWN and I still have not read, mostly due to library books intervening.
I know that I do not need to check out any any any more books here.  None of them.  I have enough,

Regardless of all that....I still manage to leave the library with a pile of books under my arm.
A heap.
A literary mountain of joy.

And I regret nothing.

The only alarming thing about this is the model of growth for the number of books that I have checked out from the library.  In a "two steps forward, one step back" fashion, I regularly participate in "two books returned, three checked out" as a policy for library lending.  Thank heavens for renewals.