The Library and Me (and What I'm Reading these days)

Well, we are finally past the inspection stage and moving forward to closing.  All we have now is the appraisal!  In other news, my four year old glasses (for which I have no backups) broke, and tonight my brother is going to try and solder the frames.  The prescription is to old to refill and the frames are out of date, so I shall be "partially put together" until my new eye exam and glasses. I'm looking at ordering glasses online-something I shall share as the time progresses.

I am a book addict.  I read a frightening amount of books, at a fast clip. I have been known to begin a book in the afternoon, and with the exception of dinner and a few other things, read through until three in the morning.  While I read a variety of genres, most of my fiction reading is current fiction and police procedurals.  I also watch a fair amount of television series and movies, usually trying to grab them soon after they become available.

For years, I managed to get those books and films almost as soon as they came out-because I ordered them online through Amazon.  Rather than being a spendthrift, it was a requirement.  For seven years I lived in a non-English speaking country-with a minute English speaking library and am equally tiny bookstore. While there were in fact English speaking theaters, English books were a different story-and for four of those seven years, we had no English television (then we had British Satellite).   Amazon became part of our budget, with a large box arriving at least twice a month. Some of those books we kept, some we sold back to Amazon, and some we donated to said library-so that others would not suffer so much.  Our Amazon budget was a need in the truest sense in that time and place.

Of course, once I returned to the States, and the land of libraries and bookstores (both big box and used) it became another story.  Once I had access to really good libraries, I just could not justify my Amazon fix any more, much as I would have liked to. I had a good library system, where they got all the new books and movies.  There was only one thing-when I went to reserve a movie or book, there would often be a couple or a few hundred reserves already. Patience when it comes to purchasing books is not my strong suit, and on occasion I would walk by a bookstore, and my plans to wait went by the wayside. I would get frustrated, shop anyway, and finish the darned book three days later!

One day I was on Amazon for another reason (these days you can get anything in the world on Amazon and often at a lower price) when I had what my mother would have called "a moment".  Every time I went onto Amazon, they wanted to give me recommendations based on previous purchases.  Then, I really hit the nail on the head when I realized that they have a section called "popular pre-orders" organized by book type.  With a few clicks, I could see which mysteries were going to be released in November, and reserve them in July.  I could also look far ahead and see when the next Game of Thrones season would be available. Almost every library system allows one to reserve a book as soon as it has been ordered.  Once I started this system I was generally in the top twenty when it came to reserving.  The end result is that I have gotten most books and current shows within a month or so of their release date and often sooner.  

This has of course made me much happier (and much less spendier). I still occasionally actually pay for books on my kindle, and I occasionally buy books related to spirituality, current events , business, food and my hobbies. Usually but not always they are checked out of the library first, and they are often purchased through used sources-I've been known to adjust a pattern or recipe and note that in the book itself, so I appreciate that others may have done the same.

Fortunately, along with my waiting list, I've found a couple new authors.  Since I am starting at the beginning of this series the books are all available-for now.  In addition to those books, I'm waiting patiently for Bad Monkey, Stranded, Night Moves and a few others. I'm also waiting for the book Southern Living: Little Jars, Big Flavors (which I'll probably buy afterwards), and a new drawing book.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that there seem to be three or four times a year when most new fiction is released?  It seems that ninety percent of the "new" mysteries will appear in the month of September alone. Or is it just me?