Fill your house with lots of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. ~Dr. Seuss
Our bookshelves are full, both at the cabin and at home. Books are also now stacked on the windowsill in my bedroom and stuffed into the closet. I think there is a box or two in the basement, tucked in somewhere behind the stairs. My friends, perhaps recognizing a sucker when they see one, often give me their used books, and I never turn them down. I used to wonder why my house seemed so cluttered in comparison to theirs. I should have noticed that their homes didn’t have a pile of books leaning precariously on the coffee table and on top of the mantle. I can’t blame HIM for this one. Although he saves every tee-shirt that he has owned since 1973, he prefers newspapers and TV to books. What put me over the edge? The hospital volunteers’ book sale. They enabled my addiction by having a “fill a bag for a buck” on the last day of their sale. I fell for their clever ploy of making sure someone else had to store the leftover books until next summer’s sale. I bought three. Three bags, not three books. As much and perhaps more than I love a good book, I love a good bargain. A few years ago, I purchased an electronic book, thinking this would be a way to store a lot of books for not a lot of room. I love my e-reader, and have about 500 books downloaded. It is truly like having a library at my fingertips, but the popularity of e-readers only decreased the garage sale price of regular books, which starts the good bargain/hoarding cycle all over again. It also creates another problem: What to read. Mystery? Romance? Gardening? Do I want to learn how to raise goats? I find myself perusing the titles, trying to make a decision until I almost drive myself crazy. Many of you would argue that I reached that destination some time ago. At least I am fulfilling a childhood dream. I really do live in a Dr. Seuss book, right up to my nooks and almost to my crannies.
So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads. ~Dr.Seuss
The Minnesota Farm Woman 
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