And I break

As of April 24th I had only bought 17 books in 2005, just under a book a week. I held out for the next month then broke down and went to Borders and got both Diary and Glass, Irony and God.

Then came today when I finally used my gift certificate to Bookmaster... getting another 8 queue books... meaning my average is now a book every five and a half days.

My average time for reading a book is just under 13 days - I've read 11.5 - so it's actually worse than purchasing two books for every one read.

The problem is that as of April 24th I was doing alright; I could even attribute the slight inbalance (17 books bought to 10 books read) mostly to having just picked up a four book series by Durrell. I then ran right through the Egan and the seeds of slackening off were sown. Thus I read Dawkins, Lowell, Sexton and the Brothers Grimm (that's just a link, not what I read) before getting back to the queue. Thus my appetites for purchasing new books were heightened.

And here comes a three day weekend where I find time to go to one of my favorite used bookstores (the two I might like better are much further away) which I had managed to avoid for near six months... and the result is an outburst like this. [Note: for the former I have not yet been to their new Phoenix Metropolitan Area location. I forget where it is but it is still further than either Bookmaster. When I think of Bookmans, however, I think of the University area one in Tucson, just as when I think of Bookmaster I think of the North Scottsdale location rather than their original South Scottsdale location (which is further from me.)]

See further details in the entry on My Queue.

I did, however, also buy two non-queue books; Modern Cosmology & Philosophy edited by John Leslie (cause it sounded interesting) and The Complete Poems and Translations of Christopher Marlowe which includes Hero and Leander, his two short poems and some translations of Ovid and Lucan, plus non-Marlowe works but related poetical works like Chapman's completion of H&L and various poems related to The Passionate Shepherd... almost all of which I've previously read online. I shall leave you with my favorite bit from H&L, beautifully wrought even if a bit silly:

It lies not in our power to love, or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win.
And one especially do we affect,
Of two gold ingots like in each respect.
The reason no man knows: let it suffice,
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight,
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?