Jimmie got me a book

Jimmie's on the right

So, my dear friend Jimmie

gave me a book...an honest to goodness, paper, have- to - turn - the - page book for my birthday.

Now, several years ago, I gifted myself a Kindle.  Even then, I said, "I still love real books, I will never give up real books."  And I meant it.  But...somehow...

Well, it was gradual.

It started with just the novelty of the thing: "I can carry THOUSANDS of books in this everywhere I go!" and then it became just so easy to buy them and load them directly to the thing.  I was still a frequenter of the library, though, because I really do love books.  But, then my local library became a de facto homeless shelter for rude, smelly men who took up all the spaces on the bike rack, aggressively panhandled, parked themselves in all the cushy chairs by the magazines and generally camped out.

So...I stopped going to the library.

We have LOTS of books, however (the Rickster and I) and I have long made a habit of re-reading The Stand and have my own copy of the author's expanded edition that was my go-to.  But, then...they came out with that in a Kindle edition.

So, largely, I have kind of given up on real books over the last few years.  So, I was truly giddy when Jimmie sent me a book.  A really good book -- In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson.  I gobbled it up and would find myself randomly sniffing it.

So, then My Girls (Jimmie, Wonnie - using Jimmie's name for her. and Bacon--who had a different moniker previously, but who will henceforth be Bacon) and I started this little book club together and I got a little OCD about it (NO! I hear you saying, surely not!).  The book club started with a cool list of books to be read in the year in a number of different categories.  One category was a book from the library.  One was "The First Book You See in a Book Store".

Now, the Rickster has never stopped being a person who goes to book stores and the library and he'd told me that the library had been revamped and is now pleasantly free of homesteading urban outdoorsmen.  So, I went to the library.  I swan I almost think I heard a chorus of angels singing when I walked in.  I renewed my library card and got the next book on my personal "To Read" list.

I then went to the book store.  Now, there aren't many of those left  It seems more used/rare/antique places than a place that sells new books, but Books-A-Million is still kicking.  So I went there.  Quickly made note of the first book I saw and left before I could spend all my money.

Now?  This is how I will spend the next little while.