Adding to the to-read pile

I believe that if God let me live long enough to crochet all the skeins in my yarn stash and read all the books on my shelves, I shall live ‘til a very old age.  Beyond all logic, I have an - hmm, shall I say "obsession"? - for purchasing books and yarn (even books about yarn).

Today, I found myself with a spare 45 minutes in between shopping at the Girl Scout store and picking up my daughter from school.  As I wondered what to do with this found time, I realized I was passing Politics and Prose, a popular local bookstore that has been on my list of places to visit for years.  It was fate that I found a meter right out front in the middle of the rainy afternoon. 

I wandered through my favorite section - fiction - browsing the new authors and recommended books, then perusing the shelves.  I nodded as I passed titles on my "to read" pile – either physically at home or on my virtual stack of e-books.  Great House, Under Fishbone Clouds, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Please Look After Mom.  I flipped through The Postmistress, forgetting that I already had that at home, too.  I picked up a few new ones – The Night Circus, The Post-Birthday World and debated with myself whether I really needed some new books.  Is "wanted" the same thing?  Hmm.  I carried them around while I thought about it. 

Then - ooh! - a coffee & sandwich shop downstairs (I know, I’m so easily distracted.)  This place is exactly like the kind of bookstore I always wanted to own myself. 

While eyeing the menu board, I made a compromise.  Today, I’d get the grilled tuna melt on sunflower seeded bread and put the titles on my to-buy list.  I’ve got to keep the shelves full, just in case our lives are measured in the number of pages we read.