I have a confession to make. I am an aspiring Bibliophile. The sad part of this is that I can only make it to 2/3 of my aspiration. Over the past few years I have grown extremely fond of collecting books. I absolutely love going into book stores and looking around. I think I could spend days inside of old bookstores as well as your nearest Borders. There is only one problem with my aspiration of becoming a bibliophile. By definition, a Bibliophile is one who meets three separate criteria. They are as follows:1. One who Admires books
2. One who loves to collect books
3. One who loves to read books.
You see, it is the last part of that list that is keeping me from accomplishing my dreams. I have tried MANY times to fulfill this last task. Unfortunately, it always ends exactly the same. It is not that I don't like the book that I read. Most of the time I am totally engulfed in each book that I read. But, for some reason, I walk away from it. I leave it sitting there never knowing how the book ends. I know some of you are reading this with disbelief. How can any sane person just stop reading a novel in the middle and never know how it ends? You are in good company if you are currently asking that question. I ask it all the time. The truth is that I don't have a good answer to my antics. Maybe it is the fact that I like to have things unfinished so that I feel like I still have something to do. It could be that I"m just lazy, or that I simply have ADHD. I think Beth would vote for the latter.
My guess is that everyone has something in their life that they leave undone. I'm pretty sure that at the root of this nonsense is the fact that we all have some sense of fear to finish certain things that are active in our lives. For me, that comes in the form of books. My guess is most people finish the books they start reading. I am positive that the majority of you don't continue to go to the book store and buy classics only to have a nice collection of great authors on your shelf that you have never read.
Beth must be the most patient and understanding girl in the world. The fact that she goes with me to bookstores KNOWING that 99% of the time I will never finish the book is pretty amazing. So, give me a few years. I will have all the greats. Just don't ask me for advice on which ones to read. That is unless you want to know about the first 100 pages.
