#18: Book love

As evidenced in this post, saying that I love to read is a gross understatement.  What better place for me to spend a lazy Saturday than at McKay?

I only got about 1/4th of the front of the
building in this picture. This place is huge!

Shane and I knew of McKay because we had one in Knoxville, and were glad to know they'd opened up one here in Nashville. If you live in Nashville, Knoxville, or Chattanooga and you've never been to McKay, you definitely need to check it out. It is like a mega emporium of used (and a few new) books, DVDs, CDs, records, comic books, game systems...basically any sort of media you could want. 

1st floor is books, video games, electronics, DVDs, and VHS
2nd floor is records, CDs, and comics

While I do get a lot of ebooks on the Davidson County Library website, sometimes I just really want a physical book to touch and keep. McKay satisfies that compulsion really well and for a good price. They have pretty good bargains on older books or books they have more quantity of, and you can usually get new bestsellers for a bit off list price. Plus you get more instant gratification than buying off Amazon and you're helping a local business, score! 

The best part about McKay is that all their inventory comes from book lovers like you and me who bring in books and sell them to McKay for cash or store credit. You never know what you'll find but there are always treasures to be discovered. I especially like perusing the bargain fiction shelves for 25 or 50 cent paperbacks. You know that bestseller you wanted a few years ago? Chances are they have tons of them. 

We always hit up the free book bins out front where they put the books they can't sell. They normally have some really cool older looking books that while we might never read them, they do look pretty on our bookshelf :) 

Shane discovering the same calculus book
he used in high school in the free bin.

Me with our haul. Three of those are Shane's,
the rest are mine. Total spent: $29.

We ended up with a few books from the free bin, along with four paperback books for $3, a few books on deck building so Shane and I can fix our janky back yard, a few philosophical and world religion books for Shane, and a splurge $10 book for me on how to draw cartoon people, just because. 

I have a serious problem...

I'm hooked on phonics. This isn't a recent development, it's been a lifelong problem. While other kids were breaking their arm falling off a jungle gym or trading Pokemon cards, I was reading. We also didn't have cable tv or a computer until I was in the eighth grade, so what better activity for a kid who hates going outside and getting dirty? I'm a very voracious reader, meaning that I get completely sucked in and usually finish a book in two days or so, and that's going slow.  

My addiction was mostly under control until a few months ago. Sure, I read the whole Twilight series in a single weekend, and when I stood in line at midnight for the last Harry Potter book, I had the thing finished by sunrise. But books are expensive (who has $15-30 to drop on one book?) and I'm cheap. I know what you're going to say, why don't I just go to the library? Well that's another problem, because although the library is right across the street from our apartment complex, I'm also lazy, and that usually seems just too far away. 

December was really when I fell off the wagon. The first installment of The Hobbit movies was set to come out in theaters and I wanted to re-read the book. It had been since middle school and the details were fuzzy, plus who doesn't love sitting in the theater and critiquing every minor detail the director leaves out from the written counterpart?  The Hobbit was finished in a day or two, and then I started missing Middle Earth. The Lord of the Rings trilogy came next. Then it happened. I remembered that our library has an app where you can borrow eBooks for a couple of weeks at a time, up to ten books at a time! And they have a selection of several thousand books, readily available to be downloaded onto my iPad from the convenience of my own couch. The wonders of technology, right ?

December is a busy month with Christmas and visiting family and whatnot, so I only read seven books. I know I know, it sounds ridiculous, only seven, right? Well just look at January and you'll see why I said only. I managed to read eighteen books in thirty-one days. This is the point where I start looking for Books Anonymous meetings and memorizing the Serenity Prayer. 

I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. This list isn't even exhaustive as I didn't include books I started and didn't finish (like Life of Pi...I know everyone loves that book but I just didn't get it) or the several Paleo lifestlye/cookbooks I read. Since I was unemployed, I am ashamed to admit that I spent most of my days reading and would fill in a couple of applications or clean something here or there so Shane would think I'd been productive during the day. 

February brought employment, and thus less reading. My number has gone back down to that of a (somewhat) functional member of society. As of today, March 3rd, I still haven't finished the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, but considering that the four books together have almost four thousand pages, I think I'm doing okay. 

Don't you worry...me, my library card, and my shiny new-to-me Kindle still have a lot of work to do. I have four other ebooks currently checked out from the library (and due back by March 10th! I better get to reading) and a stack of paperbacks-in-waiting from the bargain book store. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't become a librarian, because that is some work I wouldn't mind bringing home with me. 

***I am posting reviews of all my books on my profile at goodreads, which I have somehow just discovered, and will likely post future book reviews here as well. I would love to get a book club together, virtual or real, if anyone is interested!***

Stuck in a rut

I need to get out of this "once a week, only on Wednesdays" rut. Get your minds out of the gutter...I'm talking about blogging. I have so many things that I think would make great (okay, somewhat decent) blogs, but then I forget all about them by the time Wednesday night rolls around. Take for example, two weekends ago...

 I found this really awesome place on the list of 30 free things to do in Baltimore. It's called "The Book Thing" and it is a completely free bookstore!

Yep, you read that right! All the books are absolutely free! The Book Thing was started by a group of teachers who needed more books for their classrooms but had limited budgets. Today it is driven solely by donations and volunteers, and let me tell you, this place was a lot bigger than I expected.

One tiny section of The Book Thing

Me with my new (to me) books. 

 They're mostly French books. Relearning French is one of my life goals (blog post coming soon! about the life goals, not the French. That might take a while)

Public Service Announcement: It is a wonderful idea to have a set of jumper cables in the trunk of your car.  I have used mine at least 15 times. If you don't have a set, then you have to wait around for a good Samaritan (like me and Shane) to help you jump start your car...

...unless you're just out of gas, which turned out to be this lady's real problem.

If you need another sort of help, more of a 'divine intervention,' then I guess you should check out this Hare Krishna festival down at the Inner Harbor. (We didn't actually go to this, because parking was $22. However, we did take lots of pictures while driving by.)

I'm pretty sure that Hare Krishnas are all vegetarians/vegans, so I imagine they must be serving up some pretty tasty roots or leaves or whatever vegans eat for the amount of people who were in line for the "free feast."

 I know virtually nothing about Hare Krishnas (a later Wikipedia search did nothing to help that either, that stuff is really confusing to read about), but I'm guessing reincarnation is part of it, considering that is what most all of the booths were.

One, which I so wish I had a picture of, was called "Your New Body: A Multimedia Experience." 

The more I look at that picture above, the more weird it feels to me. I don't know if it is because I have been staring at it for the past 10 minutes, but it sorta seems like they should have little booths in there to swap you out for a new body right on the spot. Anybody else get that feeling, or am I just going crazy?

Since we're on the theme of Hare Krishnas, whenever someone mentions them (which I'll admit is not often) this is what comes to mind for me...

That seems to be enough rambling for now. G'night!