OVERBOOKED!!!!

Discovering and nurturing a passion for horror novels has been very definitive for my journey as a writer and a reader. Going to Grand Forks this year for Stoker Con was a literary high for me. It was a great experience being able to develop relationships with people who write the kinds of books that I like to read...which meant that I had plenty of opportunities to buy books to get them SIGNED.

However one thing that I don't talk about as often as I should is that the literary scene in the Twin Cities is a gem!  There always seems to be something going on that if the time and location work for my schedule and budget I could go to. And there are a lot of wonderful independent bookstores in the area as well! In fact, I felt the need to write myself a survival guide for this local holiday because of the amount of bookstore that are in the area!

 My favorite indie bookstore has to be Dreamhaven Books.  What I love about that store is that its specialty is science fiction, fantasy and horror. It has used items, new items and collection items. Earlier this month a bag sale where I was able to find buy a significant amount of books for only $17!

It was not too long after that when the local event Print Matters came up which translated into a perfect opportunity to talk with people about books. It is funny how talking with people about books often leads to physically buying books...

Every year when I go to Pride Festival I find myself heading to the Quatrefoil book sale because I think that it is important to read diversely...and I did it again this year.

And just yesterday my husband and I went to the Antiquarian Rare Book Fair...and while I found myself geeking out over books that were signed by people that I admire and will never get to meet that were out of my price range I found myself incredibly excited to find a biography by Placido Domingo that was autographed for only $5. (I am a big opera fan)

But while I love a good bargain my heart's true weakness is for when I am able to develop an actual connection with a writer. Earlier this week I went to a reading at Subtext where I got into a conversation with Heidi Czerwiec on Chanel perfume and could not resist buying her book Fluid States  and getting it signed. I read it quickly after I came home, loving reading an insightful imaginative insightful twist on perfume.

On Friday night I went to a poetry reading at the Loft Literary Center and heard Danez Smith. I found his poetry so dynamic as he was able to tie an important perspective on racial justice into compelling poetry. I purchased his book and went to get it signed. When I went to stand in line, I discovered that the friend that I attended this event with went to high school with him! This was another book that I would come home and gobble up quickly.

I will never get rid of either of these books!

But in the mist of constantly having opportunities to buy books I have started to feel like I may have overbooked myself. I also have advanced readers copies of books I made the commitment to review and I also still have my gig with Twin Cities Geek. I also ordered the July and August Nightworms boxes because they look amazing. But I really need to take a look at my amazon pre-orders more closely as I tend to automatically pre-order books that look intriguing to me on Twitter. While I have recently been pleasantly surprised by forgetting about these, I do find that it helps knowing what is coming when I plot my budget and my reading schedule.

I know that this is not the first time that I have felt overwhelmed by my book buying habits or told myself I need to slow down,  but this time it feels different. It is not a drive to stop buying books, but more of a drive to be intentional about the books that I buy.  There will be times, like at at an event like Stoker Con or a major bag sale that I know that I will be buying a lot of books...but I do not need to go to bookstore on every day I have off from work.

There are other things that are important to me too. I know that I mentioned on my last blog post that I started a new job...which has me sitting behind a computer for about 8 hours a day.  I really value my health and I can go crazy if I do not do anything active at all.  Exercise is just as important to me as reading!  I feel like the sense of commitment I feel to my reading life has taught me a lot about maintaining a similar commitment to physical activity. It is not a question of what you feel like doing as much as it is about making sure I enjoy what I know my body and soul need.

While I have taken a cautionary approach to exclusionary diets, this past year I have found that I am reverting to the kind of diet I had in my teens and twenties as I am finding that  vegetarian choices are agreeable to my body and to my values when I have the opportunity to embrace them. This does require me to do some serious meal planning to pull this off...which takes time. Fortunately I find cooking to be enjoyable and therapeutic and loved cooking my way through Thug Kitchen when I was unemployed.   But it is something that does take a portion of my time. I get my fix for mental stimulation while I am cooking  by listening to podcasts  (which reminds me that I should do an updated post on with horror themed podcasts) however it is a reminder to me that while books play a big part of my life, that it is important for me to also attend to my health and well being.

I know that sometimes I have held a tension with my relationship with books knowing fully well that one of the reasons why I started to be book obsessed in my adult life was due to not having jobs that allowed me the funds or the schedule to travel but knowing that I afford to buy a used book and travel in my imagination.  I also feel strongly the books that we get caught reading can be a form of activism and that the books we choose to read can help expand our worldviews but simply reading a book may not be enough when Donald Trump wants immigration policies in place that are stripping people of human rights and treating innocent children like wild animals.  When I take the time to breath and lower my blood pressure about the political state that our country is in, I am reminded that there are a lot of good stories around me as well. I am happy to down my books to learn a new job,  share a meal with a friend, to play with a child, to listen to music or to wander around a museum,  to watch people and dogs as they walk around the city. I would be missing out on these experiences if I was unwilling to put my books down from time to time. As a writer I would be lacking for inspiration if I did not take time for these real world experiences. As a human being I would be missing out on fundamental relationships if books and social media were my main sources of interaction with the world. For some reason having weekends where bookstores seem to be my main focus makes me crave the experiences beyond the page and the screen.The funny thing is that sometimes this takes the form of bringing physical books into public spaces, like the pool room in my apartment or on public transit. But other times this means just being willing to put my book down entirely to appreciate the moment in front of me.

This does not diminish my love for the written word. Immersing myself in the written world is a wonderful way to meditate on the world after I see the beautiful things and the ugly things around me. I love the way words have a profound effect on my imagination.  Yes, I know that I need to be more choosy about what I buy going forward. That does not mean that I am not open to new authors or experiences. What it does mean is that I am not going to be buying just anything. I want to have the kinds of books that will help me with the journey that I am on.