Addiction

The first stage for a recovering addict is to admit that you have a problem.
I do.
I, Sheryl McFarlane, am addicted...
I'm admitting this freely.
I'm admitting it without duress.
I have an addiction to books.



















Today I went into one of my fav. independent bookstores (Victoria has a wack of independents...yeah Victoria... and I bought a bag full of books.  Some were recommended by Frieda, who works in the kids' book section and used to be my neighbor as well as a fellow Vancouver Folk Music Festival goer.  We are a terrible pair.  We're both junkies.  We get each other excited.  Books fly off the shelves into our hands, titles drip from our lips.  We interrupt each other.  We can't help ourselves.


My arms are full and I'm telling Frieda about this one book that I can't remember the name of but it's so awesome that she has to read it.  It's a picture book about basketball.  I remember the cover illustration is a young boy with a basketball.  He's in mid air.  It's a picture book, I tell her.  It's written in free verse and it is sooo good.  I turn around and find I'm talking to myself.  Frieda is down the isle looking it up on the computer.  Hoops she tells me.  It's called Hoops and It's by Robert Burleigh with illustrations by Stephen T. Johnson.  They don't have it, but will order it for sure.  In the meantime she comes up with two more must haves.  Fortunately, she rushes away to a staff meeting before she can pile more onto my already swelling pile.  I leave the store with awesome titles like When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, Looks by Madeleine George, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, The Bite of the Mango by Mriatu Kamara, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, and Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick.


I know, I know!  I can barely keep up with what I've already got!  But what's an addict to do!  The real problem is that I actually went in looking for my next book club read, which I promptly forgot the name of the minute I stepped into the teen section for a "quick peek"...Sigh.  Now I'll have to go back to the bookstore.  And that, my friends, will be a whole new temptation.


For now though, I'm hap hap happy, with the fruits of my addiction surrounding me on the couch.