Two more stacks of about a dozen books each clutter an already-crowded hutch. Our living room and dining room each have smaller but equally crammed bookshelves. Upstairs, a huge ugly black bookcase has no room for any more books. That's why a number of books are jammed horizontally above the stacked books. Boxes of books are stacked in front of it.
More books fill a small bookcase in our bedroom and another room that was once a bedroom.
And still I cannot stop myself from acquiring books. Four plastic grocery bags of books sit on the floor behind me, the booty of the local public library s annual bargain book sale. As if this bounty were not enough, I just ordered six more books from the Book of the Month Club. They specialize in publishers' overstocks. I know that, even if I devoted every waking hour to reading the books I already possess, I will never read them all before I die.