a long time ago, we used to be friends but I, haven't thought of you lately at all

Confession: I tend to be obsessive about things I'm keen on. I can't recall, but I think maybe I've indicated as much in some of these posts. But if not, it's good to just get it out there. Thus, if I like something, chances are I'm going to want to immerse myself in it completely. At least until some other obsession replaces it. It's probably not the healthiest thing in the world, at least not always, but it is what it is.

And, about a year and a half ago, I came across LibraryThing. And I liked it a lot. So much so that I thought it would be a really good idea to catalog every single book that I own. Or, at least every single book that I own that was sitting in my apartment at the time. There's still a few gigantic boxes sitting in my mom's garage in Ohio which I hope to someday be reunited with, when apartment space allows. Probably I do not really have the space for the 2000+ books crammed into this Queens studio. Certainly if I didn't have so many, furnishing options would be greater and I wouldn't have to worry about the leaning towers of books collapsing and causing dire injury if I shut the closet door to hard.

But, let's get back to LibraryThing, shall we? I shifted piles and I squinted at copyright pages and I made long lists if isbns and when the entire process was said and I shelled out ten bucks so I could catalog more than 200. And when all was said and done, I had a very complete LibraryThing, felt ever-so accomplished, loved looking at my LibraryThing and, well, proceeded to completely forget about it. Not right away. I was good about updating it for a little while.

But then gradually, it just slipped my mind. Maybe if I acquired books at a normal rate - one or two every now and then. But I'm a librarian who is fortunate enough to get the occassional ARC. Especially when I'd go to conferences and events like Book Expo. And, I have a boyfriend who works at an indie bookstore, so he's always bringing things home. Add to that the fact that no one on staff at said bookstore has the slightest interest in children's or YA books, so every now and then the manager just boxes up dozens of advances and sends them to me. Things have a way of spiraling out of control. Which is why, a year or so later, I find myself realizing that I can't remember the last time I logged books onto LibraryThing. And if I want to do some more, I'm going to have to cough up more cash and endure some major headaches as I try to figure out what's already in the library and what isn't. Somehow, I don't think it's going to happen. The moment has passed and until I get that cataloging itch again (which, I admit could totally happen), I'll be content to observe from the outside.

In the meantime, just last week I finally joined Good Reads ...