Books, of course. Hardly ever buy a new one, but have a huge stash of books I want to read, also magazines. Then I go to the library, bring home a pile, and rarely get any read. When I return them I can’t resist taking a peek in the NEW BOOKS section, and on it goes. It’s magnetic! To break the cycle I have to finally return the books in the drop box after hours, then I am ‘free’ for awhile.

I love thrift store shopping, always carting home things I think will be useful. It’s difficult to make room for my new purchases. I especially like ‘rescuing’ vintage linens, saving them from the rag dealer, but just how much of this stuff can you use!

My hobby is making Altered Books, although to be honest, I should say my hobby is COLLECTING anything that can be used to make an altered book, because I think that is the part I like best! I have all the tools, all the supplies, but can’t seem to actually make any books!

I have a lifetime supply of candles (they were all such bargains!) which I hardly ever light.

OK, this one is a little strange… I am addicted to the color Teal,or what I would call any ‘ocean’ color. I can walk into any knd of store and the things that are this color will immediately jump out at me, I am like a moth drawn to light. It is as if there is a magnetic force field drawing me to it. Usually I HAVE to buy it, even if not needed.

My closet is pretty big already and I don’t need to be buying any more clothes… but I want to! Ugh, I can be such a whiny kid inside sometimes. I wrote about my recent challenge to purge my clothing in my blog. I figured I’d mention it since we’re on the topic ;)

http://www.antishay.com/?p=39

Ok, so for my non-book weakness it has to be fabric, or anything sewing related!

I am a design student on a “tight budget” so in the years past I though that meant I HAD to buy all on-sale fabric I could get my hands on. Now I have a pretty strict no-buy rule when it comes to fabric, but I have to expand my thread collection to use all that fabric! Ahh! One day I will be free!

@Funny About Money – I agree that books are important, and believe me, I still have four shelves full of books that I kept. The problem is that I live in a very small house, and I had so many books, that trying to store them all was stressing me out.

Fortunately, I live in a small town also, so when I want a book, I can log on to the library’s website, reserve the book, and then walk to the library to pick it up. And since I don’t use books for work, I don’t have to worry about breaking my work cycle to pick up a book.

It’s all about balance, and I had way more books than I had space. Now that 3/4 of my books are gone, the rest fit into the space that I have. And I can find them, because they are all neatly stored in the bookshelf, whereas before they were in piles where I couldn’t find anything.

Books are a writer’s, an editor’s, or a scholar’s stock in trade.

Sure, in my seven bookcases you’ll find many books that I don’t use every day — but few that I don’t pick up at least once over the course of time. Without a library in my home, I would have to drop what I’m doing, get in my car, drive to a university or large public library, find what I need on its shelves, look up the information I need, write it down, turn around, get back in my car, drive home, and get myself engaged in my work again. And I would have to do that frequently, since many of the books I use are not online full-text.

What an enormous waste of time that would be!

Even if you don’t use the written word in your paid work, books are the wellspring of the educated mind. When you empty your bookshelves, you impoverish yourself. IMHO. :-)