Out and about, and the Dangers of the Bookstore

Happy Friday the 13th (as one of the grad students just pointed out to me.) It would probably be more traditional to write about superstition or gloom and doom today, but I'm not going to. For one thing, as mentioned previously, thirteen is my favorite number. For another, I've had a fabulous day thus far.

I took the morning off work because I had an interview with a small local paper about Once Bitten. I was really nervous, but the interview went great. I actually had a lot of fun talking about the book and about writing. The article will be out next Thursday, and I can hardly wait.

After the interview, I was giddy and feeling rather fearless, so I did what I'd been meaning to do for weeks. I went to the local Barnes and Noble to arrange a signing. I was told the manager wasn't in yet but should be shortly, so I could wait for her.

Now, waiting in a bookstore means I browse, and when browsing, I almost always find novels I 'need'. That said, I doubled my TBR pile during January. While I can read a book in a day, doing so leaves very little time for sleeping (not a good thing when I have to get up for work the next morning.) It also leaves less time in the day for writing. As I've become more serious in my writing efforts, my reading habits have slowed down. I think I read only five or six books during January. Unfortunately this hasn't altered my drive to acquire new books.

Thinking I would force myself to behave, (or at least if I found something, it would be inexpensive) I hit the bargain section. After all, most of the novels in the bargain section are older, and I either already own them, or they haven't yet made themselves tempting enough to need. I should be safe, right?

Wrong.

I forgot the bargain section was full of reference books. A random assortment of topics called to me as I innocently browsed the stacks. They had books on Myths (which along with folklore is my weakness and my favorite "non-fiction" to read.) There were books on weapons, wars, kings, and pirates. Books on ghosts, on cryptology, on conspiracies, and on ancient societies.

Thirty minutes later I found myself talking to the manager with an arm-full of books stacked on the table behind me. I gave her my information and we will hopefully get the details worked out for a signing in late March. Until then, I have my same massive novel TBR pile, but now I have a brand new reference TBR pile too. This should last me awhile (and even if it doesn't, I don't think the hubbie is going to let me enter a bookstore alone for some time to come.)

What's in your To Be Read pile?