A Box of Books

I have a confession:  I love to read.  Reading is one of my favorite hobbies and has been for as long as I can remember.  As a teenager (and maybe even now), I have been known to stay up into the wee hours of the night reading a book so that I can know how the story ends.  I still have a difficult time putting a good book down and have been known to let the household slide (even more than usual) while I'm finishing up a book.  My husband has, on occasion, asked me to take a break from reading when I've gotten wrapped up in a trilogy or series.  I may have a problem.

Back before kids, I use to read several books a week.  I don't have the time for that anymore, but I still read whenever I can.  I use the library to get a lot of my books, but I also love borrowing them from friends or buying them (especially on sale) and then sharing them with others when I'm done.  My parents are both big readers and I use to get a lot of my mom's hand-me down books.  Sadly, she has switched to an e-reader this past last year and my supply of books has dwindled.  Clearly she didn't think through how her e-reader would affect my reading life.   I think I will probably end up with a Kindle at some point, but part of me is holding out (and its not entirely for financial reasons).  There is something I love about turning actual pages in a book.  Thankfully my dad is still reading the "old fashioned" way and purchasing actual books, so I still get a steady stream of mysteries and crime books from him.

Back in my college days, I shared books with my roommate Lindsey.  Its easy to share books with someone that you share a bedroom with on a daily basis.  And post-college, we only lived 30 minutes apart, so we were still easily able to share books when we would meet up for lunch.  But for the last six years or so, we've been separated by many miles. Despite the distance, Lindsey and I have been trading boxes of books for a few years now.  I'm not sure when it started, but it has turned into a fun tradition.  We wait until we have enough books to fill a shoebox or an empty diaper box (since becoming a mom, I accumulate empty diaper boxes WAY faster than shoe ones).  Then we send them media mail to each other.

Just in case you don't know about media mail, let me fill you in.  If you're mailing media (heavy things like books or cds), you can send them media mail through the post office.  Its WAY cheaper and slower than first class, but it gets the job done.  And while Lindsey and I love books, we also share a love of good deals, so this arrangement is a win-win on both counts.

Recently a box arrived on my doorstep.

I was giddy with excitement to open it.  Obviously, when I saw it was from Lindsey, I knew what it was: books.   Yep, a box of used books.  To others this might not be that exciting, but to me, it was like Christmas morning or a birthday surprise.

I love surprises and being surprised.  And while my day to day life is filled with lots of "surprises", they tend to be things that I'm not thrilled about like finding a puddle of pee on the bathroom floor, finding a wall where my son has been storing his boogars (what on earth is he saving them for?), finding milk in the pantry instead of the fridge, etc.  Yep, there is no denying that I live in a house full of tiny men. 

Anyway.  Back to the box of books.  I didn't know what books might be inside, that was the surprise/fun part.  What I did know that these books were from someone who knows me and picked these books for me.  These books were sent because Lindsey thought I'd enjoy them.  Maybe she picked them just because they are a good read or because she enjoyed them herself.  Or perhaps it reminded her of me because its about a topic I care about deeply or want to know more about.  Or maybe its applicable to my current stage of life, such as motherhood. 

This time, her box included a book, The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, that I've been wanting to read as I've seen it crop up on other people's Goodreads feeds.  Green Mama by Tracey Bianchi.  I have heard Tracey speak at a MOPS group I attended, but I haven't read her book yet, so I'm looking forward to that.  Then Marley & Me by John Grogan.  I saw the movie when it came out a few years ago, but again, I haven't read it.  There were a few other books in there, but those are some of the highlights for me.


I'm currently working on my own box for her.  I've got about three books ready and I'm finishing up two others.  I don't want to list the titles and spoil the surprise for her because I'm pretty sure she likes the surprise element too (never knowing when a box will show up and what will be in it).  I love this book exchange tradition.  I look forward to many more years of opening my door to find a shoebox of books waiting for me.