Addiction

I have an addiction. It is a problem most serious, and it is almost impossible to cure. You see, everytime I walk into a bookstore, I have to leave carrying something. It may not be something you have ever heard of - it may not in fact be something that I have ever heard of – but it will be something. Fiction, non-fiction, romance, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy – You name it and I can almost guarantee you there is one of every genre sitting on my bookshelf at this moment in time.

My addiction started off fairly small. I had few friends growing up and most of my time was spent delving into the worlds that books provided me with. I could be an it-girl at Sweet Valley High one day and a treasure-hunting teenager travelling the world another. The highlight of every week was going to the library where I could choose three – THREE – worlds to explore without ever having to pay a cent (unless the books were late that is, which they often were).

As I grew older, I started making more friends, but I still made time to feed my imagination. My reading pace sped up and I suddenly found myself racing through books faster than ever. Many of the friends that I made shared my love for reading, and suddenly books were being recommended to me.
“Have you read this?”
“What did you think of that?”
“What about these?”
My trusty library started failing me as it couldn't keep up with my demands for the newest, latest and bestest books on the market. Slowly my bookshelf, which had previously held only children's books and collections of stories and poems, started being built up with newer models, far more appropriate for my teenage self.

When I got to University, there was no doubt in my mind that English literature was going to be one of my subjects – how could I pass up this opportunity to turn something that I loved into a more serious path that would possibly even lead to a career? I was given the list of books and excitedly made my way to the store to buy them. I stroked their unworn covers, I breathed in their unread scent... and then I never opened half of them again. At university, for one reason or another, I stopped devouring books in the way that I had in my younger years. I found myself too busy doing other things and without the desire to pick up a book to read. Yet, though I wasn't reading them, my desire to own books would not relent.

At this point in my life, I have a rather large collection of books, and probably the vast majority of them have never been read. I am sitting with 40 books on my shelf and more packed into boxes on their way back to South Africa, and yet I am still buying them. To be fair, I have started getting back into reading, but I think that the privilege of owning books has surpassed my desire to actually read them. I think that someone needs to send me into rehab, and I think that rehab should be known as a library – a place where you can read all the books you want without having to own them.

In any case, I thought I would share with you some of my haunts in Cape Town – the shops that I have discovered feed well into my addiction.

Book Wise: This shop in Durbanville is run by a family friend. There are a large range of good quality second-hand books here, and you can always be guaranteed to find something to walk away with. The shop has a credit policy where if you bring them a book, you can take one with you or else you can sell the books for cash credit and come back at a later stage to buy to your heart's content.

Exclusive Books: This is, of course, where I go when I want the newesst of the new or the best of the best (basically, the books that I wouldn't be able to find at a second-hand store.) They do have an online ordering system, but there is just something special about walking into a bookshop and browsing through shelves, the special feeling that you get from finding something you have been searching for amid the shelves and shelves of books that are just not it. Unfortunately, with their rather steep prices, this is not where I do most of my book shopping.

Bargain Books: While this shop does not have the same reputation or sell books in the abundance of Exclusive, I have found myself wandering in more than once to glance through their '3 for R90' books. These are usually the fairly trashy sorts of novels that are not particularly intriguing reads, but it just so happens that these kinds of books are just what I need at times – no brainers that just solidify my love for reading and get me back into the swing of things.

Kafda: This shop in Sea Point is an absolute treasure trove of second-hand books and magazines. Sold for as little as R4 or as much as R50, I have found some of my favourite books at this store. These include The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (R10) and a number of other interesting authors like Kundera, Ondaatje, Archer and more. What I particularly like about the store is that all of the takings go to charity. This means that you shouldn't expect to be paid for any books you bring in, and the staff are purely volunteers, not paid for their efforts. It also means that you are contributing to something good everytime you buy a book there, even if it's as small as a R4 contribution. I highly recommend that any serious reader pay a visit to their sstore on Main Street. You won't be disappointed.

Finally, I have put up two lists: a reading list and a read list. Feel free to browse through them and let me know what I should read next or else comment on what has been read.

What have you been reading?