BA

BA

My name is Sky and I'm a bookaholic.

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem so here I am publicly doing so.

I'm not exactly sure when it started. There is a high possibility that I was born with this addiction.

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I used to be quite proud of it. The fact that my parents used to tell me to stop reading so much should've raised alarm bells that not all was right. (I mean how many parents tell their kids to read less? My point exactly.)

So what changed? What was the breaking point that made me realise this love of books wasn't healthy? What brought me here to the Bookaholic (not so) Anonymous?

Well... today after uni, I decided to go to the library and get some new books to read. I browsed all the shelves grabbing ones that had an appealing cover, interesting blurb and engaging first few paragraphs. Slowly the books piled up so that they started to dig into my arm. But did that make me stop and head for the checkout? Of course it didn't. I wasn't leaving until I looked at every shelf that appealed to me (thankfully, today most of the reference/non-fiction weren't included in that).

So while I'm perusing every book, some man comes up to me and just stands there looking at me. So I turned to see what he wanted. This man smiled and asked, "Are you Andrew's sister?" so I said, "No". Who the hell was Andrew? And then I thought, "It's pretty cool that I'm mistaken for someone else. That never happens 'cause everyone seems to remember me". And he looked perplexed and asked, "Are you sure?" and then it dawned on me. I have a brother; his name is Andrew. I could not believe that I forgotten that 'cause I was so involved in my search for books.

So then I said very embarrassed, "Oh yeah! Sorry, I wasn't thinking." He smiled and I was totally racking my brain who this man could be. One of my brother's teachers? His friend's parent? Then I said in a stuttering manner, "Sorry... I don't... I don't recogise you... Who... who are... who are you?" and he wouldn't answer, he was just smiling which started to annoy me. And then he said, "I saw you when you walked in and you looked very familiar." And then it kinda freaked me out because at that point I was at the library for almost 2 hours. I didn't like the idea that he saw me here for that long and didn't say anything. It was kinda stalkerish in a way.

When he said, "I forgot your name." I remembered who he was. He was my (and my brother's) driving instructor! After I realised this, he asked me how I was doing and I asked him if he was still teaching people to drive. He said yes and then I hoped he would go because I had nothing else to say to him. He read my mind and said that he had to leave. So I said bye and decided to leave too but since he was waiting to get his books checked-out and I didn't want to wait with him, I went and got myself some more books. I literally had to tell myself to put one of the books down and slowly step away before anyone (me, specifically) got hurt. My arm was already aching.

So after I got my books checked out, I had to rearrange the contents of my uni bag so they would all fit. Isn't an addiction something that you have to rearrange your life around? And my uni bag was definitely a part of my life. And a quite useful one at that.

Hopefully, my 'coming out' will encourage others to seek help and join BA. Bookaholics (also referred to as 'nerds' by the Bookhaters Association) are everywhere so know that you're not alone. Even the government recognises us and gets tax payers money to support our addiction by building book institutions, also known as libraries. As an individual, we are just someone with not enough books, but together we are...

I don't know how to finish that sentence so I'm just going to go and read my newly borrowed books.