Outside of a Dog ...

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."

When I get stressed (which is a pretty much my mode of being), I buy things. Clothing, food I don't need, coffee (which I do need), and books.

Books--especially used books--are the perfect (read: most dangerous in that I cannot resist) purchase because they are relatively inexpensive, they mostly come from small bookstores which I feel good about supporting (especially this one), and they are one of those things you just cannot have enough of because you always need to be reading and learning and stuff. (Also, that sentence is ridiculously long.)

Though it strikes me that probably you can have more books than you can afford or more books than you can store even if you cannot actually have too many books. But I still have more than half a shelf free on Billy (the bookcase that my friends and I carried across the Heights, who now has a name and quite a presence in our apartment), so I think I'm safe. For now.

In other news, I have started hanging pictures of cool bookcases on the side of the very cheap Ikea bookcase in my room. Very meta. Or something.