The right time for a book will come...

Oh wow! It's been a minute and a half since we've updated this blog. By the time this post is up, The Literary would have had its third birthday! From opening to now, a lot has changed, and it's been incredible to watch it flourish and receive such beautiful community love. I've popped in to breathe a little life into this blog by talking about one of my favorite things. This is the thing that gives me all of the happy brain chemicals, and by some freakish luck, it is also something I get to do for a living.

Buying books.

For those of you who don't know me, consider me your local book wizard (aka lead bookseller, Literary book buyer, and all around book weirdo). So, if it's not obvious, I buy a lot of books. I've worked at The Literary for two years now, and I have the privilege of doing a majority of the book buying for the store. I spend hours every week investigating not only what everyone is reading, but what Champaign-Urbana in particular is reading.

From what I've learned so far, book buying as a profession is a mix of a numbers game, gut instinct, and pure vibes. However, it's also a team effort. I have my niche when it comes to books, but what I want to read isn't going to be what everyone else wants to read. And that's okay! That's why it's so important to have a strong bookselling crew, and it's why I'm always bothering just about everyone with questions like: What are you reading? What should we have on our shelves?

Book buying is an ever evolving art, and sometimes it can get a little overwhelming. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every single year, piling on top of all the endless books that came before them. A galaxy's worth of stories -- I think a lot about how finite that makes me feel because I'll absolutely never be able to read them all. And I do read a fair amount! However, book reading and book buying are two entirely different hobbies in my mind. Beyond buying for the store, I also buy a whole bunch of books for my personal library. I don't even want to admit how many books I have stacked around my house. I will, however, admit that my to-be-read list (TBR) is well over three hundred books at this point. Shout out to the app Storygraph for helping me keep track of them all.

That said, I often hear some guilt from patrons at the store. "I have so many books at home," some of them will say.

"I have books from the library that I should be reading, but here I am instead."

"I don't need to buy anymore books!"

I feel a similar guilt sometimes when I add another book to the pile.

OCD and Bibliomania (compulsive book buying) are both real things, and if they're effecting you in a significant and unhealthy way, then it's important to take steps to treat that. But, if it's more like a feeling of guilt about a stack or a shelf (or a few of both let's be real) of unread books, I think it's important to ask ourselves what use that guilt is to us. What purpose does it serve? What's wrong with having a bunch of books at home that patiently sit to be read?

There is going to be a right time to read a particular book, and it's okay if that time is not right after you buy it. Perhaps it needs time to incubate in your brain, or on your shelf, or in your bag as you carry it around and ding it up. If you're a mood reader, like I am, maybe you know it's a book you definitely want to read, but the mood doesn't fit right then. Or, maybe you're afraid of a book even though you know you really need to read it.

That's how I felt about In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.

Last year, I felt like I couldn't escape that book. I had a copy on my shelf (and somehow obtained another copy, don't ask me how, I have no idea). I heard so many accolades and reviews, and received so many recommendations, but I knew the content of that book was going to hit me hard.

I was afraid to read it.

So, I glared at it on my shelf for about a year and a half. I let it incubate until I was in a place where, one day, I looked at its distinctive red and white spine and decided I'm ready, it's time. When I finally did read it, I loved it, even though I was right. It did wreck me in all the ways I knew it would, but by then I was ready for it, and I was grateful to have it there on the shelf waiting for me. Call that character development. There is something deeply personal about someone's bookshelf. It's a physical representation of all the things that have shaped them in the books they have read, and all the things that will shape their future selves in the ones they haven't gotten to yet.

Buy the book. It's okay if you don't read it right away. It's okay if your TBR is infinite, because there are infinite books and stories that deserve to be read.

For more thoughts on books, follow me on Instagram @neonnightlibrary