spent this chilly Sunday morning taking inventory of my bookshelves. With my new goal of not buying new books this year intact, I wanted to reacquaint myself with the books I already purchased. All 89 of them. That’s right, 89 books. This includes all of what can be found on my bookshelf and what is currently downloaded onto my Kindle. And now that I have that big number in my head, I won’t buy another book for quite some time. I’m not even going to calculate how much this habit of collecting books has cost me, but if you’ve ever purchased a book, you can do the math. (However, in my defense, most of the books are in paperback). So, what books are these? Here is a breakdown:

• 35 popular fiction selections
• 20 leadership and business books
• 18 titles with words of wisdom and encouragement from fellow writers
• 16 random books that fit into various categories

You know how when you want to lose weight, you put a number on the fridge of how much you want to lose to stop yourself from eating anything that is bad for you? (Am I the only one that does this?). Well, I’m going to find a way to do something along those lines with my Amazon account. I’ve even unsubscribed from any social media page that touts book lists in front of my eyes. And when I pass by the local Barnes & Noble, I will repeat the number in my head until I am a safe distance from the premises. I’ve gone cold turkey. Meanwhile, back to my bookshelves…there is good news. Actually, great news! There are some fantastic books in my possession. I can’t wait to finally dive into The Hate U Give and Crazy Rich Asians (both of which I’ve been waiting to read before seeing the movie). I’m looking forward to cracking open the two marketing titles from well-known business writers Dan & Chip Heath. I keep hearing how amazing they are, and I haven’t yet had the pleasure of soaking in their expertise. And of course, my “can’t-live-without-but-apparently-have-had-no-time-to-read” books about my passion for writing. There is so much there that I need to absorb. If you want to see my book list, friend me on Goodreads, but please don’t recommend any titles to me. I’m not sure I’m strong enough yet to resist the temptation.       https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6205627

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I still remember standing on my tiptoes to reach the higher drawers of the card catalog in the library. If there was no step stool nearby, I’d walk over to the front desk and ask the librarian for help. She would help me look up what I needed and then take me to the right spot in the library to find my book. While there, I was free to search the stacks to my heart’s content for other books on the same topic or by the same author or discover something completely different that might interest me. Those were the good ol’ days. When I was a college student, things were a little more high-tech. I sat in front of a computer monitor and typed in the subject, author or title of the book. No step stool necessary. Within seconds, the computer would cough up the names of all the books with similar titles and authors. I’d print out the list on the dot-matrix printer on the other side of the library and then walk up the stairs to peruse the shelves for my book. Today–25 years later–I learned about the latest in library technology on a college tour. Students walk up to a kiosk, type in the book they want, and WAIT FOR IT…a robotic arm will find the book and deliver it to a central location where a staff member will place it on a pickup shelf for convenience. Yes, you read that right…a robotic arm. The official name for this is BookBot–a book retrieval and delivery system which apparently saves on shelf space and opens up the opportunity for more classrooms and meeting spaces on campus. Or maybe just another Starbucks. The tour guide likened this state-of-the-art system to ordering a hoagie at a Wawa. Just walk up to the counter and make your selection from countless options on the screen and hit enter. Within minutes, someone makes your hoagie, wraps it up and delivers it right to you. But in this scenario, the hoagie is a book and the person who is waiting on you is replaced with a robotic arm. As a self-proclaimed book nerd and now library geek, I find this whole thing rather depressing. This truly takes all the fun out of discovering other literary treasures in the library. And honestly, where does it end? Will an army of robots soon be deployed around campus hunting students down for their overdue library books? Will a robot stay at her doorway and hold her hostage until she uses her iPay app to pay the fine? Of course, when I asked her if she thought this was creepy or cool, she thought it was awesome. I, on the other hand, miss the card catalog.

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