There is no friend as loyal as a good book.

It was with a deep breath that I finally faced what I have been avoiding for almost a year this morning...

After I got a cup of caffeine into my system I began stacking and sorting my collection and I was more than shocked with the end result.

Here I have pictured 57 different titles of novels--not including the three duplicates I acquired--of unread books. I don't know how it got so out of hand...or rather, I do and chose to ignore it. So, I have made it my goal to finish these books this summer, or at least the grand majority! And until then, I will limit myself on the amount of books I buy. I say limit because I do not do well with strict boundaries and to me, summer screams yard sales and finding second hand book stores full of gems. Out of this array of books I would say at least half (probably more) was bought at an SPCA sale last summer for 3$. Yes, I walked up to the old gentleman at the till, who happened to be a retired teacher, with a flat box full of books with more stuffed under my arms and he said, "ahh, a dollar please". I stared at him and asked him to repeat himself before stuffing three dollars into the old sweets tin that was being used as a cash box.

Needless to say, it rests easy on my conscience when I look at these books and know that a grand majority are second-hand, some are borrowed, some were gifts, and not one was bought by me at full price. Looking at these stacks I would say less than 35$ dollars came out of my own pocket and I can't really complain about that now can I? I know that these will be read without a doubt and until they are, no books will be bought by me at full price.