Book Collector 7/14/10

I should have seen the Nook coming for Mother's Day. I'd been discussing them for a while, unsure if I really wanted one. I don't buy books for myself. I buy them for others, quite often, actually; and I read them, of course, but they are almost always borrowed when I do. To me, buying a book you've never read is like buying a DVD of a movie you've never seen. You may love the author's/director's previous work, but that doesn't guarantee you're going to like this one. So my book collection is slim. Very slim. I-don't-even-have-bookshelves slim. I only buy books that I love; books that when I am out of other reading material I don't mind revisiting. This is why I didn't buy an e-reader years ago. Fortunately, the Nook supports e-pub format, which means I get to borrow the e-books from the library. What! I know.
The surprising thing is that the Nook has actually gotten me to purchase books more. I've still done my fair share of borrowing, but since Mother's Day, I have purchased 3 books. That's about 3 times the number of books I've purchased for myself each year prior to this one. Blame it on my being a sucker for cool electronic gadgets, I guess.
I'll never be the expert who enters used book stores trying to find the first edition of an obscure 19th century novel to add to their reading room (complete with laddered bookshelves!), but I haven't minded adding to my tiny collection, even as I acknowledge I was tricked into it by a shiny novelty device.