What I Gave Up for Lent

Blogging is like standing in a dark closet talking to myself. That said, I can always depend on my FB buddies for lots of feedback. When I mentioned giving up buying books for Lent-Oh, the horror expressed! Need I say most of my FB friends are writers and bookaholics just like me? Some took this vow to mean I would not be reading books for the duration-but, no. That would totally impossible for me. Jesus would never ask for that kind of sacrifice either. Like many others, I think of Heaven as a huge library full of books I haven't read and friends to discuss them with. I simply meant I would read from the four stacks of books I had already purchased or borrow from the library. A huge auto repair bill, the laptop I bought my husband for Christmas, and several large medical bills helped me make this decision.

Anyhow, I got off to a rough start. On the second day of Lent, Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures showed up in the mail, a book purchased with my book club credits plus postage. Then, my husband, feeling bad for me, gifted me with This Book is Overdue!, a tribute to librarians. At my writers' group, a friend, Sylvia Rochester, had copies of her new title, DaVinci's Lost Years, for sale. You gotta buy a friend's book, right?

I did better as Lent dragged along-until Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb showed up having been pre-ordered back in January. I felt I redeemed myself at a recent writers' conference where I bought no books and probably made no friends because of it. I read a book I'd considered purchasing but got from the library instead. Didn't care for it. Glad I saved the money. Now, if only a Barnes and Nobel gift certificate wasn't burning a hole in my purse. When is Easter?