I buy books like some women buy shoes

Call me crazy, but this is the truth about me: I buy books like some women buy shoes. When I saw the graphic on the right on tumblr, I began thinking. Yes, I realised that this statement is true, but to what extent? At first I thought that it was only a superficial, humorous connection. But then I started thinking - what if there is something more? What if women who buy a lot of shoes have the same experience buying them as I do buying books? What if the same mechanisms are at work?

Christmas haul - and only four of them gifts...

So I asked some women who buy shoes on impulse - and I also asked google - why do you go out of the shoe shop with exactly that pair of shoes? And I think I have the answer - well, at least a simile - it's like the shoes are speaking to you, saying: "Take me home! Don't leave me here!" I realised that this is exactly how I feel about books. Sometimes there's one (or more than one) book in the shop that makes you feel that your fates have just been intertwined. You feel that something is wrong if you don't leave the shop with that book. So, take today. I went out to buy three books, and I came home with six. They call to me. I, as many other women, shop with my emotions, I guess. And then you end up with more than you bargained for.

And then, when the books are in my shelf at home, well read, and maybe firmly placed among my favourite few books, it still speaks to me. And what it says is something like what the book on the right is saying. My books are sort of my friends. They are faithful, and with them on my shelf, there is always the possibility of entertainment. And if the real world is difficult, I can always escape into a good book. There is nothing like the feeling of the world disappearing when I get into a good book. I love my books, and I am very reluctant to throw or give books away. They are like my friends, especially if I like the book, and you don't throw friends away.