What Book Should I Buy?

When I was little, when Borders was still around, I loved buying books. Dad would tell me I could buy one book, and I’d take so long looking around, trying to decide between all the different books I wanted. I wanted everything.

In recent years, as I’ve had to start thinking about saving money, I haven’t bought nearly as many books. Most of the books I get now are presents for my birthday or Christmas. Aside from buying textbooks, the only real time I spend money on books is when I get a gift card.

Well, I got a gift card for Christmas this year, and I’ve been debating what to spend it on since. Here’s the thing: there are countless novels I’ve been meaning to read, but I don’t really want to spend money on a random novel unless it’s one I’m going to revisit. Otherwise, I could just check it out from the library, right? If I’m going to buy a novel, I want it to be one of my new favorites, you know? I don’t regret owning I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak or The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, because I’d like to reread those one day, and it feels good to own your favorite books. When people are visiting, they see the books you use to represent yourself.

In the end, with the help of my friend Kháhn San, I settled on two books. The first was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. There’s no guarantee it’ll be one of my favorite books or anything, but it’s very long, complex, and difficult, so I’ll want longer than the standard library loan period to read it. I’ll probably want to go back and revisit earlier chapters late in the book, and really get into the experience of decoding the complex web of narratives. The other I chose, on my friend’s recommendation, was Bluets by Maggie Nelson. I’m told it’s a relatively accessible book of poetry, and that’s what I’m looking for. I figure a book of poetry is another good choice for buying, since poems are the kind of writing you want to revisit a lot. You don’t really read them as narrative; rereading a poem is different from just reading the same story over again.

Even if I don’t buy many books anymore, there’s still something so magical about bookstores; even if I don’t want to buy every book, I still want to read every one. Once everything is in ebook form and bookstores are less populous, this is what I’m going to miss.