A peek at the new library and book confessions

Today there were men dangling from ropes off the side of the building with cloths in a very dramatic fashion.

Peeking inside a library before there are any books there is a little weird. Each floor of the new library was flooded with light and the glass windows with their beautiful images and words reflect the outside world into the library - I felt like I was in the heart of something.

It will be even better when it is full of books. It will then also resemble my house.

When I moved house a couple of years ago both myself and my other half had sifted through our considerable collection of books and given away what felt like millions of 'pre-loved' books.

On the day of the move I ended up walled into our new front room by all of the boxes of books that we had brought with us. The movers literally could not get our furniture into the house.

I regret nothing and still compulsively buy books all of the time, far more books than I will ever read.

Occasionally piles of books are discovered in odd places (I once looked under a table and found 10 plays that I'd enthusiastically bought at the National Theatre and somehow managed to forget about) and occasionally there are accidents.

The pile of what I think of as the 'in-between books' that resides by the bed (and now stands taller than the dog) fell over at the weekend and caused havoc. The pile of books when spread across the floor was like a diary of 2008.

I could remember when I had begun to read every book, why I had bought each one and thought it important at the time.

Last week was not atypical in terms of my habits. I popped into Blackwell's to buy a paper and came out with six books as they had just re-stocked and I was fatally tempted by their 3 for 2's.

I've also so far this month managed to order 2 books from Amazon, 3 out of print books from Abe.com, 2 books from a remainder book shop at the Metro Centre (one of which was a book about choosing books therefore feeding the habit), a grand total of 13 books!

Inches from my desk as I write there is a large Amazon box which arrived before Christmas full of the hardbacks I just had to buy for the Christmas holidays alongside some other 3 or 2's purchased when I accompanied a friend into a bookshop.

And, I purchased Philip Hensher's novel The Northern Clemency as an audio book from Audible.com where I have a monthly subscription. The recording of the book is unabridged (I am a purist) and comes it at nearly 25 hours. When do I imagine that I will have the time?

I know that I am not alone though, as one of my favourite authors, Anne Fadiman writes very well about what it's like to be an 'over-committed' reader.

She has even written a book about loving books Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader,a collection of essays that is one of the few books that I actually re-read.

If you buy one book this week buy Anne's. She's also written essays on coffee and ice-cream making in sub zero temperatures in At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist.

She is a woman after my own heart.