Confessions of a study-book-shop-o-holic

In a no-shame-tell-all I confess to you my deepest darkest secret of a situation spiraled so out of control I’m beginning to think I need to check myself into rehab. What you’re about to witness is not for the faint of heart, you are hereby warned…and kids, please don’t try this at home!

Imagine this, you enter your favorite bookstore in search of a book to study Japanese, first you stop and have a look at what they’re offering at the ‘Recommended’ stand near the entrance before you head over to the foreign language section. Browsing past Arabic, Bulgarian and Catalonian you’re soon standing in front of the Japanese section. Previously you’ve done some research online, read some reviews and soon you’re holding that book in your hands that you’ve been looking for, and you thought no bookshop would carry that book. Glad as you are you start walking towards the check-out counter but not before you’ve glanced past the magazine isle and pick up the latest issue of PC Monthly (girls, Cosmo). On your way home on the bus you leaf through your newly bought book happy that you’ll soon be able to start studying Japanese effectively. This is your typical situation people.

Now this nutcase writing this article here has a whole new take on buying study books. People buy eggs by the dozen, people with large families buy cartons of milk by the dozen, kids in school learn how many there are in a dozen, but I buy Japanese study books by the DOZEN! Somehow people think, the more books you own, the smarter you will get, while this holds true for people who actually USE the books but not for people who buy Japanese study books by the dozen unless it was to teach a small class. Seriously, I just can’t control myself when I go all beserk at the bookstore having a bookgasm everytime I see newly published books. I mean, if you have one book in a series, OFCOURSE you gotta own the rest of the books in the series too! And those darn bookstores know how to play you out like an open card, putting on nice music, strategically placing a comfy armchair or two here and there, pilling up those hot offers like a spiral directly within your eyesight! No wonder overly-sensitive study-book-shop-o-holics like me fall right for it and rack up those study books faster than the newest Twilight novel sells. Below is my shameless book count list on Japanese study books and you will need to grab a chair…and your heart.

PS: Until I’m fluent I’ll probably keep racking up those study books unless I get suffocated first by the humongous pile of books next to my bed suddenly collapsing on me while I lie dreaming of buying even more books.

PS again: new confession, actually I also threw away a lot of (most of them never used) Japanese study books because they wouldn’t fit in my suitcase which was already overweight while I previously already sent 2 boxes of 20 kilo’s each containing books back home when I was moving from China back to Europe. I just dumped them shamelessly into the thrashcan, and to think some kids in Nepal don’t have study books… *crawls in a corner

PS again again: another confession, ‘never judge a book by its cover’…yea fuck that, the books I threw away all had ugly covers because I like pwetty covers!