Books.

Today, like ALL of today, was spent in the barn. Literally 6.5 hours of cleaning out the barn. OH MY GOD. I can't really feel my feet and I have blisters in places that I didn't know existed. Now the whole left side of the barn, the goats paddock, the tack room and all of the water troughs are CLEAN.


I'm slowly figuring out that I have a mild case of OCD. For instance, I cannot do any work if my room is not clean. If I get a new book I need to clean out and rearrange my whole book shelf (Windex included). Today in the barn, I couldn't stop -- like could not stop -- until everything was swept!! I just... like things tidy, is all. And it's not a bad thing! Things are much more organized that way and it's easy to find things... but it can get in the way sometimes....

BUT no fear. My slaving away in the barn was not in vain. Because in payment for my efforts I was rewarded with a gift! Mum got 'Alice' for me. You know, the SyFy version of Alice in Wonderland? It happens to be my new favorite movie. Ever. For the time being anyway.

I went to the library with my sister today and got a hard back book in great shape for a buck. *All Hail Used Book Prices* Another thing about me. I collect books. Like ALL THE TIME. Whenever I pass a book shop I need to buy SOMETHING. Anything really. My sister is opposite. If she sees a book that she likes, she will return home and put it on hold in the library. This saves room and money.

But I don't know... I could never do that. I'm too in love with the books. Not just the story but the actual book. I love the look printed pages, the smell, the broken spine of a loved book. I love having a space just for that book on my shelf. And I love the fact that I can go to countless different worlds without leaving my room. Cheesy and overused line, I know, but seriously, that really is the main attraction for books for me. The more I have, the more escapes I have.

Plus, whenever I open up one of my books, I can remember exactly the place where I first read it, and bought it. I can never have enough books. And everyone of them has a small 'SM' in the cover just so I know which ones are mine and which are my sisters. We have an equal love for books, but just like everything we do, we show our love in different ways.

She's the one that got me into books in the first place. As a kid, I could never figure out why she enjoyed them so much. She was always in her room reading and instead of rock music, she had book tapes blaring out of her speakers at top volume. Being more of an outdoorsy child, I spent more time swinging and singing at the top of my lungs, and playing with my trains outside than reading.

Then one day I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I went to her room and asked for a book (please). She took her time choosing, brushing a book with her finger, looking at me with shrewed eyes, then moving on the the next. I was getting very impatient but I kept that all inside. Finally (finally) she slipped a book out from her book shelf. It was thin, with a huge dragon on the front. She gave it to me, only after making me cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die that nothing, nothing, would ever happen to this book. Ever. I solemnly swore that the book would be taken the utmost care of.

And... I fell in love.

It wasn't a particularly good read. It had a girl, and a dragon, and the dragon turned into a guy in the end and the writing was really so so. But it was the sheer impossibility and wonder of the fantasy that got to me. The whole new world being laid out before me in a labyrinth of letters and words.

I have a very visual mind, and whenever I read a book, it plays out like a movie in my mind. The book I was reading then was no exception. Soon, I became overly obsessed with the Harry Potter series, then more and more books came tumbling into my radar until the person that I am now was flung out on the other side, like in one of those water slides at a park. Now instead of me yelling at my sister to turn down her book tape because it was annoying me, it was because I couldn't hear my own.

I actually could not fall asleep unless I had Jim Dale speaking Harry Potter into my ear (to the distress of my friends at sleepovers). Hell, it was from those countless nights that I listened to Harry Potter that I got all of the vocabulary that I use now.

So it's really thanks to my sister that I have the ever growing library of books and that I'm never caught without one. Thanks to her that whenever someone is looking for a book to read I have at least 4 books on the tip of my toungue. Thanks to her that life sometimes just doesn't live up to my expectations. Thanks to her that I daydream about being in some other world.

So thanks, sister.

....

I'm going to go rearrange my bookshelf.