Books, books, books!

The time has come to admit I have a problem.  My problem is common in my family, we have an obsession with books.  I'm not just a bibliophile, my problem is more of an obsession with collecting books, I would say I'm a bibliomaniac!  I'm fairly certain it's genetic and I get it from both parents, so I was always doomed to love and adore books.  Whilst studying for my music degree I would source and horde books relevant (and not so relevant) to my subjects and spend more on my books than normal student purchases such as booze.  When I got really into sewing costumes my obsession moved onto fashion history and museum catalogues from the V&A filled with fabulous pictures and patterns that I could drool over when I should have been studying!  Getting into. RADA just validated my need for more sewing books and my problem only got more pronounced the more I read and bought.  Amazon has a lot to blame from my problem, they make it so easy and simple to just buy, buy, buy, with a single click and then the next gorgeous tome arrives within 24hours.  Yes I know Amazon is a dreadful, tax dodging corporate giant, but I'm only human and I have to have my book fix!  My sewing and costume collection now tops a hundred, wonderful volumes that keep me happy for hours. I've even started a catalogue so that I know what I have and what areas need more attention- I'd also love to get book plates made so my collection is obviously all mine- mwahahaha! (Maniacal book loving laugh)

My other guilty book mania focuses on cookery books.  I am a total addict and always fall for a beautiful book of glorious photos, without really paying attention to the recipes.  I have loads piled high in the kitchen and it's getting to be a problem.  But I have admitted I have a problem, and that is apparently the first step on the road to recovery-although to be honest I'm not sure I want to recover as I love my books and no one is getting them off me! However, it does seem silly that I have all these cookbooks which do get read a lot, but I haven't actually tried the recipes out, which is their purpose after all.  My sewing books get read and the patterns and techniques used a lot, not so much now my health is poor but they have all had a good use, so I don't feel so bad about them.  But I know that some of my recipe books may have had only one recipe used from them, or sometimes none at all!  So before I'm allowed to buy more recipe books, I have to properly use the ones I have... I should also use some of the stacks of cooking magazines that I've also accumulated over the years. I'm nearly as bad at hoarding them as I am recipe books!  So out with the baking tins and mixer it's time to bake and cook- watch this space for my attempts to justify my cookbook bibliomania!