The thunderous crash you heard was my severely over strained 2020 Book Budget giving up the unequal struggle and collapsing into a million tiny pieces (apologies, James Frey) .
Many businesses and activities could not withstand the COVID onslaught, they closed down, they decamped, they gave in and surrendered. My willpower was amongst these casualties. Theoretically I was going to buy only 2 books per month during 2020. In January that sounded like a workable goal. And then along came The Virus, in March. Alongside the dratted virus came Lockdown, and in South Africa, it was prolonged and strict.
Confined to my house, living solo as I do, one of my defenses against boredom, loneliness, and insanity, was to read. Obvious, really.
I turned to my Kindle, not being able to concentrate on much in the early stages of Lockdown, and there I fell into a heaving morass of Cozy Mysteries, instantly delivered by the mighty Amazon.com I lost count of how many I bought.
Next on the marketing scene were our local bookstores, waving tempting Lockdown Sales before our dazed eyes. I succumbed to 4 books from the German art publisher, Taschen. I mean: who can resist a 50% discount sale? Could you?
Then our wonderful local indie bookstore offered to deliver our online purchases to our front door. Well! As an elderly at risk person, how could I resist this bargain offer? Three more books arrived over the weeks. I was virtuously staying at home, and I was supporting our indie bookstore, that was struggling mightily with the drop in sales during early phases of the Lockdown. My purchases almost fell into the category of a Public Good Deed.
Finally one of our big online retailers held a Flash Sale last week, and discounted current novels up to 30% and 40% … oh dear …. You know what happened next, don’t you?
I’ve had some wonderful reads, retained my sanity, and torn up the 2020 Book Budget. In these strange and dangerous times, I really don’t care.
THE BOOKSMITH 