The Next Ten: my COVID-19 panic buy

I have a confession to make. I got caught up in the COVID-19 panic-buying that happened in late March. But mine wasn’t toilet paper or hand sanitiser: it was books.

I remember the day clearly. We’d had dinner, I’d put the kids to bed. I thought I’d check my phone one last time before heading upstairs (never a good idea) and saw that all museums, art galleries and LIBRARIES would be closed… indefinitely.

Now I love our local library. Most of the books from my 100 book challenge have been books borrowed from the library. My kids are constantly entertained by the latest books I can borrow for them. And there I was, about to go to bed, when I discovered that in the coming days, there was a high chance that I would be without a book.

So I panicked. I got my laptop out and immediately spent $150 on a bunch of books and hoped they would tide me over until the libraries opened again. I’d just started David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, so I continued with that one, and contentedly watched my pile of ordered books get bigger and bigger every time the postman passed our house. I was prepared for the long haul.

Ironically, as I’m sure every person with an attic full of toilet paper is saying right now, the libraries are open again and I’m approximately 1.7% through the mountain of books above.

What I’m really pleased about though, is by the time I’ve made it through this pile I would have read 50 of my 100 books in the challenge. Sure, Les Mis and Middlemarch are likely to take me about five years each (I’ve never seen so many words bound together in one place!), but it’s lovely to see the end (read: halfway point) is near!