Discussion Time: The Little White Lies Bookworms Tell

We’ve all done this, I know I’m guilty of it, and maybe they’re not so much lies as they are best intentions gone awry but it soon becomes a habit. Now, for me, these have become phrases that have practically no meaning anymore because of how many times they just haven’t been true.

After all, despite me saying a book is next on my to read list I normally never get around to it next, possibly the pitfalls of being a mood reader, and despite me going into bookshops or looking through Amazon with the intention of just looking, not buying anything at all, more often than not I come out with at least one brand new book if not more.

The Little White Lies Bookworms Tell

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“Just one more chapter.”

You know how it goes; you’re reading a brand new book – maybe a highly anticipated releases or the next book in a favourite series – it’s late at night so you know you should have long since gone to sleep because you have work the next day, but you keep telling yourself one more chapter, just one more chapter. Then before you know it it’s 3am and you have to be up at 5:30am for work.

The ends of chapters always make you want to read more, they more often than not end on mini-cliffhangers that keep you turning pages almost without realising you’ve done it.

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“It’s at the top of my to-read list.”

This is the one I’m most guilty of saying, and wow do I say it a lot. Again it’s probably the pitfalls of being a mood reader. As much as I may want to get around to specific books next, and have a plan in mind for what I’ll pick up, when the day comes I’ll be on my Kindle or looking through my bookshelves and something else will catch my eye, and there go my TBR plans out the window.

Other variations of this white lie can include;

“It’s next on my to-read list.”

and…

“I want to get around to it ASAP.”

For most people I feel like ASAP means within the same week, if not the next day, for me I’m lucky if it means within the same year.

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“I’m just going to browse in Waterstones, I’m not going to buy anything.”

It is impossible, at least in my experience, to enter a bookshop and not leave with at least one book. There are just so many to choose from, and wandering around browsing the covers and the blurbs, seeing the new releases fresh on the shelves or the ‘Buy One Get One Half Price’ deal,  sometimes the real challenge is only buying one or two instead of ten or twenty.

The feeling is worse if you’re in a big bookshop. Waterstones Piccadilly has six floors filled with books, and I’ve yet to go in there without then leaving with a book, no matter how hard I try to resist.

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“I’m putting myself on a book-buying ban.”

I’ve been in a couple of book buying bans before, and I don’t think they’ve ever worked for me. I always have my pre-orders still pre-ordered, which I’ll never cancel for the sake of a book-buying ban, and my Fairy Loot subscription, which again I’ll never cancel when they keep sending out incredible boxes, so it seems I’m doomed from the start when it comes to book-buying bans.

Other variations of this white lie can include;

“I’m setting a book budget.”

I’m weak when it comes to books, and apparently a little bad at managing my money when it comes to books as well.

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“I need to sort out my bookshelves.”

This is something I’d been saying ever since YALC finished last July, and it was only in January this year that I actually got around to sorting through my book and unhauling the ones I wasn’t going to read/didn’t enjoy/had outgrown. I’m trying to be better now and keep things nice and organised, but slowly my new purchases are being piled up wherever there’s space.

 

One solution would be to buy yet another bookshelf, but give it a few months and I’ll be saying, “I need to sort out my bookshelves” all over again.

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Now Onto the Discussion Part of This Post:

Are you guilty of telling any of these white lies?

Is there any on this list that I’ve missed that you find yourself saying more often than not?

Or, alternatively, for you are these not white lies? Do you put a book down after saying one more chapter, or do you actually read next what book you say you will?

Let me know in the comments below.