Jeff, whose blog has mysteriously disappeared from cyberspace but not from my blogroll, challenged me to give up my book acquisition habit for Lent.

Actually, it was I who brought up Lent. Jeff challenged me to give up my obsession/addiction COLD TURKEY, to which I replied, "Oh, no! I can't do that! The booksale this weekend is my Mardi Gras!" At which point he relented, but demanded that after Ash Wednesday, I should give my poor bookshelves at least a 40-day reprieve from the growing, groaning demands of my incessant need for new-to-me books.

It's not gonna happen, folks. I've got the Chatham County library sale and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro PTA seasonal clearance both coming up in March, and I seriously doubt that the trauma of passing those up would draw me closer to God.

What will draw me closer to God? Continuing to work my way through the exercises of meditation on forgiveness and self-examination that I found (in one of those used books, thank you very much), culminating in making confession to a real live human being. The only trouble is that, since I've become a reluctant Presbyterian rather than a wanna-be Episcopalian, I no longer have ready access to practiced confessors. Were I still an aspiring Anglican, I could just make an appointment with my parish priest. There's even a rite (two, in fact) for it right there in the blessed BCP, so we'd know just what to do, even if I were in a parish where they don't commonly practice the rite of reconciliation. As it is, I'm not sure who to ask. I have a few ideas, but I'm open to suggestions.

As for the books: I spent (cough) $65 at the Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library Sale this weekend. That breaks down to $15 membership dues in order to get me into the "Friends Only" pre-sale sale (I am now officially a "citizen committed to furthering the excellence of the Chapel Hill Public Library"), $44 for two boxes full of choice books found at that same pre-sale sale, and $6 for two brown grocery bags full of books at the sale-ending bag day. My price per individual book, if you leave out the membership fee, ranged from 8 cents to $2. I'd have to go back and count to get the exact total books purchased, but it's somewhere a little over 100.

I haven't finished sorting through my finds and assigning them to their ultimate destinations of personal library, Amazon stock, or Bookcrossing fodder, but at least they are no longer strewn on what little free floor space exists in my bedroom/office. All is decent and in order, as befits a Presbyterian library. I have, however, already sold three of them to other intrepid book collectors. I figure it'll take me a month or two to earn back the $65. With which, of course, I will turn around and buy more books.