{"id":65983,"date":"2025-06-29T05:51:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T09:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/?p=65983"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:29:10","slug":"my-love-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/mon-amour-des-livres\/","title":{"rendered":"My love of books"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my big home, transformed into a library, there\u2019s only a small corner left with room on a bookshelf for another book. All the walls are lined with bookcases, a collection of bestsellers I\u2019ve been dusting for over 30 years. There\u2019s a very long table in my four-season sunroom on which my most recent acquisitions are piling up. And the table is overflowing! I read incessantly, most times unable to separate the good from the bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m no expert when it comes to novels. On the other hand, when someone suggests a book by Dany Laferri\u00e8re, I read the back cover and buy it regardless of the price, though it\u2019s almost always second-hand. I know, I\u2019m a compulsive buyer when it comes to books. I\u2019m totally unable to resist delicious poetry volumes that enrich my mind. Since I live in the country, my weekly trips revolve around second-hand bookstores, and there are so many in our beautiful Laurentians! Especially in the summertime when people everywhere hold yard sales and lay out their merchandise in the sun. I\u2019ve often gotten my hands on incredible finds that were in good condition, some classics and even a few rarities whose pages had barely been touched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love books even more than I love ice cream or fudge! Of course, I sometimes fall for a gripping title before I even read the back cover. I seriously think my love of books is turning into an obsession. Really! I glance, I gaze, I get carried away. I grew up and then lived without affection, attention and, worse, even love. Am I compensating today by accumulating so many great books to keep me company? These piles of books certainly fill an existential void. Each one perhaps camouflaging the bars of an imaginary prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can I free myself from this compulsive obsession to buy books, no matter how amazing they are? It\u2019s my worst flaw, my vice: being a compulsive buyer who can\u2019t stop herself from constantly buying new or used books I will probably never read, not even partially. There are some true book lovers who leaf through them with respect, keep a few of their favourite ones and display them like trophies on their shelves, a bit like me. And then there\u2019s the real me, the maniac shopper who can\u2019t resist buying new works that I most likely will never have time to read. Will my love of books die with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With tears in my eyes, I\u2019ve already given away six large IKEA bags filled with my best cookbooks to municipal organizations. I was warmly thanked for it; maybe I should do the same for some of the classics and novels I\u2019ve pretty much all read. How will I manage? I\u2019ll never be able to sort through them all, and discarding them would break my heart. For all kinds of reasons, I love each one of my books \u2013 especially those that\u2019ve taught me how to live, express myself and write properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All these pages that speak to me, the invented stories, the Sunday letters and a few published books. My life can be summed up as an accumulation of printed words, carefully preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cora<br>\u2665\ufe0f<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my big home, transformed into a library, there\u2019s only a small corner left with room on a bookshelf for another book. All the walls are lined with bookcases, a collection of bestsellers I\u2019ve been dusting for over 30 years. There\u2019s a very long table in my four-season sunroom on which my most recent acquisitions are piling up. And the table is overflowing! I read incessantly, most times unable to separate the good from the bad. I\u2019m no expert when it comes to novels. On the other hand, when someone suggests a book by Dany Laferri\u00e8re, I read the back cover and buy it regardless of the price, though it\u2019s almost always second-hand. I know, I\u2019m a compulsive buyer when it comes to books. I\u2019m totally unable to resist delicious poetry volumes that enrich my mind. Since I live in the country, my weekly trips revolve around second-hand bookstores, and there are so many in our beautiful Laurentians! Especially in the summertime when people everywhere hold yard sales and lay out their merchandise in the sun. I\u2019ve often gotten my hands on incredible finds that were in good condition, some classics and even a few rarities whose pages had barely been touched. I love books even more than I love ice cream or fudge! Of course, I sometimes fall for a gripping title before I even read the back cover. I seriously think my love of books is turning into an obsession. Really! I glance, I gaze, I get carried away. I grew up and then lived without affection, attention and, worse, even love. Am I compensating today by accumulating so many great books to keep me company? These piles of books certainly fill an existential void. Each one perhaps camouflaging the bars of an imaginary prison. How can I\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":65984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Sa grande maison est devenue une biblioth\u00e8que : Mme Cora raconte son amour des livres et sa difficult\u00e9 \u00e0 trouver de la place pour un nouveau.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-65983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65983"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}