Pushing My Love Over the Border(s)line

Last night was particularly brutal. After a really great time at a couple Cleveland Park bars with Johnny Fajitas & his fairly awesome older brother, he & I engaged in a killer argument circa 5 a.m. that resulted in his leaving my apartment in a cab, saying we wouldn't see one another before his move to Colorado in a week & a half. As a result, I spent today feeling like a huge jerk & just basically being really disappointed that such a fun dating experience ended on such an abrupt & negative note.

Today's sort-of solution? Wandering Borders by myself at 8:30 p.m. I was on my way home from dinner with a friend & decided that if I was near a bookstore, I couldn't help going in. Whether I'm in the 'burbs or the big city, the one constant soother, for me, is bookstores. Big ones, small ones, chain stores, Mom & Pop shops, new books, used books - they all have the same effect on my emotions. Tonight, I spent about an hour browsing titles I refused to drop full-price cash on, including awhile spent reading PostSecret books (& leaving a secret of my own inside one, written on a receipt). And while it didn't solve my Johnny Fajitas problem, it did relax/distract/calm me. As I tweeted earlier, "Nothing solves everything like a trip to Borders."

As we all know, my apartment is incredibly, unbearably tiny. In fact, it's so small - & my book collection is apparently so large - that I've run out of room for new novels. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do when I start wanting to read new stuff. My mother, the librarian, is going to read this & encourage me to stop shelling out dough for books when I could get the same at my local library (conveniently located right next door), but there's something about owning books & looking at shelves full of them - of my books, ones that I like & want - that makes me infinitely happy.

So here's a quick peek at my personal library. What's on your book shelves?