Books on Writing

I seem to have a hoarding problem:  I collect books about writing.  Many, many of them.  And how many have I read in their entirety?  Oh, I would guess about one-fifth of the collection.  I seem to believe that just having them on my shelf, the spines of the books watching me as I sleep, will somehow imbue me with inspiration, inculcate me with ideas, provide me with capacity to produce pages and pages...maybe instead of working on a novel, I should be writing about writing!  At least I would buy my book, in that event!  I've even gazed titles at bookstores, picked them up, flipped through them, gotten halfway to the register, and realized, 'Oh.  Wait.  I have this one.'

What's prompted this confession?  The new addition I received today, "Making a Literary Life" by Carolyn See.  But this was a legitimate purchase!  It was recommended to me by my PUBLISHED AUTHOR friend Judith Jaeger ("The Secret Thief".  Read it.)  And, I used a gift card, so...

I hope that the A&E network doesn't find about this and create a new series, 'Hoarders Of Books About What They Should Be Doing Instead of Just Collecting Books About Writing'.