The other day at Barnes & Noble, among other amazing treasures, I picked up the latest hardback from John Sandford and his Prey series. Once home, my husband grabbed Revenge Prey out of my hands, declaring first dibs. The next morning, I asked him how the book was going. He frowned, saying he was sad that it was almost over. That right there is a five-star review. Not that I’m surprised.

On a quest to discover if there were other Prey novels that we had missed, we scoured the shelves and pulled all titles by Sanford – including the Virgil Flower books (which we also love) and some other titles and lined them up. Assuming I’ve lent out copies of books, donated books to libraries, and probably missed a few titles packed on one of my many bookshelves, we counted 31 hardback books. At roughly $24 each, that’s about $744 that we’ve sent Mr. Sanford’s way.

Worth it? Every penny. With the exception of a few titles (which I don’t now recall), the guarantee of being entertained by the writer, along with holding a real book (hardback is better than paperback and both are way, way better than an Ebook) made them sound purchases. But Sanford is just one author who adds to the groaning weight on our shelves. So I’m not conducting this experiment again. A visual representation of our hobby made George raise an eyebrow as if a scandal were afoot, and he started making calculating noises about how much money that I’ve spent on the books. Oh, no, you don’t. He was cut off. Fairly politely, and not nearly as aggressively as he was attacked after commenting on the vertical height of the toppings on my sandwich that I was making for myself the other day. The boy is a slow learner. Or maybe he just tunes me out when I go into lecture mode. Which may make him smart. Hmm. Not sure which.

At any rate, the commitment and addiction are real. But I’m proud to be a lifelong reader, and I’m proud of supporting authors. And I love, love, love a good story. I can’t wait to dive into Revenge Prey. It’s brain candy.

Gobble gobble.

P.S. Thanks for the stories, Mr. Sandford. And you’re welcome—from a fan.