Stacks of Promises

It felt as though it called out to me, begging me to take it home with me. A book I had never heard of before stood out among its neighbors on the shelf. I ran my fingers along the gold lettering on the spine, and without hesitation, placed it in my shopping basket, and paid the kind woman working the cash register. When I arrived home, I placed it on one of the ever-growing piles of books that sit on the floor in front of my overflowing bookcase, where I knew it would likely sit untouched for a long time, much like the others beneath it.

I collect books like some people collect baseball cards.

As an avid reader, I know I won’t get to them all right away — but that’s never the point. I don’t read only to finish. I read to feel. To escape, to remember, to imagine, to understand. And even when I’m not reading, the books still speak to me. Their presence alone shifts the room’s energy. They make my space feel fuller, wiser, more alive.

Each one is chosen with quiet care. Not for display, but for the way they make me feel in the moment I find them — hopeful, nostalgic, curious, seen. A stack of unread stories doesn’t whisper guilt to me. It hums with comfort. Each book is a promise I’ve made to myself that someday, I’ll take the time.

Some afternoons, I pull my reading chair next to the stacks and simply sort through the books. Sometimes I choose one to leaf through, only to place it gently back in its place without reading a word. Just knowing they’re there is enough.

These books, with their uncreased spines and untouched pages, are not forgotten. They are resting. Waiting. Like letters from a future self.

And so the stack grows — not out of neglect, but from reverence. Not because I must read every one, but because collecting them brings me joy. A joy rooted in the delicious anticipation of stories not yet known, words not yet read, feelings not yet stirred.

This is not clutter. It is a constellation of paper and ink, of hope and possibility.

Cultivate your joy of reading with our newly released Bella Grace Issue 44.