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Oxfordictionary.com defines “acquire” (verb) as “to buy or obtain (an object or asset) for oneself” or “to learn or develop (a skill, habit or quality)”.

I am really good at acquiring things. Not valuable things, or rare things, or particularly unique things, but things. I am especially skilled at acquiring things involving papers, office supplies, or books. I don’t always purposefully go out hunting them, but books simply find me and follow me home. As anyone who has read Trigger’s Horse for any length of time could tell you, I am constantly struggling with finding room for these things. I currently have books in the 6′ tall bookcase in my bedroom, in stacks underneath my bed, on the shelves in my closet, and in more stacks on my bedroom floor. And there are boxes and boxes and boxes of them in my storage room.

Acquiring books is such a rush. Perhaps that is why I was so happy when I worked in the Fresno State College Library Acquisitions Department! (Yes, I was a student before the name was changed to CSU Fresno. It will always be Fresno State to me.) Part of my job was preparing the new books for circulation. At the Cuesta College library this job included typing the catalog cards (with a non-correcting typewriter, no less), but at Fresno State we ordered them pre-printed through the booksellers.

What about you? Is there anything you are particularly good at acquiring? Feel free to share in the comments below.