Confessions of a Biblio-fiend, a poll of sorts

In My Humble Opinion
1

I admit it. I say before God, Man, The SDMB at large and Cecil himself:

My name is Fenris, and I am a Biblioholic. I exhibit all the classic symptoms.[ul]
[li]I buy books that look interesting, even though I know nothing about them (I got a book on the history of the “Struwwelpeter” poems, on a whim.) I’ve been known to buy a book based on cool cover art (I just got a copy of “Revenge of the Triffids” with a great 50’s cover)[/li][li]I love reading. I constantly read. Even when I’m watching TV by myself, I read during the commercials.[/li][li]I love the feel and smell of books[/li][li]When I bought my house, a prime consideration was a basement that I could turn into a library (I did)[/li][li]Even though my backlog of as-yet unread books numbers in the hundreds, I continue to buy them. ( I’ll get to them eventually. If nothing else, I’ll retire someday, and I’ll be ready!).[/li][li]I find it…comforting in some deep emotional way to be in a room filled with books.[/li][li]In my briefcase I have at least 3 or 4 books (either new to me, or rereads). In the trunk of my car, with the rest of my emergency kit, I have about a half-dozen well-loved paperbacks…the sort that I can always re-read, in case I’m trapped somewhere.[/li][li]When waiting in line, I usually read a book. I can’t go to sleep unless I read for a while first. I take books with me into the bathroom.[/li][li]My idea of a fun afternoon is scrounging in one or more used-book stores. Often, when I get into a new town, I check the yellow pages for used book stores first thing once I’m in my hotel room.[/li][/ul]
I admit it. I’m hooked. While most of my friends are readers, I’m gently (honestly: it’s not mean-spirited at all) teased about my addiction. I reach out to the Teeming Millions. Since I don’t want to be cured, I must know: how many other Biblifiends are out there? Or am I alone in my bibliofiend-ness?

Fenris

2

I swear, we should have met IRL.

Stacks and stacks of books everywhere. Always have at least one that I’m reading. At one point (in elementary school), I intended to ‘read all the books in the library’. I got to the “c” authors before it dawned on me that it was an impossible task.

During my obligatory piano lessons (my sister and I, both had to - it was either piano or ballet, and I was really quite clumsy), while I was waiting for my lesson to start, I’d read the encylcopedia.

Stacks by my bedside. Stacks in my office. In my car.

(all this and Bugs Bunny, too!?!?!?)

3

sigh You have described my life. I travel frequently for work-for a week at a time. My suitcase typically has 3-4 books in it, because I wouldn’t want to get bored with one.

I have 4 bookcases(stuffed full) in my small apartment. Beyond that, there are the stacks of books next to the bed, under the bed, and in the closet. There are the library books, the purchased books, the books I bought used. Bookstores-I love them, and they are the bane of my checkbook.

I can look around my living room right now and see 6 books that I am partway through. Some of them are well loved classics. Some I am reading for the first time. Some I will never finish, but I have them anyway, because they are books.

4

One of the main reasons we bought our house was the floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves in one of the bedrooms – does that answer your question? It is the smallest room in the house, but IT’S ALL MINE!

The number of unread books I own is only around 20, I think, but we just moved in a month ago and until then I was seriously space-limited. Mr. Winkie is not similarly obsessed, and in fact gets a little cranky when he can’t get my attention while I’m reading (I’m sorry, honey, how many times did you have to say my name? Only 25 this time?)

Books are in the backseat of my car, the trunk, on my nightstand, in my nightstand, in my desk drawer at work, under the living room table …

5

I can’t resist replying to these book lover threads, even though it is usually a “me too” post.

I am like a crazed weasel if I am somewhere without a book. I have to whip one out when I am on line at the grocery store, sitting in the movie theater before the previews, or waiting to meet someone. I brought a book to a Rev. Horton Heat concert once, much to the grand mortification of the people I was going with (I was at a really good part, though, and I couldn’t leave it at home).

I think the best example I ever heard was from another bibliofiend, who told me that she always keeps a spare book in her car, in case she is ever in a car accident, is trapped in her vehicle, and has to wait for emergency personnel to arrive. I can picture her saying “Could you wait just a minute for the jaws of life? I’m at the part where Lady Brett is going to the bullfight.”

Speaking of cars, here’s a danger. You’re driving home from the bookstore, stopped at a red light, and you can’t help but peer in the bookstore bag, you know, just to read the dust jacket. I would never drink and drive, but now I have to force myself to put the bag in the back seat, to thwart my compulsion to operate a moving vehicle while sneaking just a quick look at the preface.

There’s a curse too, in being able to read very quickly. What if you finish the book you are reading while you are out of the house, and can’t get to a bookstore to buy another?

6

That’s one of the reasons I have several hundred books in my “to read” pile. I live in Colorado. In the Foothills. Until recently, the nearest non-Walden/B.Dalton “Science Fiction-That’s like…Star Trek, right?” crappy bookstore was about 20 miles away. No big deal, unless there’s a foot-and-a-half of snow and a raging blizzard outside.

As God is my witness: I’ll never go bookless again! (not that I have in a couple of decades.)

Regarding your Rev. Horton Heat story, my dad, when I was about 12 forced me to go to a Broncos game. I hated football and had no interest in going. He insisted that I try it one time (he was big on the “Try it at least once. If you don’t like it, fine” philosophy, which overall, is a good philosophy). A fight over the game raged for a week. I don’t remember why I was so vehemently opposed to going, but I was. It ended up being a power-struggle in the end. The day of the game, he’d expected to have to drag me and was suprised that I gave in fairly easily. Little did he know…

Picture it: The Family Fenris, on the 40 yard line, in a crowd of screaming, excited fans. And Young Fenris, blithely ignoring the screams, the yells, the oddball stares that he’s getting, as he pulls one paperback after another out of various pockets, quietly reading. The Family Fenris was mortified. In Denver, during the height of “Orange Crush” Mania, when demand for tickets is literally causing fistfights in the street, one does not go to a Bronco game and ignore the Broncos, in the same way that one does not fornicate with one’s sister. Dad still brings this up from time to time in an irritated/amused tone. (I still remember some of the books. I finished The Magician’s Nephew, re-read Have Spacesuit, Will Travel and started on some Beatles book or other (Apple to the Core, maybe?)

Wring, we do have a lot in common, don’t we? :slight_smile: Ah well, cest la vie. <sigh>

Fenris

7

Colorado, eh? Damn.

the reading too fast is a problem. Libraries, used book stores, garage sales, gift giving occasions are my friends.

This past holiday season, my siblings and I got together with our kids/spousi. My brother’s eldest daughter (who, tho tall, physically resembles me at the same age, has quite a few mannerisms that are similar etc.), brought a book along. At one point, she looked up, saw me there, apologized and started to put it away, and I told her I was ok w/it, that I’d done the same sort of thing myself.

When my dad moved to FL, he gave me all the family books, (along with his 5 copies of * None dare call it treason* but I digress), I gave most of the ‘classics’ to her.

Back around the time I got married, my (now ex, can you tell why?) husband complained to my mom that “she’s always got her nose stuck in a book”. She told him to get used to it. He didn’t. :smiley:

8

There’s a way to make your books last longer: chew each page thirty times before swallowing.

9

Books, a man’s best friend. I have always been at least four books behind my purchases in terms of having read them. Right now I’m about 12 (although I’ve at least begun 3 of them). My parents are in the process of getting a divorce and selling the house, and want to get rid of most of their books (won’t have room in a smaller place). So, being the brave and noble savior to books that I am, I have relocated a great many of them to my one room I have in an apartment I share with four other people. They are just keeping the other stacks of books company (now if only I had a place to sleep…)

10

Yay! I’m not a freak! Today I got paid, and today I spent $80 on books (a third of my paycheck!). I bought a book for my best friend, who is graduating from massage school next week. I bought a poetry journal for another friend, just because. I spent three hours in heaven, or Barnes & Noble, what have you.

I was driving to meet some friends for dinner and passed by my favorite Bibelot, which is closing down. :frowning: However, I spotted a huge sign that said SALE! so I stopped. All hardcovers were 15% off, paperback 10%, so I bought five books, all poetry: Michael Ondaajte, The Duino Elegies by Rilke, the love poems of Jelaluddin Rumt, Stephen Dunn’s new collection, Different Hours, and a collection of Octavio Paz. I also bought three sets of new bookplates. I was an hour late for dinner, but I couldn’t stop smiling!

I love reading. I constantly read. Even when I’m watching TV by myself, I read during the commercials.

I thought only I did this. I cannot sit still during a commercial break. If I don’t have a book, I will find one. I read during the previews at movies, in my car at stoplights (I’m usually tempted by the dust jacket, as Delphica said.) I have them with me at appointments, I take them to school in case the professor is late or class is canceled. I am literally never without a book.

I love the feel and smell of books

sigh Nothing smells better than a brand new book, except for an old one. I especially love when old books, with creased pages that look well-worn, smell faintly of perfume or flowers - it’s like the person who read it first is still reading it with you.

When I bought my house, a prime consideration was a basement that I could turn into a library (I did)

My bedroom has four IKEA Billy bookshelves, stuffed full with books. I have over 900. I think 300 or so are in the attic, and I just gave away some old paperbacks to Purple Heart - like 100. I dream of having my own library one day.

Even though my backlog of as-yet unread books numbers in the hundreds, I continue to buy them. ( I’ll get to them eventually. If nothing else, I’ll retire someday, and I’ll be ready!).

I hit up library sales like a madwoman - 10 cents a book! The 300 or so in my attic are unread ones from library sales. Sometimes I’ll go up there to find a book and spend hours in the extreme heat or cold, depending on the season, breathing in insulation. Nothing makes me happier. :slight_smile:

I find it…comforting in some deep emotional way to be in a room filled with books.

Yup. A home without books is spooky. What do such people do when they are bored?

In my briefcase I have at least 3 or 4 books (either new to me, or rereads). In the trunk of my car, with the rest of my emergency kit, I have about a half-dozen well-loved paperbacks…the sort that I can always re-read, in case I’m trapped somewhere.

Check. There are about 20 books in my car right now, all over the back seat.

When waiting in line, I usually read a book. I can’t go to sleep unless I read for a while first. I take books with me into the bathroom.

Check, check, check. I don’t feel so alone anymore!

My idea of a fun afternoon is scrounging in one or more used-book stores. Often, when I get into a new town, I check the yellow pages for used book stores first thing once I’m in my hotel room.

Yuppers. I spent my week in Ocean City, MD, last summer scouting four or five used books stores (all the island had to offer, sadly). Sometimes I’ll drive an hour to Taneytown in Western MD just to check out my favorite antique shop. The owner lets me up into the second floor (usually off limits) where she has thousands of books. I spend the entire day there sometimes.

It’s wonderful knowing there are others like me. There is nothing in the world better than a book, absolutely nothing.

11

A minor correction:

There’s nothing better than a book, absolutely nothing, unless it’s someone to share the joy of books with (like now :)! )

Fenris, listening to the rain and feeling quiet.

12

I’ve still never met (IRL) anyone who could read faster than I can, although I suspect some of the posters on this board could give me a run for my money.

I take at least four novels on long plane trips, in case I finish one or one turns out to suck. I also read in the lines at grocery stores. I read on my lunch hour at work. I read in the bathtub (ah joy), I read in bed, I read all the time. I read all of Ursula LeGuin’s “Lathe of Heaven” while stopped at stoplights during the commute between my job and my boyfriend’s job. (Over a three-week period.)

We have an extremely tiny house, made tinier by the bookshelves lining the walls. We keep buying more shelves, but our book acquisitions perpetually outpace them. There are books stacked under my desk, under the table, beside the couch, ON the couch, under the bed, in the bathroom, and in every other conceivable place in the house. I did finally declare the kitchen a book-free zone, because I was tired of cleaning food drips from the pages.

I’ve been trying very hard to use my library card as much as possible, both to save myself some money and to stave off the constant influx of new books that threatens to take over our entire house. (Who am I trying to kid? They’ve already taken over. I should start charging rent.)

I finally got tired of continually running across books that I’d bought and totally forgotten about, so I have now designated two shelves of one of the bookcases as the “books I have not yet read” shelf. Books that I have just bought go there, in theory. It’s just nice to know that there’s one place where I can always find a book or fifty that I haven’t read yet.

God, I love books.

13

Whether or not you believe in heaven, you have now entered it.

And Fenris… yes, books, books, books. There are only two bad things about books: 1. They end. Every damn one of them ends; 2. No matter how good a book is, you can only read it for the first time once. Once. It’s enough to make a man wish for amnesia, just so I could again discover Tolkien, Ted Hughes’ poetry, Heinlein, Rilke, Neruda, Borges, Chandler – I give up, the list is endless.

Books.

jm

14

I cannot read enough. Every moment of every day, I’m reading. I read to put myself to sleep at night, and I read to wake up in the morning. I read in the bathroom, I read at the table. I read all the time. However, I feel guilty about wasting money on books, so I re-read a lot. I have half a dozen well loved books that have been read so many times that I recently had to replace some of them, because they were falling apart. I still love reading kids books, as well as adults books, and I find joy in the knowledge that I can enjoy some of those books now as much as I did when I was a child (when I was young, I dreaded growing up, because I couldn’t stand the thought that I’d grow out of my books!).
My bedside table usually contains an eccentric mix of books I’ve just finished, and books I’m about to read. At the moment, it has JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta, White Oleander, Jackie Collins and a few odds and ends floating around.

15

Hehe. I can absolutely relate to that! I kind of wonder about people who don’t read or have a lot of books around their house. I keep magazines & newspapers in my vehicles for reading emergencies. I cannot imagine taking a bath without reading a book in there while the water cools around me. I never travel with less than about 10lbs of reading material.

I have two friends who are similar readers. Every couple of months we get all our expendable books together & swap reading material. I am forever buying books for friends. I can spend hours & hours in bookstores.

Next to my bed right now: Jeffery Deaver’s “Hells Kitchen.” D.H. Lawrence “The Plumed Serpent.” “American Wildlife Illustrated” Alan Lightman “Einstein’s Dreams.” Andrew Brace “The Ultimate Rottweiler.” Pete Earley"s “Circumstantial Evidence.” And a book on Muslim Festivals and Ceremonies. And The Onion.

16

Hi, my name is Pies, and I’m addicted to books. It’s taken me a while to be able to admit this, but the last straw was when I had to move from a third floor apartment to a ground floor one, due to concerns about structural integrity; heavy reading, so to say. Primarily, I read mathematics textbooks :).

17

Fenris, with the exception of the travelling, briefcase, and the fact that you did buy a house with room for a library, your post could have been written by me.

I’m addicted to used book stores, flea markets and garage sales. Someone has to come with me just to drag me out of Chapters when I go. I’m always in the middle of at least three books, plus magazines and newspapers. I also usually have a huge pile of unread books. Books are taking over my house. I have them piled everywhere. The main consideration when I buy my house will be if there is enough room for a library.

Thank god we don’t live together. Um, unless you have some good books…

18

Same here. I have one shelf dedicated to “favorites” - about thirty books that I have read time and again. I just bought a new copy of The English Patient by Michael Ondaajte - when I first bought it, I was in the habit of highlighting, starring, underlining passages I loved. I dropped it in the bathtub so many times that the ink smeared and I couldn’t read the words. (I now have much more respect for the integrity of books and don’t mark them up. I just bend the corners of the page back a tiny bit so I can find the passage easily).

I still read The Little Prince, The Secret Garden, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Wind in the Willows, Anne of Green Gables, A Wrinkle in Time and the Chronicles of Narnia. I just bought a beautiful set of the entire Chronicles, bound in leather.

Fenris - I stand corrected. Sadly, though, IRL, I have no friends who love reading as passionately as I do. Even the English majors. :frowning:

Here’s a question maybe one of you can answer: does anyone remember the title or author of a series of children’s book that focused on a dog solving myseries? I believe he was an old baset hound - some big furry type dog. All his animal friends would help. Age range - maybe 12-14. I remember being deliciously spooked by them when I was 8 or 9, and want to find them again.

19

I love reading. I read all of the time. Whether it be on the internet, in a newspaper/magazine, or in a book, I am constantly reading. At breakfast, if I don’t have a newspaper, I’ll read the cereal box.

But now something horrible has happened in my world. My teacher is making gulp donate some of my books. Now, I have an issue with this. I’m all for people reading, and I want to help, but I spend 6-30$ on books because I read them. And I always re-read a book at least a dozen times (Obviously, not in a row.)
So, what am I supposed to do?

20

I am, at the moment, chewing my fist to keep myself from buying the new Spenser that was just released about a week ago.

A few weeks ago, I spent over fifty bucks at Barnes and Noble on four books for a weekend trip to North Dakota. That is bad.

I now have to pack my books, and decide which ones to take, and which ones to leave with my non-reading husband. I know which ones I’m taking for sure: All my Spensers, my Straight Dope books, my signed copy of High Five by Janet Evanovich, my cartoon books, my Onion books, my Dave Barry books. The rest get picked through and agonized over, then packed in a box.

I’m not picky about where I live, but I need bookshelves and a quiet place to read. My dream room is built around them, and a house isn’t a home without them.

[sub]Rob, when I’m in Houston, you’ll have to show me the library, ok?[/sub]
Robin