# Confessions of a Biblio-fiend, a poll of sorts **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2001, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227 "2001-03-23T22:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/41 "2001-03-25T13:06:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > **Having one in my backpack makes me feel special and secure.** That’s it exactly. I _hate_ flying (I get airsick easily, which stresses me out) But if I have a backpack stuffed with a ton of books, it functions as a security blanket almost. \*\* > [@](#): > > Oh, and I loved Day of the Triffids. There is a sequel?\*\* No, just a “new and improved” title (which, as it turns out, I got wrong. Should’ve been “Revolt…”) . And, as I said, a GREAT cover. I posted it [here](http://www.geocities.com/sparker_9/coolcovers.html) Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Alonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Alonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alonist)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/42 "2001-03-25T13:36:38Z")
Ah, those great old 50’s covers. I did books from age 3 until age 50, now I do computers and Real Life, or as much of it as gets through my buffers. I still _buy_ books, of course…I just don’t read them. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/43 "2001-03-25T15:44:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara \* > \*\*Yup. A home without books is spooky. What do such people _do_ when they are bored? > \*\* I always find bookless homes to be really, really spooky. I always feel like I’ve stepped into a Body Snatchers movie or something… IME bookless homes always have a lot of shelves, too- they just fill them with knicknacks and photos, instead of books. My own confession? On any given trip to the main library, I check out as many books as I can carry. I also have a tendency to read textbooks for fun, although it’s a strenuous sort of fun. Right now I’m reading a book on Graph Theory. -Ben ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/44 "2001-03-25T19:32:46Z")
I was just looking down at my sweatshirt and realized that the book obsession doesn’t end with the books. I am wearing a sweatshirt that I purchased at Murder by the Book in Denver last week that reads “I must build another book case” (that is far too accurate). My wife and I have shirts that read, “Bookwoman,”(actually that one is just hers) “So many books so little time,” “Read a banned book” “I don’t have to see the movie, I read the book” and “Celebrate literacy, read a book.” We have others with author’s pictures on them and still others with pictures of books on them, and yet others with bookstore names or pictures on them. A good portion of our coffee cups have either authors or literary characters on them (one of our favorite sets is one with the addresses of famous fictional detectives -221 B Baker Street, West 35 Street, 14 Farraway St, etc. Dominating our dining room is a huge painting of William Shakespeare (wedding gift from a painter friend ouf ours who knew our fondness for the classics). Don’t even ask about book bags or book marks. I think we are all sick people, but isn’t it a delightful illness, and personally, I don’t look forward to a cure being found. ---
**Author:** ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/45 "2001-03-25T20:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > And, as I said, a GREAT cover. I posted it [here](http://www.geocities.com/sparker_9/coolcovers.html) OhMyGod Cool Cover! Ben, Nacho4Sara - you are right - houses without books ARE spooky. The first thing I tend to do in someone’s house is to check out their bookshelf, and if they don’t have one, I feel like a whole conversation starter is down the drain. When you live abroad, books in your language are precious commodities, passed lovingly from expat to expat. And when you are lonely, far from home, and desparate, you’ll read ANYTHING. I still remember being in this apartment in Romania with my friend Kristin for about a month, working our way through the bookshelf of romance novels, detective stories, true crime - total pulp. We needed to make that stuff last, though, because once we ran out there was nothing but two copies of Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. :eek: Eventually, the unthinkable happened - actually one of my funniest memories is reading passages of Dianetics aloud to one another, trying to figure out what the hell it meant. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/46 "2001-03-25T21:28:18Z")
This thread is so theraputic, I feel as if I can finally share my secret weirdnesses with fellow addicts. Maybe not _quite_ as bad as reading Dianetics (but why did they need two copies??), but I will actually read the phone book. There have been countless times when I’ve pulled out the phone book to look up a number, and half an hour later, I am still there, reading the listings. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/47 "2001-03-25T21:50:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > \*\* > > When you live abroad, books in your language are precious commodities, passed lovingly from expat to expat. And when you are lonely, far from home, and desparate, you’ll read ANYTHING. \*\* I still remember the relief that day in Germany when I discovered the bookstore selling the USAToday. Was I ever thrilled. It didn’t matter that it was Sunday, and the paper was from Friday. It was words, dammit! And in a REAL language, no less. Ah, bliss. Sign me up for the club, too, although I’m more of a magazine person. I’ll read anything, though. Preferably nonfiction. My solution to the “carrying around a backpack full of books” problem? A Palm Pilot. 6 books, including the entire Hitchhiker’s Guide series, a dictionary, and the day’s NYTimes front page, plus my schedule, tetris, and a map of all the world’s subways, in a container the size of a pack of index cards. And I STILL have 3mb of RAM free. Best $200 I ever spent. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/48 "2001-03-25T22:29:23Z")
A have a quote from Cicero attached to my bedside reading lamp: “A room without books is like a body without a soul” Cheers, Hodge ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/49 "2001-03-25T22:40:49Z")
Ah, good quote, **Hodge**. However, I like: _When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left, I buy food and clothes._ Erasmus ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/50 "2001-03-25T22:46:22Z")
I don’t have a lot to add, because anything I might say about me and my wife would be almost completely redundant to what everybody else has said. Two things, though: > [@](#): > > **Peregrine:** I buy books way faster than I can read them. Hell, we bring books into the house **faster than I can build shelves for them.** My wife’s out at the bookstore right now, in fact. Oh, and **Hodge**? > [@](#): > > I even enjoy the effort of digging through multiple copies of Danielle Steele and Alex Hailey on the chance I may unearth the treasure of a first edition **Contact** by Carl Sagan Don’t freak out or anything, but **mine is sitting on the couch right next to me as I type this.** 😉 Other early editions I’m proud to own: I have a copy of the very first paperback run of _Stand on Zanzibar_ by John Brunner, and I also have a copy of the score to Gilbert and Sullivan’s _The Mikado_, print run dated 1890-something. Needless to say, I don’t take it out much; this baby stays in the box. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2001, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/51 "2001-03-25T23:08:45Z")
where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore! henry beecher tveblen, you scared me a bit. i also carry a book onto elevators just incase; with a flashlight (the lights might go out). if you see me eating in a restaurant 9 times out of 10 i’ll be with a book not a person. on my last vacation trip there was an independant bookstore across the street from the hotel. a used bookstore around the corner. i usually just post the books that i have finished reading when i’m on holiday. that way there is more room in the suitcase for books. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/52 "2001-03-26T00:09:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by delphica \* > **Maybe not _quite_ as bad as reading Dianetics (but why did they need two copies** Well, duh: what happens if Xenu the Theatan gives them both engrams _at the same time_? Hmmmmm??? Then I’ll bet they’re glad they both have “The Modern Miracle of Mental Health” 😉 Fenris, a true Clear, since I read Cecil! (And BTW: I’ve managed to get a coverless, beat-up copy of the Analog/Astounding that has the very first Dianetics articles by Campbell and Hubbard. It’s only gotten dumber since then. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/53 "2001-03-26T00:52:59Z")
Therapy, indeed… I truly don’t understand how people NOT addicted to books can be that way. How can they _live_ that way and what do they possibly use to fill the vacuum? It baffles when people express suprise about reading, e.g. “I can never find time to read.” It’s like not finding time to _breathe_. It isn’t like I don’t do and enjoy other things as well but it’d be like going without oxygen. Veb ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/54 "2001-03-26T09:10:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hodge \* > \*\*A have a quote from Cicero attached to my bedside reading lamp: > “A room without books is like a body without a soul” > > Cheers, > Hodge \*\* Yes, I’ve got that one, too. On a bookmark. A present from my sister: my family members know me so well… And this thread reminds me: I _must_ build another bookcase. I have huge tottering piles of books, and not enough space. If only there were some sort of e-book thing that gave you the feel of a real book. I have a few etexts downloaded onto my Palm IIIx, they’re good enough to tide me over when I’m away from my library and the craving gets too bad to ignore, but it’s _not the same thing_. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/55 "2001-03-26T17:40:26Z")
[quote] It baffles when people express suprise about reading, e.g. “I can never find time to read.” It’s like not finding time to breathe. It isn’t like I don’t do and enjoy other things as well but it’d be like going without oxygen. [/quote Amen, sister! There are so many periods throughout the day when having a paperback on hand is absolutely vital; riding the Metro, eating lunch, waiting in line at the post office. I have always been a heavy reader, and I shudder to think what I have spent on books over the years. One of my addictions is checking out the Edward R. Hamilton and A Common Reader catalogs. Currently, I’m reading several books at once: **Dreamcatcher** , by Stephen King, **The Wellsprings of Life** , by Isaac Asimov **Shakespeare’s Kings** , by John Julius Norwich **Poets and Murder** , by Edward van Gulik. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/56 "2001-03-26T20:14:10Z")
Just chiming in with a “Me too!” That Edward R. Hamilton catalog will be the ruin of me yet… ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/57 "2001-03-27T02:18:49Z")
Shucks, I can’t resist chiming in here. A proud bibliophile since earliest memory (reading the newspaper comics pre- first grade.) There’s a great **Heinlein** quote that I believe is from “Glory Road.” Star, Rufo, and Oscar the Hero are camping out and Oscar the Hero can’t get to sleep. His narration to the reader mentions that he has a habit “more addictive than morphine,” saying that he reads anything and everything he gets his hands on, mentioning “35¢ worth of Gold Medal Original” and that he reads “in bed, on the john, when dining alone, and would read in my sleep if I could figure a way…” (Sorry to not be able to recite the whole paragraph from fallible memory, and I don’t have my library with me at work. No doubt Fenris or Podkayne can straighten me out.) R.A.H.'s quote pretty well sums up my attitude. For happy memories, remember junior high and the Scholastic Book Club? When they issued catalogs to us and I realized that I could pick itema and wheedle the folks for a few bucks and the company would actually send me brand new books in the mail…well, it was an epiphany, and that first fat corrugated envelope in our mailbox was heaven. Have been accumulating (with various purges) for about 40 years now, and just over two years ago married a lady with her OWN massive set of books. Bookshelves in every room but the laundry room. Bliss! Gotta love old bookstores, library sales, yard sales, etc. One of the great joys in living within 90 minutes of Portland, Oregon is the amazing Powell’s bookstore, one of the finest in the country (which has expanded over the past couple of decades to fill a complete city block, half of which is now multiple stories. It’s a definite rush to walk through their doors. Picked up the following quote recently that also seems to speak to all of us. Anyone know the source? “Of course you don’t have enough room for your books. If you did, you wouldn’t be worth knowing.” Thanks for listening to the babble. We live in a moderately small town, and I can tell you which day the Fred N. Bay News Company delivers new paperbacks to the various supermarkets… ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/58 "2001-03-27T02:48:41Z")
To my (uncertain) knowledge, I am the **only person** in my family who reads for pleasure AND keeps the books. I’m not talking immediate family, here (I know about them), I’m talking pretty extended family. Some don’t read, some read a little, no one keeps the books around. Spooky. I once walked into a friend’s apartment for the first time, saw his book collection, and asked him to marry me. I was only half fooling. _sigh_ Yes, I am a confirmed book-a-holic. If you like me, you will take me to all the used book stores you know of. You will help me build bookshelves, because I can’t build them fast enough to keep up with my habit (and these are IKEA shelves, so it’s not like it takes much skill or effort). (And I’m running out of places to put them.) Someday, I hope to organize a pilgramage to as many used book stores in the state of NJ as can be traveled to in a weekend. Or maybe a week–gotta have time to browse, after all. My great ambition is to secure admittance to Harlan Ellison’s library, which is reported to contain a quarter of a million books. I want to move in. I’ll even dust them. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/59 "2001-03-27T03:27:10Z")
I was talking to a friend the other day about a situation I’m in, and I said, “I feel just like the main character in _Memoirs of a Geisha_, blah blah blah.” (I forgot the main character’s name right now - Yakuri, I think). The friend pointed out that I always align myself with characters in books. It’s almost typological, really, because for me, these books are my Bible. I’d never align myself with Job or the Israelites, but boy do I see myself in Francie from _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ and in Pilate in _Song of Solomon_. Sometimes I go on crazy lit kicks and practically give lectures. Another friend asked about the part of the movie Shakespeare in Love, when Queen Elizabeth makes the bet that a playwright cannot capture the true nature of love. An hour later, I was talking about Socrates’s lost theory from Plato’s _Dialogue_ (IIRC) and ranting about the inconsistencies in the movies timeline - everyone knows that Shakespeare wrote _Romeo and Juliet_ after _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, not _Two Gentlemen of Verona_. I’m practically insufferable, but my friends put up with me, for some reason. 🙂 My current reading list: [ul] [li]_Twelfth Night_ and _All’s Well That Ends Well_ for Shakespeare 351.[/li][li]_Paradise_ by Toni Morrison.[/li][li]_Wuthering Heights_ by Emily Bronte.[/li][li]_The Lamplighter_ by Cummins for American Lit.[/li][li]_The Cinnamon Peeler_ by Michael Ondaajte.[/li][li]_The Collected Works of Rainer Maria Rilke_.[/ul][/li] The coolest thing is, I’m reading the Ondaajte and tearing through Rilke’s _Duino Elegies_ and Ondaajte dedicates part of a poem to Rilke! Ondaajte is touch and go, but Rilke is pure genious. Stephen Dunn will always be my favorite poet, but Rilke is a close second. ---
**Author:** ![dodge\_this](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dodge\_this](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dodge_this)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227/60 "2001-03-27T14:40:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara \* > **Stephen Dunn will always be my favorite poet, but Rilke is a close second.** Just wanted to hijack this thread to say I LOVE STEPHEN DUNN. Sadly, no one I know has any information on him. I’ve tried surfing for it…nothing ☹ Would appreciate it if you could point me to a website or any bio info. Thanks! Now, back to books… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-biblio-fiend-a-poll-of-sorts/59227.md?page=4)