I may have the worst case of this affliction on the board. I have almost 10,000 books. I recently became a full time rare book dealer just to keep them moving. I have been reading on a book a day clip for the past year and don’t see any hope of stemming the accumulation. I routinely cart fifty pound boxes of paperbacks to the local paperback exchange and it doesn’t seem to make a damn bit of difference.
Does anyone else here suffer from the paranoia of dying while reading a book and not knowing how it ends for all eternity? And do you speed up your reading if this thought hits you?
I, too, have a book problem.
I buy books way faster than I can read them. I think I have about 1500 volumes now. And I still count the weeks until the next library sale, when books are practically free.
I buy books in languages I never expect to learn. I have The Egyptian Book of the Dead in Ancient Egyptian. Beowolf in Anglo-Saxon. La Chanson de Roland in Old French. I will never read them, but I enjoy their company.
Of course, I also have books I can read. I’m in the middle of three books right now. I keep one or two at my bedside, and there is one next to the phone, where I can pick it up to get me through those long calls of little content.
My eyes glaze over in libraries. I can spend hours browsing in the stacks, forgetting to eat. I made a pilgrimage to the London Library once. It cost fifty pounds for a temporary membership that allowed me to wander the stacks and check out books. I was only in town for a week, but it was glorious.
I have no desire to be cured of my dependence, but I would welcome advice on dealing with backstrain caused by carrying great loads of books, and with the eyestrain I’ve been experiencing since I learned that the internet is just one really big reference section.
Thanks for listening.
TPWombat - Yes! I was in the midst of a breast cancer scare when reading the Hyperion series. I was sure I was dying, and wondered how to apportion my remaining days. Family or Simmons? Good thing I didn’t have to choose.
Another obsessive bookie here, I’m afraid. My wife and I also live in Colorado. I think between Fenris and us, we are going to cause the state to sink a few feet from the weight of our books.
We live in the southern portion of the state, in a town with no bookstore. So recently on a trip to and from Denver, on the way back, we stopped in bookstores in Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo (basically every 60 miles) to make sure we had sufficient books at home. We probably had that before we left (but try to convince us of that).
And Fenris, you’re right about the only thing better than having books is having someone to share them with. When my wife and I married everyone asked what we had in common. I am very outdoorsy and she tends to be an indoor person. My family was small and hers is huge. She was raised religiously and I was not, etc, etc.
What we had/have (other than our love of one another) is a love of books. We read to one another at night and when on drives together. We wake one another up in the middle of the night just to share a phrase or quote (this is not always a good idea, but often very hard to keep from doing).
We have books of every type imaginable and we love them. Sometimes we don’t get to the book for a couple of years but we love them none-the-less.
MsRobyn, $50 at Barnes and Noble, hey, I spend more than that to walk in and use their bathroom. They should not put the rest rooms at the back of the building where you have to walk past all the books to get there.
Lolagrandola, even when you buy a house with a room set aside for a library, trust me, the books still take over the rest of the house. I speak from experience.
When I was in the service, they used to call me “the professor” because I always had three to four books somewhere on my person. When we stopped, ate, got on transport, sat or just stood in line, I would pull out a book. It got me through a war.
TV
“Read on McDuff and damned be him who calls, ‘hold enough’.”
i’m with y’all. not only do i read during commercials, i also read while waiting for the threads to open when i’m here. in the time this will post and i get back to pick the next thread i will have read 2-3 pp.
i am posting this from the library in my house. levengers gets an order for a bookbox or two every year when refund time comes along.
the most dangerous job i had was the 8 months i worked in a bookstore. i paid them way more than they paid me.
i am totally baffled by people who don’t read.
Ah, better. This is where all the people who didn’t show up in my MPSIMS thread are…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=64612
[end blatant plug]
I feel so much better knowing that there are more people than me who have this problem…
Fort Collins, CO bookaholic here. I often finish a book four to five hours before I should be getting up to go to work, end up with worse hangovers than from drinking (don’t drink much these days). I CANNOT put down a good book without finishing it. When I have read something really good, I want to tell everyone I know about it, but I know most of them don’t read much, so I don’t. I don’t see how anyone can prefer television, the writing is rarely as good as even mediocre fiction.
rocking chair, I too reach over to grab a book while waiting for a thread to load. Why open more than one SD window? I’d have less time to read then.
And yet, I look around my apartment and I see my books. Right now I can lay eyes on 4 that I’m about halfway through, at least 10 in my to read stack, I know there are 3 in my briefcase, and more are very easily accessible.
And I smile, knowing there are others out there like me. Because my friends may think it odd, my family may not understand, and my ex thought it was wierd that no matter how tired I claimed to be, I was not going to sleep until I read at least a page, because I can’t fall asleep otherwise.
I’ve thought about a second job in a bookstore, just to support my habit. Imagine, discounted books, and extra money to spend on them. Oh the books I could buy! Frost, Grisham, Auel. Books about wars and about peace. Books that teach me something, and books that merely entertain. Books that I may never finish, but at peace knowing the books are there. Poetry and prose, essays and novels. How much more perfect could life be?
The bookcases overflow, the floor occasionally becomes a maze that I must follow to find the one that I am looking for. It may be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or Clan of the Cave Bear. Perhaps tonight I will pick up Montaillou; The Promised Land of Error again, or The Best American Poetry 1999. Whichever it is, I know I’ll be reading something.
Amen!
::blissful sigh:: I love this thread. Reading your posts is eerily accurate for me too it’s almost suprising to see your names instead of mine. Guiltily reading at stoplights, always having plenty of books onhand just in case…all of it’s so familiar.
True fact…I make a point to tote a book along for even short rides on the elevator, in case it breaks down. Could be some quality reading time in the offing. Eating alone at restaurants never bothers me at all: I read. (Miss Manners says it’s rude but M.F.K. Fisher wrote so beatifully about the joys of reading while dining well that her point of view prevailed–not that I took much convincing.)
I frankly croggled that someone else immediately checks out the bookstores in hotel yellow pages when travelling. I pack at least 3 paperbacks for even a quickie trip, usually cheapie booksale curiosities that I can likely discard without undue heartburning if needs be. Upon arrival–check out the bookstore possiblities. (I also pack a collapsible tote in my suitcase to haul back book “finds”.)
The best and worst feeling? Becoming totally immersed in a book, losing myself in it, and both wanting to devour it in gulps and pace it out because I don’t want it to end. The mark of a true book fiend: looking at pages left unread with a kind of “only that much left?” greedy dread.
Veb
Heaven knows I love the library, but my lord, the library sales!!! I think I am going to library to abate the book tide in my home, but then, they hook me with the discard table right there by the check out desk.
And then the annual Friends of the Library sale. Just those words make me twitch like a junkie. What better place to find that special out-of-print childhood favorite, or the one book in a 38 book series that is missing from your collection?
Yay! There’s more people like me! 
We have, conservatively, 5000 books in our house. In fact, we spent a wad of cash at IKEA last fall for bookshelves so more books could live in the rooms instead of in closets.
When I met my husband for the first time, I went to his apartment to pick him up - and saw the bookcases with sagging shelves and stacks of books on the floor - and thought - “hey, I think this guy might be okay.” 
I am addicted to reading. I always have at least half a dozen books I’m in the middle of and another dozen or so waiting for me to begin. I am keeping the local library solvent with my overdue fines, because I check out so many books that I forget what’s due when, and consequently the fines build up.
I read most anything - though I prefer mysteries, suspense, true crime, psychology, and history.
I agree on people with no visible books in their houses! What the he** is up with THAT? Do they all just watch TV?
–tygre
Fenris, marry me?
Or come visit to Chicago, and I’ll take you to Myopic Books, and watch you drool.
My name is magdalene, and I’m a book-a-holic. Poverty has made me stop buying new books, but I go to the library on a weekly basis - my habit is 4-5 books/week. I read more than one book at the same time. This week’s lineup:
The Woman and the Ape, Peter Hoeg
Requiem for a Dream, Hubert Selby (I understand the addictions of the characters. Just substitute books for heroin)
The Mournful Demeanor of Lt. Boruvka, Josef Skvorecky
Storms Beneath the Skin, Regie Gibson (amazing performance poet I caught Sunday night, if he performs near you GO! GO!)
Dvorak in Love, Josef Skvorecky (I’m on a Czech literature kick, sue me)
Re-reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.
I can’t ride a subway train, stand in line, or wait for an appointment without a book. Having one in my backpack makes me feel special and secure.
Oh, and I loved Day of the Triffids. There is a sequel?
dammit mags we’ve gotta get a schedule goin’ here. You get Fenris MWF, I get him TThS, You get Sua TThS, I get Sua MWF. Is that good for you?
Bibliophile here…and blissfully proud of it.
I think my love for old books particularly, began when I was 8. I stumbled across an old school library copy of ‘What Katy Did’ in a box of ‘condemned’ books. I had no idea what the book was about - but I was drawn to the feel of it. I never knew a book could be such a joy to hold. I was hooked. That same week, I begged my parents to let me volunteer at the school library.
I’m 27 now and I still plan my life around books. My years of helping out at the local bookstore were the happiest in my life. Recently, I passed on a better paying IT job to work in the local library.
I’m lucky to have an SO who understands my ‘addiction’. We spent 80% of our last vacation in various bookshops around the UK. And she doesn’t see my growing antiquarian collection as a waste of money. My mother on the hand, baulks at the idea - ‘dead people’s things’ she calls them. I have them everywhere, on the floor, on the bed, tattered Shakespeare sandwiched between second-hand Stephen Hawking and first edition Jeanette Winterson.
The curious thing is - compared to most of the people in this thread, I don’t read that often. Aside from books that I have to read immediately for work, I have to be in the right place, time and frame of mind to completely enjoy a book. Books to me, are something to be savoured. Similarly, I hate having to reach the end. Little wonder then, that I have stacks and stacks that I have yet to get through. The mere thought of them waiting there for me…gives me the chills.
Oh God do I love library sales!
There are 23 counties in the state of Maryland. Each one has a library. I make a pilgrimage to each county once a year to hit up the library sales. My mom started doing this when I was 10, and I carry on the tradition. Luckily, they rarely fall on the same weekend. Three weeks ago I got 28 books (hardcover and paperback) and three years’ worth of National Geographics for under $15. Is there anything better?
I still remember walking into my old college’s library and seeing a huge “FREE BOOKS!” sign. Torn, worn Kurt Vonnegut. Some authors I had never heard of, a lot of poetry, the Collected Works of Seamus Heaney and Robert Frost (I didn’t study for two weeks!) and several out-of-date Norton Anthologies - the English major’s Bible. (I have 5 that I’ve been required to buy for classes, and 4 more from that table). I had to run to the University Center and steal plastic bags from the Deli because I didn’t have enough room in my bookbag.
The worst part? I still go to the library every three weeks. I usually get about 3-4 books at a time, and read them all.
I just finished Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, and have been in book bliss ever since. I keep re-reading parts of it, and I’m not looking forward to returning it on April 3rd.
I remember in tenth grade I read Sophie’s Choice by William Styron. After I finished it, I couldn’t read another book for two weeks - the longest period ever. It was so heavy and affecting that I just couldn’t get into another book. I couldn’t re-read it either. I was in a state of book shock.
When I got The Poisenwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for Christmas two years back, I read it three times in a row over the course of about four or five days. I wanted to be the book - to re-read the words over and over until they were a part of my skin, until they were printed in my mind.
Did I scare you just then?
Fenris…
I read your OP out loud to my husband. I am the “bookaholic” (in his words), he isn’t. He laughed and suggested therapy for us both. I told him I would find a book about it.
Boy, I know what you all are talking about…the dreaded end of the great book…the pages with tearstains on them…becoming so involved, you don’t know who or where you are.
The used bookstores in every city…the sagging backpack…the “just in case” stash…reading in the bathroom, on the couch, at the dining room table with a big cup of coffee (my favorite)…in bed. I have been accused of using Closed Captioning on the TV just so I can read something, anything, while I watch. It’s possible.
A couple of months ago, I stayed overnight at a friend’s apt. There were 13 or so bookshelves, and the first night I didn’t get to sleep until 4am, in spite of the fact that I had been up for 36 hours by then, and had just driven 7 hours on the highway. Couldn’t be helped.
Thanks for starting a great thread! Now I can (read and) go to sleep.
Oh my god, yes. Sara, I love that book. The funny thing is, her other work just doesn’t grab me. But that book is a masterpiece.
wring, that schedule works for me.
Any ideas on root causes anyone? Nature vs. Nuture? Both my parents are voracious readers. My father likes mysteries & espionage thrillers, my mother likes histories & travelogues. On the other hand, the only time my brother picks up a book is to move it out of his way.
As for myself, I’ll read anything & everything. For several years now I have had a love/hate relationship with the annual “Women in Crisis” used book charity sale here in Niagara Falls. I always donate a couple of boxes of books to the cause but, like so many others in this thread, I return with just as many, if not more.
I love browsing aisle after aisle of rickety folding tables and inhaling the perfume of newsprint & mildew. I laugh at the thrill of discovering Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the health section. 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. And sometimes I will donate some of my last year’s finds to the following year’s sale. It’s all part of the cycle of life.
On the other hand, I hate that I may have bought any number of books multiple times (I refuse to do the calculations). Also, I think I may have accidentally given away my Stainless Steel Rat novels last year. I’m really bummed about that one.
Hodge (whose current to read pile includes Hyperion - Dan Simmons, The Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman & The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins)
HA!
I feel even better! I went to London last year and did exactly the same thing, only I used a small suitcase. My best friend teased me about this. Until I pointed out that about a third of the books were his! 
Fenris