Perhaps because I’m nipple-deep in relationship issues I’m looking at your problem from an odd point of view. However nice Mr.S’s redirection is, it’s still manipulative. Pointing out that my faults could be worse does not make me a nice person. I do the dishes, does mean I deserve automatic forgiveness for never, ever dusting or vacuuming the floors? Of course not. You and Mr. S need to work on the problems you have. If the floors are sagging, you have a problem and that problem will be far more expensive than a few replacement books.
You could invite us all up for the weekend and many books might mysteriously disappear by Monday and strange piles of money might appear in the linen closet. I don’t suppose Mr. S has many books related to medieval and renaissance food?
I like obfusciatrist’s advice on when a book is valuable enough to keep. I think you should take the boxes in the attic to Powells or some other reputable used bookstore. Or start listing the out of print ones on ebay. Your local library sale will accept the remainder, if they do sales, sometimes they let you drop them off anonymously. The occasional replacement book will not be as expensive as your sanity.
“I’m not a bibliophile, I’m a bibliophiliac. Put me in a bookstore, & my wallet bleeds.” – John Stracke, 2001
NOTHING is sexier than a guy with a book fetish. Mmmmm… I always used to try pathetically to flirt with the guys that worked at Barnes & Noble’s and other book stores…
I never got my bookstore guy. However, I did run into my boyfriend at the campus used bookstore on our last anniversary as we both searched for books that we could buy for each other. It ruined the gift-giving surprise a little bit… but made me realize how lucky I am to have a guy that loves books at least as much as I do.
To the point, I would never stop… not can I imagine why anyone would want to. Buying books beats compulsively buying drugs, alcohol, whores, and cars when it comes to habits of significant others.
50 fish tanks??? What did he do with 50 fish tanks?? Was he growing sushi?? Building a geodesic dome?? Role-playing little pirate vignettes with miniature sunken treasure ships (aaargh)?? Genetic experiments with sea monkeys?? ::brrrr…::
I stopped buying books when Mrs. Rickjay and I realized that you can go into Chapters, buy a Starbucks coffee, and sit on a comfortable couch and read brand new books for absolutely free for as long as you like.
In the last two weeks I’ve polished off Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, Will Ferguson’s Bastards and Boneheads, Carl Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World (not as well written as I was hoping, though I agree with the thesis) and I managed to plow through Keegan’s history of the First World War, which I found phenomenally boring, though it wasn’t Keegan’s fault it was a boring war. Total value of the books: $125, at least. Total paid: Zip.
Since we moved to within walking distance of a Chapters I’m reading as much as I ever have and I never spend a penny on books.
I just bought $100 worth of books on troubadour poetry on amazon in ten minutes. If I weren’t actually at work, I am sure I would have bought many, many more. My current apartment is not terribly crowded since I left most of my books at my parents’ house. As soon as I buy the wall fixture of my dreams, that will soon be remedied. I just don’t feel complete without my colletion.
One move didn’t dint the collection; the divorce won’t either. (My ex-SO said first thing he only wanted books for his one hobby, and he didn’t care what I did with the ‘rest’).
Too many books are a fire hazard, though, and terribly difficult to deal with for moving, dusting, cleaning, and if boxed up, enjoying.
There is a solution, however. I now bunch up a full paper grocery sack of books each weekend, take them to the half-price reseller, get some money, walk out WITHOUT LOOKING at the BOOKS TO BUY (this is a most important step), and immediately go treat myself to a movie, with beverage and popcorn for “free” on the profits.
So, the house is cleaner and I get to have fun, all at once.
Although… if I didn’t have a new library to devour, I’d probably be losing ground still. Bibliovorism runs in my family - every relative I’ve met has a home with closets stuffed like Fibber McGee’s full of stacks of books.
I started working in a bookstore several months ago, and this has had a strange effect on my bookbuying. First, I buy more books than I used to. This is because I get a big discount, and my store has a used section. 40% off a $5 used book that I’ve been wanting to read is just too good to pass up. BUT, I buy less books than I want to. I want to buy about half of the books in the store, and am looking forward to the day I quit, because then I will have a good reason to (about to lose my discount, you know). I am just too well-acquainted with what’s available today. So I feel that even though I buy multitudes of books, I am well within my limits.
(Of course, I can also borrow books from the store, and remain a loyal library-goer. This helps.)
Humble Servant, I have a Tale From True Life which may help to lessen the marital discord.
I bought a house two and a half years ago. After moving in, I chose a room with a long wall uninterrupted by doors or windows (in the dining room, as it happened) and with my dad’s help, built an enormous, beautiful bookcase into it; it’s 7’ high, 11’ long and a foot deep, with eighteen shelves. For the first time in my life I had enough bookshelves for all my books.
This was when I sorted them into Read and Unread shelves, and was dismayed at the size of the Unread collection. Clearly I needed to buy books at a slower rate if I was going to make any headway against it.
At the same time, I noticed that my hundreds of mass-market paperbacks looked really shabby in my elegant new bookcase. I resolved to buy only hardcover books and trade paperbacks from then on.
But I also resolved to start replacing those ugly paperbacks with the hardcover editions of the same books. So, with the help of ABE Books, that’s what I’ve been doing.
I keep buying books, so it soothes my obsession. But these aren’t really new books, so I don’t have to read them again.
Maybe you can talk your hubby into following a similar course.
I might buy and read a paperback book, but I only keep hardbacks. Paperbacks go to Goodwill after I read them. I figure if a book is not important enough to me to shell out for a hardback edition, it’s not important enough to be taking up the limited space in my home.
The Furry Beast is also a bibliovore. While I am quite fond of books & have been known to drop upwards of $150 in one trip to the bookstore (& it’s a cheap booksotre, not like a Barnes & Noble), I believe that there exists a condition of “not needing any more books right now”. Furry Beast feels about books the way I feel about shoes: even if I have more than I can actually wear (or read) in the foreseeable future, I could always use another pair (or another book).
I don’t mind it, though. My mother is the same as Furry Beast is, so I grew up with bookshelves in every room of the house. I find it comforting to be surrounded by books, & he doesn’t jeopardize our finances, so what’s the worry?
True story: I built 2 bookcases last weekend & put them in the bedroom, which had previously been bookcase-less. We put our books that had been in the basement on the new shelves, & only then did I feel like the room was really MINE, even though I’ve been living in it for almost a year. Books are like old friends…just because you haven’t talked to someone in a while doesn’t mean you want to just kick them out of your life.
Five, you ninny. Why do you have to cite a book-search page on a thread full of confessed addicts? Didn’t you think this is like taking wine to a AA meeting?
Heh-heh! In addition to the page cited above, there’s also BookFinder. These two sites are databases combining the inventories of used bookstores all over the world. If you’re looking for a book of any description that’s no longer in print, you’ll almost always find it at one of those two sites. And usually for not much money, either.
What’s that, you say? You want a book that’s only published in Australia? No problem, just head on over to the Gleebooks Online store.
Come again? Comic book fan, are you? Then you owe it to yourself to look around at the GraphicNovels.com website.
Nursing a Nick Bantock jones, or looking for something for the kids? Then Pop-Up Books is the place to be.
Guilty here on the shoe thing, which Mr. S of course knows to mention when I complain about book volume. I have a lot of ambivalence here–I would love to have lunch with everyone in this thread to discuss great finds, neighborhoods with good bookstore concentrations and the best used book search engines. So, xtal and Five (I assume you’re not Chicken of Bristol yet based on your last post ;)), I don’t mind if Mr. S has some wine, just not too much, thank you very much.
Hey, Five, I owe you a huge apology for calling you a ninny. I’m very sorry.
I just found a copy for Platt on the site you mentioned. I’ve been looking for it for ages. Thanks. I’m going to go look at the other ones now. You wanna send me your next paycheck please?
I hope you took my advice and cut Mr. S’s DSL line.
I’m deeply conflicted. Those search engines have made it that much easier to feed the addiction, empty the wallet & fill up the floor space (my shelves having been overloaded long ago). However, I have finally found a copy of The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. I had been on a low grade search for that title for years.
Ah, sorry Five, I tend to forget everyone in the world is not fascinated by medieval and renaissance cookery. Sir Hugh Plat wrote a book called Delights for Ladies, To adorn their perfons, Tables, Clofets and Diftillatoriess with Beavties, Banqvets, Perfumes & Waters. He has a number of interesting comments on beverages drunk during the English renaissance and some good recipes for syrups. I’ve been reading from a generations-old photocopy of a out-of-copyright publication. Getting a bound copy that will not make my eyes hurt is wonderful. It should have been mailed to me today. Yippee!
Do you live in the SF bay area? Maybe I can take you out for a good red meat meal?
Bibliovorism runs in my family - every relative I’ve met has a home with closets stuffed like Fibber McGee’s full of stacks of books.