I read a Terry Brooks book Running With the Demon a while back, and I’m thinking about buying the sequels. I can buy them in hardcover or paperpack, without a great difference in price. I have the first book in hardcover already, so I feel that I need to buy the others in HC too, or they won’t match. Just like I had to buy the 12th Anita Blake book in HC to match the others, but the 2nd Merry Gentry book in paperback to match the first one…And I’m really glad that the newer harry potter DVD is the same style casing as the older one…
This is pretty new, the need to have things match. It started within the last six or eight months, and I’ve noticed that it’s getting worse. Another example of this is over the summer I bought myself a hard binder and some loose leaf paper so I could write while away from my computer. For a while it was ok to write out some parts of stories and then type them, or just to type them. For the past couple of weeks it doesn’t feel ok to just type them on the computer.
Obsessive complusive behavior is common in my mom’s side of the family- she and Grampy have always been, some other relatives too. I haven’t, but I know it’s not uncommon to develop those tendencies as late as your mid-twenties. I’m not too terribly worried about it, yet, since it’s just these few little things, but can this sort of thing be “nipped in the bud” so to speak, before they get worse? Would be be better for me to go against these impluses instead of indulging in them? I wouldn’t be thrilled to order the books that don’t match, but I’d get over it. If I sit in front of the computer for a while, I probably could write something without a hand-written draft. So should I force myself to do these not-as-comfortable things? Or does something like this not have a snowball affect if indulged?