Obsession, Enslavement, Fetish, Passion?

[fancying_fantasy]

I can't part with books, even if I haven't enjoyed them.Some books I have more than one copy of.I don't mind parting with ones that I have more than one of if its going to someone I know will enjoy it,but I won't part with them for any other reason.I'd say I'm obsessed.

I totally agree. Even if it has been years since I've read a book I just can't think about getting rid of it. Something else I'm guilty of is when I'm at Goodwill and I see a really good book I may already have.... I buy it. Because I feel like I need to give it a 'good' home.

 

[fancying_fantasy]

So many threads and so little time to read them all.

Couldn't an obsession be a good thing, when you consider what is the obsession. With most instances in life there are positive and negative aspects. I don't, however, see what's wrong with calling a great love for books an obsession. I guess we can call it a deep Deep DEEP Passion for books. ?????

On another note I like what everyone is saying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Happy Joe]

For myself.. I tend to run in cycles. I may go for several months between visits to the bookstore. Space is limited so I have to select volumes with care (or trade them at the used book store.

Enjoy!

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Oh, yes... don't even get me started about that one! I've not forgiven him for his part in the whole HUAC fiasco... (I also never forgave Elia Kazan.)

I wish I could say that the entire state were like that, but it's not. I mentioned having run across the sort of thing you mention when I was still living in Pasadena.... Was in a book store, browsing through the sff stuff (which was, at the time, right up front, if you can believe it! I remember because the Ballantine edition of HPL's Fungi from Yuggoth & Other Poems had just been released with that bizarre Gallardo cover...). Anyway, this fellow comes into the store looking for a book and literally dragging his girlfriend with him, who was fussing and whining the whole way. "Why are we going in here? You're not going to buy a BOOK, are you?" "Yes, I am." "But ... whyyyyyyyy?" "Because I need it for one of my classes." [College student, this one.] He lets go her wrist, and she all but bolts out the door. He starts after, she stops, looks sullen, and says "You know I get this DISEASE when I'm around books..." with total venom in her voice.... *sigh*

Now, see, that's the sort of thing I grew up with..... So I quite understand your experience; I'm just glad I'm not around that sort of thing around here... yet....

Oh yeah, I'm with you on that one too! Every time I think of Reagan's administration I can feel my blood pressure spike into the hazard zone! And not to mention all the pompous eulogizing and the maudlin tears shed at his passing.

Allow me to share a few cartoons from a gifted political satirist named Tim Kreider that I'm sure will sum up our feelings on the matter quite nicely:

The Pain -- When Will It End?

The Pain -- When Will It End?

And as for that little temper tantrum you witnessed: do you guys in Texas have to check in your firearms in at the front desk when going into a bookstore?

 

[The Ace]

Welcome to Bookaholics Annonymous. My name is murphy and I'm an addict. (Don't intend to stop until they close the coffin lid.)

TOO DAMN' RIGHT MURPHY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cloud]

I like books better than people mostly

 

[Nesacat]

Same here Cloud; I like books and animals better than most people. I get asked about why I need so many books too, along with the statement that I can't possibly read them all and besides there are movies and this is the best ... but there's so many words and it's so big. You really can't mean to say you've read it.

Ummm no ... I actually spend all this money so I have decorative walls and something to lift when I feel like exercising.

Fancying Fantasy ,,, Hear! Hear! I so wanted to trade places with Beauty at the point.

 

[j d worthington]

I get "but if you've read them all, why do you want to keep them?"

Oh, lord, yes!!!!! If they can get their head around you reading a book once... they still have trouble believing you'd ever want to read it again -- let alone refer to it for any other purpose....

Nesa... I always tell them it's so I can fix the chinks in the walls and keep out the wind; or "Hey, world's best insulation!"

 

[Pyan]

It's a good job you cant wear the print off the page by reading them too often......!

so I can fix the chinks in the walls and keep out the wind; or "Hey, world's best insulation!"

I've the other problem - some of the bookshelf fixings weren't deep enough into the wall, and the weight is slowly pulling the whole sheet of plaster off it!
(house built in 1879, lath and horsehair plaster walls! - just not built to last!

 

[j d worthington]

*ahem* Pyan, wouldn't matter.... I had some good, sturdy, free-standing bookcases that were about 9 feet tall.... Went into my library one day to get something... there's an ominous creak.....

And the next thing I know, I come out of a brief blackout (brought on by being hit on the head) literally buried up to my hips in books.....

 

[Joel007]

I take it you removed a load-bearing book then?

 

[Pyan]

*ahem* Pyan, wouldn't matter.... I had some good, sturdy, free-standing bookcases that were about 9 feet tall.... Went into my library one day to get something... there's an ominous creak.....

And the next thing I know, I come out of a brief blackout (brought on by being hit on the head) literally buried up to my hips in books.....

LOL - and I know I shouldn't!
That reminds me of the bit at the beginning of the 1999 "Mummy" - when [SIZE=-1]Rachel Weisz knocks over the bookcases and the domino effect happens right around the room - makes me wince every time I see it.[/SIZE]

 

[j d worthington]

I take it you removed a load-bearing book then?

Actually Joel... I hadn't touched anything yet.... I'm just glad only a couple of them were noticeably damaged... and that I didn't get a trip to hospital!

Pyan -- I know. I laugh about it now, but at the time... Hoo, boy! Let's just say I seriously expanded my vocabulary that day.....

 

[Nikitta]

You guys bring back memories for me.

I grew up with lots of books and I'm told that I sat and paged through them as soon as I could sit. Of course I couldn't read that soon, but I sat and turned the pages nicely, just looking at them.

My mother got an encyclopedia because she thought that when having children who go to school, you need that for all of their questions. I grew up, fascinated by that encyclopedia.

I remember getting those books you can get with tapes, so I could hear someone reading the book to me, while I followed the words with my finger, hoping to learn to read that way. I really really wanted to learn to read, so I could read those fascinating stories, myself, in stead of having to wait for my mother to read them to me.

Let's not get started on my memories from the library, which soon became a sancturary for me. In a library, I'll be at peace and just thinking of the way libraries smell makes me smile. That might very well be my favourite smell.

 

[j d worthington]

Let's not get started on my memories from the library, which soon became a sancturary for me. In a library, I'll be at peace and just thinking of the way libraries smell makes me smile. That might very well be my favourite smell.

I know the smell of musty old books is certainly mine! If Heaven doesn't smell like that... I ain't interested!

 

[Pyan]

If Heaven doesn't smell like that... I ain't interested!

I wouldn't have thought you would be, jd - surely all the best authors are going to be in the Other Place anyway!

 

[j d worthington]

I wouldn't have thought you would be, jd - surely all the best authors are going to be in the Other Place anyway!

LOL! (Literally!)

 

[HoopyFrood]

Ah, looking back on all these posts, I can empathise with so much. My mum always wonders why I have so many books and keeps telling me to get rid of some...which is always greeted by a shocked silence from me. She refuses to let me have a bigger bookshelf as well, which means I have a tiny one that has hardly any space and now I'm having to pile books on top of each other and it doesn't look tidy and I can't keep it organised and...and...*deep breath* Although we're recently acquired an extra room (sibling moved out) so I'm trying to convince her to turn it into a study where we can have more shelves.

Oh, I'd give anything to have my own "library" in my house. Just think of the organising I could do! I'd have to keep it neat and switch everything around everytime I bought a new one! It would be fantastic! And I could just go in and sit and look at all my books and sigh contentedly.

So...obsession? Nah, not in the slightest!


And yes, I realise I'm neurotic with this organising thing. When my friends visited last night, I was tidying up behind them. And I organised my notice boards around my bed today and my friends commented on how straight and tidy it looked. I'm not a normal student at all, apparently

 

[littlemissattitude]

And yes, I realise I'm neurotic with this organising thing. When my friends visited last night, I was tidying up behind them. And I organised my notice boards around my bed today and my friends commented on how straight and tidy it looked. I'm not a normal student at all, apparently

Whyever would you want to be normal, Hoopy? "Normal" is a highly overrated concept, you know.

And, j. d....Ouch. That had to hurt.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Oh, I agree with you there, LMA, normal is not something I wish to be! I take pride in my tidy room, anyway. And make others clean up theirs when I go to their rooms as well!

They'll thank me when I save them from E.Coli or something