Althouse: "25 Signs You’re Addicted To Books."

May 25, 2013

"25 Signs You’re Addicted To Books."

"9. ... You’ve even developed a crush on a bookstore employee based solely on their staff picks."

25 comments:

Michael K said...: If only it was a library card. Amazon sent me a summary a couple of weeks ago. I had ordered 55 items in the previous six months. 3/4 were books.; 5/25/13, 3:09 PM
Gahrie said...: My local mall used to have two chain bookstores. (Obviously this was pre-Amazon) The employees at both bookstores recognized me, and were on a first name basis with me. They even knew if anything new came in I might be interested in.; 5/25/13, 3:13 PM
Cody Jarrett said...: Guilty as charged.

#8 looks a lot like my office/library room.

It also looks a lot like my living room and my dining room.

The kindle and the ipad were supposed to relieve that kind of congestion.

And Michael, I'm very happy to say Amazon doesn't send me summaries. I'd be too scared to look anyway.

I can't say I've ever crushed on someone just because of their suggested reading list, but I can say I've completely dismissed people as any sort of serious human being because of theirs.; 5/25/13, 3:14 PM
Cody Jarrett said...: Anyone remember what was one of the best Waltons episodes ever? John-boy had his newspaper and was publishing excerpts from Mein Kampf. Community was outraged (duh). Community organized a book burning, found German language books. John-boy lost his fucking mind and told off the whole town and especially John Ritter who was a pathetic pussy minister. John-boy pulls German language Holy Bible from the flames. Community weeps.

Books, man. Books.; 5/25/13, 3:20 PM
Petunia said...: I would LOVE to have a room like #8. I do have enough books to fill all of those shelves.

My nightstand would look like #15 if I didn't have cats who would knock the stack over. I have solved that problem by buying vintage wooden soda crates, which are PERFECT for holding paperbacks.; 5/25/13, 3:20 PM
Robert Cook said...: A number of these really resonate with me, but certainly not all of them. 8 and 9 really ring true.

I don't understand how anyone can read a book at the beach, or why. I'm not a big beachgoer, being a fair-skinned redhead, but at the beach, I find it enough to stare out at the ever-changing, eternal sea and contemplate that it has been thus long before we were here and will remain so long after we're gone. ("We" being humankind.)

More particularly, the sun reflecting off the white of the page, even under a shade, is far too painful for my eyes and I can't see how others aren't also bothered. (For this same reason, I prefer overcast days to sunny days, and I abhor bright sunlight streaming into a room, and will only open shades or blinds if it is gray out.); 5/25/13, 3:25 PM
edutcher said...: Not that bad.

But close.; 5/25/13, 3:26 PM
Michael said...: I am a stone cold addict with a constant book jones. Embarassing in a mild sort of way. Is it really necessary to buy the Loeb Seutonius and a biography of Burke on the same day that I acquire the new Thatcher biography? Absolutely. Oh, and on the same day to load a two novels on the Kindle along with a free bit of Chesterton. I have twenty or more Kindle books that are un- or partiall read. Yikes.; 5/25/13, 3:29 PM
Cody Jarrett said...: Why Cookie, there may be hope for you yet!

:)

How many people wind up buying both the Kindle version and an actual paper version?

I can't be the only dope like that.; 5/25/13, 3:33 PM
Robert Cook said...: When I was young I used to rate people according to their tastes in music, but I grew up and realized that was a reflection of my own snobbery, a sure expression of insecurity. Now, I haven't the slightest judgmental interest in what people listen to.

I've never had the same snobbery regarding what people read, growing up as I did a reader of comic books, SF and (some) fantasy, and other such "lowly" forms of literature. I've learned to enjoy "better" literature since, but I had already learned that there is good and bad work in every form of literature, or, as Sturgeon's Law has it: "90% of everything is shit."

I'm just happy to see people reading rather than not, whatever they choose to read.

Although I've read a number of books on my iPhone and iPad, I far prefer printed and bound books to ebooks, and always will.; 5/25/13, 3:37 PM
Aridog said...: I've read about 75% of the books we own. To the read the remaining 25% I must live to be 100+. I'll not give them up until I'm given up. They are my anti-depressants, my antidotes for anger or sadness. I vacation where there is no television, and barely Internet...books are my companions.

I can't yet adapt to kindle, etc. I always come home with more books than I took out there with me...sometimes I have to have them shipped from the quaint book stores I find. Very quaint, most don't take credit cards...but they will take your word.

Yes, I love books and most anyone who reads books.; 5/25/13, 3:50 PM
Mumpsimus said...: Beware of book people! said John Locke.; 5/25/13, 4:23 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Petunia, my nightstand currently does look like No. 15, and, yes, the cats do knock the pile over.

Agreed that No. 8 is pretty much "dream office." I haven't got the accommodations here. I mean, there's tons of shelving, and we have managed to find space to house and alphabetize all of the printed music, all of the CDs, and all of the books on music. But there are more mysteries and sci-fi than I can shelve as things are.

You'd think getting a Kindle Fire would've helped. And indeed it did. But, see, I have to walk a couple of miles to get groceries, and I tend to do that while reading a book. I haven't tripped while reading yet, but if it ever does happen, I'd prefer it to be when I was holding a mass-market paperback rather than a $200 piece of fragile hardware.

Plus, I discovered Better World Books. Not only do they ship free, but they do these periodic flash sales where they discount. Of their ordinary $3.98 per item.

This is why I am up to mid-thigh in Ruth Rendell. With a biy of Wodehouse for leaven. :-); 5/25/13, 4:40 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Wow, the sentence about Better World got mangled somehow. Their flash sales are 40% off the ordinary price. There's generally a minimum order, but it ends up being 5 books for 12 bucks, dropped at my door.; 5/25/13, 4:43 PM
Michael K said...: "I haven't tripped while reading yet, but if it ever does happen, I'd prefer it to be when I was holding a mass-market paperback rather than a $200 piece of fragile hardware."

I was going to link to the woman falling into the fountain but she was texting, not reading. Besides, they added an ad at the beginning.; 5/25/13, 5:09 PM
Unknown said...: This is why I am up to mid-thigh in Ruth Rendell. With a biy of Wodehouse for leaven. :-)

So, there are others like me out there?
What a world.; 5/25/13, 5:24 PM
Anonymous said...: "..How many people wind up buying both the Kindle version and an actual paper version?.."
-------------------------------
I know somebody that buys the Audible version and the hardback.; 5/25/13, 6:26 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: wyo sis,

If you can't get enough of both Rendell and Wodehouse, there are certainly at least two of us.

A lot of the books here are classical-music-related, some pretty technical. But my "recreational" stuff is mostly mystery and sci-fi and Wodehouse and Chesterton. So the pile on the nightstand is likely to contain, say, Ngaio Marsh's Night at the Vulcan [jeez, I just typed that as Night at the Vulvan -- holy Freudian typos, Batman!] and Edmund Crispin's Holy Disorders, and Orson Scott Card's Speaker For the Dead, and Margery Allingham's Dancers In Mourning, and Rendell's One Across, Two Down, and Chesterton's The Club of Queer Trades, and Wodehouse's Money For Nothing. In fact, that's what's there right now.

All stuff that I have read many times, except the Rendell. But if you're hit by insomnia, an hour or two with a familiar book is a good thing.; 5/25/13, 7:07 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Michael K,

I was going to link to the woman falling into the fountain but she was texting, not reading. Besides, they added an ad at the beginning.

I have seen that, but I could've sworn it was a guy.

My walks don't take me near fountains. OTOH, we have some seriously uneven sidewalk around here -- not to mention patches of slimy moss, and (in winter) the charming phenomenon known either as "freezing fog" or as "black ice" or as "@%$##*&%!" I pay attention.; 5/25/13, 7:15 PM
Unknown said...: I share your love of Wodehouse and Rendell, but confess I don't really like scifi.
I have almost every thing by and about C.S. Lewis and Chesterton is coming up on the outside.
But, then I get all trashy with John D. MacDonald, Lee Child, Robert B. Parker and Janet Evanovich.; 5/25/13, 7:59 PM
Deborah M. said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/25/13, 8:13 PM
William said...: I knock off one book every 7-10 days. I've really got it under control. It's reading through these damn threads that's getting out of hand.; 5/25/13, 10:25 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: I've been an voracious reader all my life but I'm increasingly aggressive about keeping my possessions under control. I have one large bookcase and that's it. If I'm going to keep a book then one must go.; 5/26/13, 12:37 AM
Aridog said...: Mumpsimus said...

Beware of book people! said John Locke.

Oy, and Locke's essays and treatises are among my favorites.

But I think I get his meaning...books written or ghost written and sold just to promote someone or thing are not literature or philosophy. [At least to me].; 5/26/13, 7:24 AM
jr565 said...: The funny thing about the picture in number three (You Know you're reading a good book when you have to stop once in a while just to say... fuck) is that I know that exact scene in the book hes saying Fuck about.

Let's see. He's reading Storm of Swords. So it must be "The Red Wedding". I said "Fuck" too when I read that. First I said "What the fuck?!?" Then I reread it because I couldn't believe when I read. Then I said "fuck" in outrage. THen I said "fuck" in sadness.
I went through all the stages of Fuck on that one.; 5/26/13, 12:13 PM