on loving books

Luciana

Skeptical Carioca
Luciana
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Messages
10,984
Location
Rio de Janeiro - RJ
Sometimes I feel like I could lock myself inside the Library of Congress, or any other huge library, and live happily ever after. Just imagine, books, thousand on book, on every possible subject!

Move on, nothing to see here. But I had to say it. :D
 
i could easily kill a few hours each week roaming the aisles of a barnes and noble.

i'm not a snobby person but when i see someone treating a book poorly i think "what a cretin!"(there's a quote that goes something like "you can tell a lot about a man by seeing how he treats his books". can't find who said it though)

i occassionally come up with an interesting idea for a story but when i try to commit it to paper it's positively awful. writing is a gift that i do not have. i truly respect writers.

and a good book sometimes makes a delay on the subway welcome. more time to read.
 
er... El Greco... I don't know. There could be other people, I guess, if only to exchange ideas and suggestions.

hmmm... would I miss testosterone? Maybe reading a lot about it would help?

Lux: go read five books in penitence to what you said! :p
 
Luciana Nery said:
Sometimes I feel like I could lock myself inside the Library of Congress, or any other huge library, and live happily ever after. Just imagine, books, thousand on book, on every possible subject!
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I have been fortunate enough to have several opportunities to spend an entire day in a major library. No food, no drink except for water from the fountains. Just books.

One thing that was fun was that my "taste" in books changed from day to day. One day, I was interested in fiction, and the next day, movies, and the next, self-help books, and the next, science. During one library day, I first read "Flim-Flam" cover to cover on an uncomfortable library couch, and on another day, I read "The Godfather" cover to cover on an uncomfortable library chair.

Some might think of this activity as dull beyond belief. But I found it very enjoyable and wish that I had the opportunity to do it again.
 
Brown - I like "changing" subjects too. I rarely read two consecutive books on the same subject.

Librarian! In a rarely visited library, that is. With a very comfy chair. And I'd reserve the right to be very cranky with those who interrupted my reading. :D But at least in Brazil, it doesn't pay well, or I'd seriously consider it as a career choice.

When I retire, and if I feel the need to work, I'll employ myself in a book shop. I'll be very knowledgeable and helpful towards customers. Just being around books is cool. :)

I don't need much space for living and I'm not demanding regarding luxuries, but if there's something I envy are those private libraries, particularly those with a Victoria decor. Go figure!
 
With too much choice, you wouldn't know where to start. Well, I wouldn't, perhaps the rest of you have more self-control. I'd start reading one book, begin impatiently tapping my foot and fidgeting some time around the second paragraph and then have to fling it to one side shouting "I haven't got time to read this, there are too many other books I need to read!".

It could actually turn out to be hell for a bibliophile.
 
I like to read, being locked in a library would let me do what I normally do which is find an author I like or a subject that interests me, read everything I can find on the subject or by the author , then move on to a different author/subject.

This habit has gotten me odd looks from my friends when I went through a phase where the subject I got interested in was serial killers in general and the Zodiac killer specifically. Some of my friends thought I was going nuts.
 
Posted by Harry

i'm not a snobby person but when i see someone treating a book poorly i think "what a cretin!"(there's a quote that goes something like "you can tell a lot about a man by seeing how he treats his books". can't find who said it though)
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My memory of this is pretty vague, but a lit professor once told me an anecdote about Erasmus strolling about when he saw a piece of parchment getting trampled on a slop-covered thoroughfare. He made for the paper like a maniac, shoving people out of the way, retrieving it and carefully wiping all the filth off. Such was his love for any piece of writing in the days before we had our current glut of it.
 
I was reading before I turned 4 years old. I loved it. It was a salvation of sorts. It still is.

True, there is a great deal of garbage out there. But I know that if I lived to be 200, I could never read all the I would like to.

A few years ago I saw a Twighlite Zone episode. A man who loved to read in his underground library was always being interrupted by daily life and responsibilities. Then an atomic bomb wiped out all of civilization - except for him and his library. He was ecstatic! While doing a happy dance though, his reading glasses fell and shattered.

Since seeing that I have been obsessed with keeping several reading glasses in several different places.
 
Luciana Nery said:
Lux: go read five books in penitence to what you said! :p
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I will read one romance, and then made up the 4 others by just changing the character's name and location.:p
 
I adore books. I have to bring a set amount of money with me to B&N or I will spend my whole paycheck.
I always dreamed as a child, that if I ever had a good amount of money, that I would contstruct a house for myself all around floor to ceiling shelves of books, with one of those terrific rolling ladders.

I know this is such a girly thing to say, but, Luciana, have you ever seen the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast? (hey, go easy on me, I was a nanny, I had to watch it a million times). There's a scene where they walk into a huge library. Man, I wish it were a real place.

I'm such a nerd.
 
Oh-yeah! I drooled over the library in "The Name of the Rose". Bourgeois it may be, but my idea of nirvana would be eternity a wing-backed chair & a snifter of brandy in a musty victorian library.
 
My sister worked as a librarian during high school. It was a small library in a small town, and eventually she had to get another job; she didn't want the library job any more because she had read all the books.
 
I grew up in a small town where the library wasn't much more than a house with bookshelves. I put in a good effort to read all their books. I was there so much I didn't usually need my library card because most of the librarians knew my card number.

When Barnes and Nobles opened in my town, I avoided it for a while, but finally went with friends. In what seemed like a few minutes I had a small pile of books. I remember standing there holding out the books with both hands and saying, "Look at this! What am I doing?". I was crying out for help, and my friends didn't even do a decent "intervention". :) Now I limit myself to 1 book a trip.

Now I go through spurts of trying to read too many books at the same time or none at all.
 
When I was a few years younger I read the 'Kama Sutra', but my favourite was the 'joy of se.......... Oh, Loving books... I thought........................
I'll get my coat.
P
 
He sits in a beautiful parlour,
With hundreds of books on the wall;
He drinks a great deal of Marsala,
But never gets tipsy at all."
Edward Lear

I now re recommend Ex Libris by Ann Fadiman.

I had to say it.
 
7th sextile said:


I now re recommend Ex Libris by Ann Fadiman.

I had to say it.
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I second the recommendation.

I also agree with MoeFaux's Beauty and the Beast fantasy--a huge library full of books, all to yourself....I'd love that.

I used to read all the time until I went to college. Now I spend time on the internet instead. Hm.

edited to fix spelling
 
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