on loving books

[munkymu]

I haven't seen the inside of a library in years. I used to go to the campus library and get lost among the stacks, whereupon I would inevitably and involuntarily end up in the Polish Literature section.

Anyway, I've decided that the best way to avoid incidents like that is to have your own tame library at home. Also, I feel that the books outnumber me by enough orders of magnitude that they should probably have a room of their own, which I imaginatively call "The Book Room".

 

[Luciana]

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)

What do you mean by "treating poorly"? Because if the book is mine!, I will highlight parts, break the spine, spill coke, leave crumbs....

Really, I couldn't care less! I don't mind reading battered books. I don't care about a beautiful library. And if I'm ever rich enough to own a Beauty and Beast-like library, then I'll buy all my books brand new!

I take my books everywhere. And they always get dog-eared inside my purse. Ok, Harry, let's settle you won't ever lend me a book, ok?

 

[Nova Land]

One of the delights of visiting Knoxville (aka "The Big City") is that when school is in session the university library is open 24 hours (except Friday and Saturday nights).

When I am travelling to Atlanta to visit my parents, I stop over in Knoxville and enjoy the library till about 1 a.m., then head back to the bus station to catch the 2:30 bus to Atlanta. Travelling home is even better. I generally try to time my travel in order to be able to attend Quaker meeting in Knoxville on Sunday; then after meeting I head over to the university library (occasionally detouring to a book store first if I haven't had a chance to browse there earlier in the trip) and spend the night in the library.

On most of my recent trips I have been spending a great deal of time reading old microfilm. But the stacks close at midnight, so at some point in the early evening I drag myself away from the microfilm reader, go into the stacks, select some books I want to browse through later, and then return to the periodical room. About 3 a.m. the periodical room closes, but by then my eyes and brain are generally a bit weary of microfilm anyway, so I head over to the reserve room and start going through the books I've selected. Around 7:30 a.m. the periodical room re-opens, so at some point I manage to put the selected books aside and drag myself to the microfilm for a few more hours, leaving about 11:30 a.m. in order to catch a 12:30 bus toward home.

On one recent trip I couldn't bear to leave with so many things unread, so Monday morning I went off to a grocery store for a snack, stopped by a bookstore for a while, and then returned to UTK for another evening-to-morning there. (But my eyes were glazing a bit by the time I did leave. And I was pretty groggy when I finally got home.)

It's not quite as good as the fantasy of being alone overnight in a good bookstore. For one thing, while UTK does have some comics-related material (including a collection of "Tijuana Bibles"), they don't have nearly as many (or as current) a selection as Borders or Books-A-Million. But they do have enough non-comics material to keep me interested for, oh, the next few hundred years or so.

 

[Luciana]

spend the night in the library.

Oh, no, you're my hero! I *never* did anything like that!

I used to live in the tenth floor of a building. The building right in front of mine was a magnificent construction, with 8-bedroom apartments and discreet millionaires for residents (this was a middle-class neighborhood). Right in front of my windows lived an elderly man whose books covered all of the walls, top to bottom, of all the bedrooms, living room and corridors! At around nine o'clock this man, always dressed in black, would turn on the lamp on his office and disappear from my sight. Sometimes I saw one of his employees reaching a book in a top shelf. One of the rooms I only saw once in the many years he lived there - it was certainly a room for the most expensive books, with controlled environment conditions.

As the years went by and he aged, he read less and less.

One day, returning from school, I saw his coffin leaving the building. I, who had never talked to him, was very sad. But what really broke my heart came later - what I supposed to be the family came and took away all of the books, which filled a delivery truck. Looking out my window was never the same. Somehow, I thought that the image of those books belonged to me.

 

[Kilted_Canuck]

Well, I'm one of those crazy teenage guys who loves reading (crazy, eh?). I read as much science, history, geography, and sometimes fiction (Harry Potter, Tom Clancy, Stephen Baxter, etc) as I can. Unfortunately, I've been so busy lately that most of my reading is done at 12:00 am on a school night, so I end up falling asleep after two pages.

On a sadder note: Yesterday I found out that my neighbourhood's library will be closing in march, due to operating costs. It may mean a few minutes extra in the drive for me, but there are some lower income houses surrounding it that may not be able to have easy access to a library.

 

[Craig]

I loved reading when I was younger, usually falling asleep with a book in my hand at night.

When I started secondary school we were made to read books (novels) and then dissect them. Which really killed it for me - I've now lost the habit and am not interested anymore, at least not as I was. A love of reading can't be forced - even more so when you love reading.

It's a shame.

 

[Chaos]

I loved reading when I was younger, usually falling asleep with a book in my hand at night.

When I started secondary school we were made to read books (novels) and then dissect them. Which really killed it for me - I've now lost the habit and am not interested anymore, at least not as I was. A love of reading can't be forced - even more so when you love reading.

It's a shame.

I had the same experience in secondary school - however, it just killed the interest in "serious" literature, like the great classics. I kept on reading "trivial" literature, - Fantasy, SF and the occasional thriller - as we never had these at school.

 

[epepke]

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.

Books are wonderful. Libraries have always seemed to me the best places.

Have you seen Himmel Ueber Berlin? In English, Wings of Desire. There's a sequence with music, "Die Kateadrale der Buecher," the Cathedral of Books in the Berlin library. Sends shudders up my spine.

 

[gnome]

I used to read for pleasure a LOT more than I do now. I still have the urge, and the love of reading... but somehow the distractions of adult life tend to cut into it. I used to read in the afternoons... but now I am messing around on my computer or watching television. I used to read as I went to sleep--but now there's somoene there in bed wanting to cuddle all the time, and I can't really complain.

I still tend to carry around a book with me all the time, just in case I have to sit still for more than five minutes.

 

[Luciana]

I used to read for pleasure a LOT more than I do now. I still have the urge, and the love of reading... but somehow the distractions of adult life tend to cut into it.

When I think of having kids, the first thing that crosses my mind is... oh no I'll have less time to read! Oh, well, no wonder the project is always postponed.

 

[Chaos]

When I think of having kids, the first thing that crosses my mind is... oh no I'll have less time to read! Oh, well, no wonder the project is always postponed.

This will be set off by the fact that you will, after a while, be able to read to them. This is at least as much fun as reading alone.


No, I don´t have any children of my own. But every time on my aunt´s birthday party, I get "volunteered" to look after the kids present. My aunt has this huge collection of Donald Duck comics, so there is always something I can do with them once I got them tired (or they got me tired )

 

[Phil]

I'm reminded of the Science Library where I would go to study as an undergrad. The Science Library at the University of Texas was (and still is, as far as I know) referred to as The Stacks. Yes, of course all libraries have stacks, but that's just what we called it, probably because there was little else to it besides the stacks. This library looked more like a warehouse or a depository, a place simply to store books. It was row after row, stack after stack of books, from floor to ceiling, and it was quite intimidating to the uninitiated.

Whether studying for an exam or when I simply needed to make the rest of the world go away for a while, I'd find one of the small desks that were placed here and there among the books, and just read. I'd read until the machinery of the outside world was muted and all I could hear was the buzz of the lights overhead, and all I could smell was the musty genius oozing from the pages and the remnant wisps of ideas still lingering on the treated wood of the desk.

Often, I'd emerge after being lost in a good novel or a science book to find that the date had changed from when I had entered, though I was hardly concerned. After a few hours in my sanctuary, very little could trouble me.

 

[Darat]

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.

A true bibliophile!

Anyone else would be concerned about ensuring the apocalypse didn’t happen, but what does a bibliophile take from the story

"Always keep a spare set of glasses handy"

 

[Darat]

I used to read for pleasure a LOT more than I do now. I still have the urge, and the love of reading... but somehow the distractions of adult life tend to cut into it. I used to read in the afternoons... but now I am messing around on my computer or watching television. I used to read as I went to sleep--but now there's somoene there in bed wanting to cuddle all the time, and I can't really complain.

I still tend to carry around a book with me all the time, just in case I have to sit still for more than five minutes.

You don't read whilst watching TV?

Anyone else like me and will read whatever they are doing?

I will balance a book open anywhere so I can continue reading. People often come into the kitchen when I am preparing food and say “Oh what’s that recipe?” only to discover the book in front of me isn’t a recipe book. Cleaning my teeth I have a way of being able to balance either a hardback book or magazine so I don’t have to stop reading. And when I moved recently my greatest find with my new home was that I had a place to put a book whilst I’m showering!

In fact I probably have “obsessive compulsive behaviour” when it comes to reading. Put anything with text in front of me and I can't stop myself reading it, I’ll walk past a piece of paper on the street and if there is text or writing on it I’ll read it!

 

[Luciana]

And when I moved recently my greatest find with my new home was that I had a place to put a book whilst I’m showering!

That's genius! I'm so tired to read about the chemical stuff in my shampoo bottle!

In fact I probably have “obsessive compulsive behaviour” when it comes to reading. Put anything with text in front of me and I can't stop myself reading it, I’ll walk past a piece of paper on the street and if there is text or writing on it I’ll read it!

When I was 11, guess what I asked for Christmas? 44 books! Through the mail! My best vacations ever.

I'm like this too. I love to read and eat. They say that the mastication makes your eyes lose focus. Who cares. What about buses/planes? Cars suck, they tremble too much. Airplanes are not very good either, as the dry air make my eyes hurt. But trains, subways and buses are the best.

Nothing is more excruciating than to be seated without anything to read. The worst of all is that I can read anything, if the only magazine available is about accupuncture, I'll read it too, no prob.

This must be a compulsion of some sort, Darat, I agree!

 

[bug_girl]

rats!

well, someone has already reccd' Ex Libris.
so i'll just second a lot of other comments, since i can't not confess my addiction.

I'm a biblioholic. i can't go into book stores unsupervised.
i have put amazon on my block list for the computer.
it is not uncommon to find books in various stages of reading all over the house. or for me to read anything, anywhere.

it's totally pathological, how much i read.

 

[Darat]

bug_girl & Luciana - my type of people.

Totally coincidentally today when my postman knocked he said "you're a voracious reader aren't you?"; it was perhaps something to do with the post he handed me:

Locus – monthly magazine of science-fiction & fantasy publishing
New Scientist - weekly UK popular science magazine (a day late!)
Scientific American
Nature
3 packages from Amazon

.... and they will all enter that state of being read over the weekend.

And this is a compulsion for me; I will read anything in times of extremis e.g. not having anything to read for say 5 minutes! In fact I will sometimes spend more time finding something to read when I am about to do something then actually doing it.

 

[kittynh]

used book stores. Really nice New England used book stores.

I went in my favorite this week and came out with a whole brown bag full of books for $21. I can't afford new books, so I use the library for the new stuff. But, turn me lose in a used book store and look out. I give used books for presents (Merc can assure you of this)!

And college! I worked my way through college at the library. It was heaven. thank goodness I was an art major as I ended up reading so many books that came through my hands! Forget reading for class! It was just a joy to work with books all night long (I worked evenings....).

Now, where to put all the books? Does anyone else have a whole bookshelf full of skeptic books? And how about books under the bed? We have books in every room in the house (basement attic and bathrooms included). It's sad. Oh, always have a book in the car, you never know when you'll need it!

 

[Darat]

...snip...

Now, where to put all the books? Does anyone else have a whole bookshelf full of skeptic books? And how about books under the bed? We have books in every room in the house (basement attic and bathrooms included). It's sad. Oh, always have a book in the car, you never know when you'll need it!

I ran out of book space when I was about 11, ever since then I've never been able to, no matter where I've lived, have all my books out and to hand.

My dining room has two walls floor to ceiling with bookcases. (About 50% of my hardbacks.) But even these have to be stored on their sides to maximise packing density. When I moved this year I had over 125 boxes for books - removal men not happy I can tell you!

And I love second-hand bookshops - the smell is always fantastic and because the prices are low you can really indulge in perhaps books that you couldn't justify at full price – which can be very dangerous.

Out of curiosity how many "unread" books do you have around? I tend to have a pile of 20-30 at all times waiting to be read - and they call out to me shouting “READ ME!”

 

[Luciana]

Unread?? 3-4, max. I get nervous if I accumulate many books in my reading list. Now, I always make sure to have a new book for when I finish theone I'm currently reading. Being inbetween reading is very unsettling! I feel lost in the world if there isn't a book to be read. Ok, I can reread one in my bookshelf, but not before I buy a new one for security. How's that for addiction?