Are you addicted to books and reading?

[Brian G Turner]

Wonderful photo! I love the doors too.

Oops - just to clarify, the image at the top of the page is a stock image - I presume it must be from an old library or similar.

My own bookshelves look like this:

Except for a few academic books only available in paperback/hardback, my purchases are always Kindle versions.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I feel like a real amateur at this. For one thing, I don't do e-books. For another, I don't like to have an extremely large pile to be read. Right now it consists of about twenty books, and I expect to get to them in a reasonable amount of time. Our total library at home consists of somewhere around one thousand volumes, which is a nice, comfortable size.

 

[Hugh]

Oops - just to clarify, the image at the top of the page is a stock image - I presume it must be from an old library or similar.

My own bookshelves look like this:

View attachment 48288


Except for a few academic books only available in paperback/hardback, my purchases are always Kindle versions.

Ahh!

 

[Toby Frost]

I always feel a bit lost when topics like this come up. I don’t read half as much as other people and, while I always have one novel and one factual (probably historical) book on the go at once, I don’t have a huge pile of fiction that I’ve not started yet. Part of this is just lifestyle – time-wise, reading is my third hobby after writing and making models – but it’s also because I’ve got more choosy about what I read and more things don’t appeal to me these days. I think I’m at an awkward age where a lot of classic SFF feels dated, and a lot of the new stuff doesn’t really appeal, probably because of the way that it’s marketed. I read a lot of non-fiction now and, of the fiction that I do read, at least half isn’t SFF at all (a fair chunk of it is crime). But I probably ought to read more.

 

[Mouse]

I don't have a to-read pile. I have books that I haven't read that I might read at some point if I have time/energy.

So no. I rarely buy books now and I don't often have the time to read them. It'll take me a year or more to read one book.

 

[althea]

I am a book addict. Due to having problems with my hands,I mostly use my two kindles these days.
I am reading one of my favourite authors at the moment. C.S.Sansom's Tombland,which is book 7 in the Matthew Shardlake series. I had it on pre order and we have had to wait a while for this one because Chris Sansom has been seriously ill. Picking up and reading this book is like walking into a room full of old friends.
I can't recommend this series highly enough. I am trying to take my time with it,so that I can savour every word.

 

[SilentRoamer]

I have somewhere over 1000 books.

My wife has insisted some go into storage so I have trimmed down to only 4 bookshelves.

There are constantly shifting battle lines in the SR household over who is in charge of space. My wife seems to think she has a monopoly on storage space, I disagree, and that's how the War of SR's Book Collection began. So far it has seen numerous fallen volumes relegated to the archives of plastic storage boxes, heroic efforts to save some volumes and cowardice as I let some be relegated without a fight - essential sacrifices, some might say.

I have definitely slowed down - some of that is due to the fact I own a lot of the books I want to read so there are increasingly less for me to buy - I own some authors entire collected works for example.

2016: SilentRoamer by the numbers.
In 2016 I bought 53 books. I spent approx. £115.

2015: SilentRoamer by the numbers.
In 2015 I bought 148 books. I spent approx £160.

Many of the used bookstores and charity bookstores have closed, alas. So my purchasing has slowed somewhat but if I see something I want I'm going to buy it and redraw the battle lines.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I must stop buying books
I must stop buying books
I must stop buying books

I tell myself this regularly but it doesn't work!!

 

[HoopyFrood]

I used to be. Used to read through books like nobody’s business and bought books because I loved having books around. I do still have three lots of shelves full of books, and have given away about a third of that amount in more books over the last few years, but I’m still trying to get rid of more and very, very rarely buy books now.

I haven’t really read anything in full for a very long time, apart from the occasional non-fiction book. I’ve started plenty but run out of steam. Part of it I think is that I’ve, I don’t know, understood? worked out? myself more over the last couple of years so there are things in books, especially fantasy tropes, that just don’t appeal to me anymore. But mostly I just seem to have fallen out of the reading groove.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I have trimmed down to only 4 bookshelves

A Kindle or Fire tablet is a lot cheaper than a new bookshelf, in my experience. And the books cheaper, too.

 

[night_wrtr]

There are constantly shifting battle lines in the SR household over who is in charge of space. My wife seems to think she has a monopoly on storage space, I disagree, and that's how the War of SR's Book Collection began. So far it has seen numerous fallen volumes relegated to the archives of plastic storage boxes, heroic efforts to save some volumes and cowardice as I let some be relegated without a fight - essential sacrifices, some might say.

This is the realist paragraph I've ever read.

 

[Vince W]

A Kindle or Fire tablet is a lot cheaper than a new bookshelf, in my experience. And the books cheaper, too.

But that would negate my other addiction. Antique wood bookcases.

 

[Venusian Broon]

A Kindle or Fire tablet is a lot cheaper than a new bookshelf, in my experience. And the books cheaper, too.

Perhaps, if someday Kindle Version 'X' has the ability to produce smells like 'old yellowish paper that have taken some of the aroma of the institution that housed it in the past' or the sharp smell of a fresh new book opened for the first time.

And also the ability to produce similar tactile stimulation of all types of paper!

Otherwise, it will be a little underwhelming for me

 

[thaddeus6th]

Venusian, there's something in that. Certain books do have particular smells. David Copperfield reminds me of old holidays, there's a particular glue/paper aroma of Chinese classics, and even the last Witcher book I read (review up tomorrow) had a distinctive smell.

If I were Captain Sellsalot McFancypants I'd probably take a keen interest in such things on the publishing end.

 

[Vince W]

Perhaps, if someday Kindle Version 'X' has the ability to produce smells like 'old yellowish paper that have taken some of the aroma of the institution that housed it in the past' or the sharp smell of a fresh new book opened for the first time.

And also the ability to produce similar tactile stimulation of all types of paper!

Otherwise, it will be a little underwhelming for me

You might be interested in my new cologne. Livres! pour hommes.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Yeah I'm addicted to reading. Instead of reading to fall asleep, I'll keep reading to see what happens next, next thing both hands of the clockface are in the lower right hand quadrant and still no solution in sight. Yard sales, used books and free to 99 cent ebooks help satisfy the ten percent financial solution. However I did recently get a copy of Leviathan Wakes of which it appears first 20 pages were soaked in water, the book hung out to dry and put up for sale. It gave the front cover illustration a sense of depth and the pages are cleanly warped but readable so its a keeper for now. Space wise every couple of years some of the newer books get donated somewhere which makes room for more. Everyonce in awhile I'll give a few away and most infrequently sell one.

 

[Extollager]

Space wise every couple of years some of the newer books get donated somewhere which makes room for more. Every once in awhile I'll give a few away and most infrequently sell one.

There's a thread here for stories about getting rid of books, by the way.

Tales of Book Purges, Culls, Weeding, etc.

That's a topic that might be of particular interest to those of us who have attained, or are approaching, the age of retirement.

In the past few years, one of my daughters took the better part of a year to clean out her mother's parent's house after their deaths; and my sister took many months (with help from me on a couple of vacations, and from her son, etc.) to clear out our parents' house after their deaths. My wife's parents didn't have many books, but they had a lot of stuff. My own parents had many hundreds of books. Which did my sister, or I, wish to keep? Which were suitable for donation to the geography department of the local university? (Quite a few!) Which we suitable for donation for sale by a church or thrift store? And so on.

These things help to underscore for me, the desirability of downsizing gradually while I'm still in good health, etc., rather than leaving an even bigger job for someone else to deal with someday.

 

[SilentRoamer]

A Kindle or Fire tablet is a lot cheaper than a new bookshelf, in my experience. And the books cheaper, too.

I have a fire HD and a big library on there but only read it if i can't get hold of a book outside of a download. Also the free projects.

I much prefer a real book. No substitute! ☺

 

[Paul_C]

I wouldn't consider myself an addict, but I do read every day and have a huge pile of books waiting to be read plus an even bigger Kindle collection yet to be consumed.

I have slowed my buying of all types of books over the last year, mostly as I was buying a number of guitar pedals, but I still buy now and again and also add to my Amazon wishlist anything I like the look of which is currently way too pricey - by the time I might need to buy a book again, most will be selling for next to nothing

I have a 3 bed house to myself and therefore no-one to argue with about how many books I may or may not buy

 

[Lafayette]

The old cliche "misery loves company" doesn't seem to apply here. Although, on second thought, maybe we do enjoy our misery. The other contradiction I see here is: we don't need others to share our misery.

I have two lists one is on my Kindle Reader (where I have more than 1500 e-books) and the other is at Amazon.com (books that I want). My Amazon list goes first in price categories, 99 cents to $2.99, $3.00 to $4.99 and so on. Then I have Simak, Turtledove, Tolkien, Donaldson, Brooks, G G Kay, Bibles and Bible Aids, and Recommended Books (a number from the people on this forums)

One habit I've discovered I possess lately is: I start reading a book and not finish it, not because I'm bored with it, but because I get involved reading another book. Earlier this year, I started reading a bio of Lafayette, Louie IV, the Lord of the Rings, Runes of Earth, a book by Dr. Ben Carson, and a few other fantasy novels and recently I've gotten involved with reading Highlander (a history of the Scottish regiments) and The Generals (featuring Marshall, MacArthur, and Patton).

On my laptop, I have two other e-readers which I download a number free e-books to. I'm a sucker for a freebie.

What's hitting me odd at this moment is even though I desire more book I'm not jealous of any of you.