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20 Problems Only Book Lovers Understand
Last week we asked on Facebook and Twitter: What's a problem only book lovers understand? We got over 1,000 amazing responses! So even if non-book lovers don't get your struggle, remember—you're among friends here.
1. "The urge to buy books even though you still have too many books to read at home." (Rie VdWarth)
2. "Feeling sad for people who don't really exist." (Kimberly Moniz)
3. "RUNNING OUT OF SHELF SPACE!!!" (Kim)
4. "Getting interrupted when you are on the last few pages of a book." (Sobe Daya)
5. "The book hangover. When a good book finishes but you can't start a new one because you're still too immersed in the last book to move on." (Meagan Lewis)
6. "Wanting every book in a library section but knowing it is impossible to read all of them." (Richard Azia)
7. "Waiting so long for a sequel that you forget what happened in the first book." (Jessica Luong)
8. "When you're lying in bed and it's all cold in your room—and the hand holding the book freezes to death, even though the rest of you is warm under the blankets." (Alina Marie Swan)
9. "Finishing a book and having to wait a whole year to read the next in the series." (Sarah Scanion)
10. "Trying to keep the book dry while reading in the bath." (Patricia Boland)
11. "Ordering a book online and getting the book with the movie cover. A book with a movie cover just doesn't feel the same." (Anna RN)
12. "Not being able to read and eat lunch at the same time because you don't have a third arm." (Bernadette)
13. "When someone borrows your book and doesn't return it for ages!" (Pallavi B)
14. "Deciding. Which. Book. To. Read. First." (Monique Balsamo)
15. "Getting to a 'can't stop reading' spot in the book and it's 3:00am." (Joan Chesley)
16. "When you have a book with you, but it's not the one you wanted to read right then." (Virginia Osborne)
17. "Being forced to stop reading by other obligations, but choosing to ignore those obligations. Then getting in trouble." (Feel Like Fangirling)
18. "Packing for a trip and never being able to bring enough books." (Erika Gallion)
19. "Having a book fall on your face because you're reading on your back while holding the book up." (Manuel Cedillo)
20. And the ultimate book lovers' dilemma: "So many books, so little time." (Navy Reading)
Have another bibliophile-specific problem? Share it with your fellow Goodreads members in the comments! Chances are you'll find someone (or many someones) who feel your book pain.
(Top image credit: Illustration by Quentin Blake for Roald Dahl's Matilda.)
Comments Showing 601-650 of 1,070 (1070 new)
Sadia wrote: "Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"I feel you xD"
Someone else actually understands me.
Elise wrote: "When you loan a paperback book to a friend and you get it back with the spine creased and you want to kill them, but they are still your friend, so you are torn (so you just hit them with the book ..."I gave a paperback book to my cousin and the spine was creased and everything. I wanted to kill him so bad, and every time I look at the book my anger returns.
Agne wrote: "I only became a book lover this year and I can already relate to most or at least half of them for sure ;) :D"Welcome to the madness that is reading!
Zoe wrote: "I would also add: "Hating a book that everyone loves, tell me about loneliness.""I so relate, like fifty shades for example:)
Choosing who to be your partner in life based on his/her taste in books. More on this: https://youtu.be/IazMZNHIEgA
I hate it when I am two pages away from the end, or just in a really good part of the book and someone tells me to do something or needs my advice or just has to talk to me RIGHT NOW.
Kevin wrote: "Ranee wrote: "Sadia wrote: "Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"
I feel you xD"
Someone else actually understands me."
I would rather have it that way than not enough books to ..."
It's so annoying when I'm in the library with people and they go, "There's nothing to read!" You're literally standing in front of hundreds of books.
I feel you xD"
Someone else actually understands me."
I would rather have it that way than not enough books to ..."
It's so annoying when I'm in the library with people and they go, "There's nothing to read!" You're literally standing in front of hundreds of books.
my problem is not wanting anyone including the other kids to come with me to wait for one of the other children to get out of school or club meeting because that would cut into my reading time !!!
I can relate to all but 8, 10 and 13. I cannot relate to 13 because I refuse to lend out my books!
I hate when they change the regular cover to the "movie cover"!This list is fantastic!
Oh my God, that's sooo true! I relate to most of those points on the list :)
Reading on the sidewalk before entering the party because you red the climax on the bus and you only have the ending chapter left.You then get quite drunk and forget how the book ended the next day.
Being unable to lend someone a book incase they fold the page over to mark it. I've also dropped an iPad on my face, and it was really painful.
shanay wrote: "I'm so glad other people understand. I always feel so alone. The thing I get the most is "why don't you finish the books that you have?"They don't understand how amazing it is to bring a new book ..."
I love the books I have, but the next one is like the grass being greener on the other side, isn't it? I want 'em all!
Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"mine too...and tothink, i'm dyslexic and it took me years to comprehend exactly what I was reading
I understand ALL those problems lol!!! My biggest problems are buying too many books when I already have so many and trying to decide which books to read!! I can't stop buying books; ebooks, audiobooks, and hardcovers!!!! I usually read 2 books at a time because I can't decide!
When you have to write in the 20thcopy of an out-of-print book: "This book cannot leave the house" because even with bookplates the books never come home....EVER
Sadia wrote: "Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"I feel you xD"
Yes OMG Yes
So true OMG so true my entire life was just planed out in @0 bullet pointsEXPLOTION PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFPFOO
Sadia wrote: "Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"I feel you xD"
So true!
Having your shoulders ache because you are reading while lying on your stomach, propped up on your elbows, but are too engrossed to change position.
I wish I ran on food and no sleep at all, because imagine how many more books you could finish if you never slept...
Cyrille wrote: "Reading on the sidewalk before entering the party because you red the climax on the bus and you only have the ending chapter left.You then get quite drunk and forget how the book ended the next day."
LOL!
What books are actually that good? I read all the time but not many are that interesting. I wish I could get into them this much. Maybe I just read too much non fiction :(
margaret4 wrote: "I read all my books on an ereader these days, not through choice but due to a medical condition (rhuematoid arthritis), i love my ereader but i soooooo miss the smell of a new book. Luckly I have a..."That's love, baby! :D
No.19 for me it's a TAB, 'coz I read an ebook *hurt? yeah! Do it again? sure!* :D
Agne wrote: "I only became a book lover this year and I can already relate to most or at least half of them for sure ;) :D"Welcome to the club!
OMG!!! This is so meee....hahaha...Glad to know that I'm not the only one..wahaha
Trying not to start a book by a particular author because I know the author's books always dominate my life, but really dying to start the book.Finding a book (or three) that I really want to read while in the middle of a book that I really wanted to read that I found while in the middle of a book that I really wanted to read... I will make an exception if the found book is non-fiction, and I read it during the day, saving the fiction for evening.
I've always been too afraid to have a book near bathwater so I don't "suffer" from #10 (mostly take showers anyway - faster to get back to my book...lol)...and #11 hasn't happened yet as I most always read the book WAY (sometimes years) before the movie comes out. Otherwise I suffer from ALL the others.
I will never read a book on a kindle, I love the smell of a book, I love to feel the thickness of the book in my hands, I love to flip the pages with my fingers, I love to see how much I've read and how much I have left to read, I love to feel the weight of the book, I love to look at the cover, a book has warmth, a kindle is cold, I would rather have books laying all over my house than a device that is not worth looking at. I love my books and they can't and won't be replaced with something as lifeless as a kindle.
LOL! So true...all of them.I'd add:
When you're trying to read but people keep interrupting you, and when you tell them you're reading they just look at you like you're an alien.
And, since I've gotten my kindle: Wanting to punch the book because the characters are being stupid but not being able to because it would hurt your hand. (I've somewhat solved this one by suffocating it with a pillow, but it's not as satisfying...)
When the room is quiet so you break open your book, then everyone comes in and starts talking.
Sadia wrote: "Ava wrote: "My reading list is longer than my lifespan"I feel you xD"
So true...
Realising the guy in the book isn't real. Hawt waste 3
So glad that I'm not the only one who feel like this. Currently struggling with number 16, because of number 5!
Jacquelyn wrote: "I will never read a book on a kindle, I love the smell of a book, I love to feel the thickness of the book in my hands, I love to flip the pages with my fingers, I love to see how much I've read an..."Agreed!!!
I identify with most of them, but especially #7. Sometimes its so long you have to reread all the books in the series to get to the new one. One author took 30 years to finish her series!
The issue with ereaders: you are 93% through the book....AND IT DIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I have a tablet now and a subscription to Scribd....still running out of shelf space.
Number 19 is me every night--except it's a Kindle slap as I fall asleep.
Yes, I suffered from most of these over the years. I took three+ years recently to crank out the backlog. In some respects it wasn't fun, but I did it. Now most of the above does not apply. Totally digital now and loving it!Finishing a series I purchased and then I will be in a blissful state: what do I want to read and load that onto the Kindle. :)
same