Joseph ’s Comments (group member since Jul 28, 2009)

Joseph ’s comments from the Book Buying Addicts Anonymous group.

How many of these fit you? :-)


1. Finding a comfortable reading position is a never-ending quest. Chair or bed? Side or back? In a box? With a fox?


2. On airplanes, you hesitantly flick on the overhead light while everyone else is napping.


3. Paper cuts may look like minor injuries, but the pain can be excruciating.


4. Walking and reading at the same time requires hand-eye coordination only professional athletes have been endowed with.


5. What on earth are you supposed to do with the jacket on a hardcover while you're reading it? Keep it on and risk damaging it? Take it off and store it in a weird nook, never to find it again?


6. Deciding what to read is a choice that presents you with an embarrassment of riches.


7. The typeface and page length of a book can seriously impact your reading experience, sometimes for the worse (sans-serif font is a huge no-no).


8. A book can be composed of the worst drivel you've ever laid eyes on, you're still afflicted with major guilt when you banish it to the "I Will Never Ever Ever Finish This. Like, Ever." shelf.


9. You lament time that you've wasted in the past; all of those hours scouring celebrity Twitters could have been put towards finally reading Moby Dick!


10. Some people count down the minutes until their lunch hour; you count down the minutes until your favorite authors release their next books.


11. Finishing a book you loved is like saying goodbye to a good friend. You've been through so much together! And while you may see each other again, it won't be quite the same.


12. Forget finding roommates; the most stressful thing about moving is figuring out a way to transport boxes upon boxes of heavy books.


13. You're constantly rethinking your bookshelf strategy. Should you color-coordinate, or take a more practical approach, such as publication date or alphabetization? Or, if you're feeling ambitious, should you tackle the autobiographical bookshelf, à la Rob Gordon from High Fidelity?


14. Your mood is directly impacted by the mood of the book that you're reading; your friends have learned to avoid you during Dostoyevsky months or Bret Easton Ellis weeks.


15. You take found books home like abandoned puppies,
chirping, "Can we keep it?!" That'd be well and good if it didn't happen once a day.


16. One does not simply walk by a bookstore. One must poke around, at the very least, and one usually ends up filling one's tote bag with more books than one can carry.


17. "I don't read" is a relationship death knell, akin to "I loathe my mother" or "I enjoy upsetting kittens."

18. You may or may not own two (or three or four) copies of a beloved book. You can't help it, the redesigned covers are irresistible!


19. Laundry day and other important obligations get
completely overlooked when you're in the middle of a great, un-put-downable book. "Same shirt Saturday"? Sorry? You're not sorry.

Tiffany wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Got a couple more today: "

I just finished reading Firebird. It took me a..."

I haven't read the first one, but I ended up buying Firebird after I read it from the library because I liked it so much.

On another note, just picked up another new read:

Got a couple more today:

Michelle Greenleaf wrote: "I store all my books in plastic boxes. I'd love to put them on a shelf, but my cats are intent on destroying them, and would get on the shelves, seriously; they chew the corners, stretch their claw..."

Michelle, have you considered getting bookcases with doors?

I don't know about any of you, but this fits me to a T. :-)

Things That Happen When You’re a Speedreader:

You think it’s perfectly normal to read a book in one sitting.

You start saying you’re “almost done” with a book as soon as you’re more than halfway through.

A stranger has seen you turning pages and asked: “Are you really reading that?”

You know the feeling of trying (and failing) to slow your eyes down when you’re reading a book that you’re trying to savor.

You won’t get on a plane unless you have at least one book for each two-hour interval of time.

You simply cannot understand why some people need weeks and weeks to read just one book.

You know a book is REALLY good when you find yourself
rationing it so that you can spend longer with the
characters.

You actually benefit from the “read and return” option at airport bookstores.

…which is good, because very few people could afford to pay full price for as many books as you go through in a year.

You buy a series like this: the first book, to make sure it’s good, and then ALL of the other books. Because you’re going to need them right away.

You’ve read entire books without getting up to go to the bathroom.

You’ve looked up from your book in a public place to find someone staring at your flipping pages in astonishment.

You love to give books as gifts because you can read them before wrapping them and still have time to write a thoughtful card.

You pretend like your reading speed ain’t no thing, but you actually love when people notice because you’re proud that you can speedread like a boss. As you should be, because it’s awesome.

Paulfozz wrote: "It also can result in not choosing anything as you become depressed by the inability to come to a satisfactory choice. I get this quite a bit and end up with a lot of half-started books on the shelf as a result. I don't know why I leave bookmarks in them though as I always go back and start afresh when I return to them!..."

Me too! In fact, of those 13 new books I've got, so far I've tried three of them and they are now just sitting with bookmarks in them even though I'm likely to just pull those bookmarks out and start over whenever I get back to them.

Anyone else ever run into the situation where one day you can't find anything you want to read and then the next day you have way more choices than you really want? Earlier this week I just didn't feel like reading anything, believe it or not, and now the week is over and six library books I placed holds on long ago all came in and seven books I preordered all were delivered to my doorstep the same day. That's a total of thirteen new books now! I don't know what to read first! lol

Just got a whopper of a delivery today!

Mary wrote: "I am going to try to read 75 again. I am going to try to reread several books so I guess I will just delete the books from the original read date - hopefully that will work."

Mary, I suggest you don't delete them from their previous date because that will remove it from previous years' challenges totals. Use a "dummy" book, a title you read long long ago and don't think you will reread again. I find picture books and classics are good for this.

ஐ Briansgirl (Book Sale Queen)ஐ wrote: "250? You've got to be kidding! I'd never get anything done.

I usually average a hundred a year but last year only got 74 read. Stupid GRs challenge app has me at 37 since rereads don't count. :("

I think that's BS that rereads don't count. I get around that by just marking picture books I've read with the date I reread the other book. That way I get credit for reading two books even if one of them was really just read twice.

Thom wrote: "To read is to read but for some of us to have and to hold counts even more."

Thom, that's practically poetic! I like it! :-)

Happy New Year! How many books do you think you can read this year? I'm aiming a bit lower than I have in the past, hopefully I can at least hit 250. How about you?

Happy New Year! Hope your new year is a prosperous one, particularly when it comes to new books for your collection! Share here the good buys you make in January.

Well, the year is just about over, and while I didn't reach my original goal of 315, I can still proudly say I was able to enjoy finishing a total of 298 books this year. I think I'll aim just a little lower for next year, maybe 250. Hope you all had a good reading year in 2013 and have an even better one in 2014. Happy New Year everyone!

Thom wrote: "I continue to read them and collect more. God willing it is a race i'll never win!"

Thom, I like the way you put that. It's the same way I go at it. :-)

I did it! Changed my goal to 295 and had a great read yesterday, finished off 4 books to reach that changed goal. Two more days still left in the year and I'm going to relax and read as much as I can.

Laura wrote: "291 is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. I always tend to start relatively low and increase the goal as the year goes on. My final goal this year ended up being 130, and I have now read 135, wh..."

I think that's what I'll do next year, set the goal a little lower, maybe just 200 and see how far past that I can go.

Joy wrote: "Aw come on Joseph! You can get 9 more done for an even 300!!!"

I don't know about 9 more, but I did change my goal to 295, I think I can definitely do that, considering I've already finished two books today, just two to go. :-)

While I have read 291 books so far this year, I don't think I'm going to reach my goal of 315 books considering I'd have to read 21 books in the next 3 days to do so.
Do you think it would be okay to lower my goal now so I could say I succeeded? I know I didn't reach 315, but 291 is pretty good, isn't it? ;-)

Got a copy of yesterday.

Happy holidays everyone! What good reads did you get and/or give for holiday gifts this year?