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

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

ASP wrote: "Sorry Joseph - I sympathise, really. But one door closes, another opens: forget about the past and enjoy discovering new books."

Yeah, you're right. It's funny, I felt the need to try and find new copies of my damaged books so I hit a couple of the local libraries used book shelves. I didn't find any of my old books, but I did end up picking up a couple of new ones. One of which I discovered when I got home was signed! And think, I never would have found that signed book if I hadn't gone hunting for replacements. One door closes, another opens. The hunt goes on! :-)

Michele wrote: "$1000 for all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yum."

WOW! My jaw dropped after reading that. And you have me drooling, too. I am SO envious. How on earth did you find such a buy to begin with?

Got a delivery of a used book order today:

Bought a couple off the used book shelf at a local library, one of which was which when I got it home I discovered was signed by its author, Avery Aames!

Bought a couple off the used book shelf at a local library: , , and which when I got it home I discovered was signed by its author, Avery Aames!

Thanks all for your support. Unfortunately, pretty much all I'll be able to do is possible take it as a loss when tax time comes around again. Hindsight of course is 20/20 and I would have probably kept them up high or in plastic tubs if I had even suspected the possibility of flooding, but there was no sign of any water damage when I moved in, and in any case, it seems like this was a fluke to begin with, so much water saturated the ground that it just came up through the cracks in the floor. Oh well, can't go back so I'll just have to go forward. Fortunately what was damaged was mostly classics which are easy to find and juvenile fiction that I've read so many times I practically have the stories memorized anyway.

The book sirens were calling to me and I just had to order some more books. Three came in yesterday:

Picked up used: and a practically unread copy of which shocked me since I've read my copy so much it's pretty much falling apart and could certainly use replacing.

Over the last day or so, Illinois has felt some extremely heavy rains which have resulted in severe flooding. This flooding area unfortunately for me included my basement resulting in several boxes of books being turned to pulp. :-( At final count, while I have been able to dry out about 50 books that should be still readable, I had to throw away about 250 of my books! Some have certainly suffered worse losses, but for me this was bad enough! I know they are just books and can be replaced, but still it is years and years of collecting, whole sets gone! I am angry, annoyed, aggrivated! I'm grateful that that is the worst of my damage, but it may still be awhile before I can get over the loss of all those books. Thanks for listening.

Tiffany wrote: "I am pretty sure publishers rating was a 3. Does that means am not a harsh enough reader?" I'd say no, not when you consider that 3 stars on Goodreads is the same as saying "Liked it." Most of my reads are 3 stars since they were enjoyable, which is what I pretty much would expect of my book choices, but not so much that I can say I 4-starred "REALLY liked it" or 5-star "It was amazing." 4 and 5 stars are pleasant surprises. I very rarely find a read was just 2-star "Ok" and so far of the thousands of books I've read, only two have rated 1 star "Did not like it."

Do you have any odd or whimsical ways of behaving when you are reading? For example, I find every so often I like to read aloud to myself, in essence becoming my own audio narrator. I find I often like to literally hear conversations between characters. Do you ever do anything like this, or am I alone in being weird like this? ;-)

Picked up used copies of:

When you write a review on Goodreads, what do you think should be included? Do you just say "I liked it" or do you go further, "I liked it because..."? Do you summarize the story? List the characters you liked and why? I have a hard time going any further than saying something like "I thought it was fun, adventurous, and crazy." How do you do it?

Picked up two autograph copies at Anderson's: Wonder by R.J. Palacio and The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

Picked up two autographed books at Anderson's:

Got delivered:

My first book of April:

Melissa wrote: "Pulled these out of the $3 sale bin at Wal-Mart today & "
Melissa, if you haven't read it already, you will love The House of Velvet and Glass, it's a great work of historical fiction.

Share here your April book buys.

I'm pleasantly surprised where I'm at at the moment. I've read 85 books toward my goal of 315 books. Which puts me 11 books (3%) ahead of schedule. I didn't think I'd be at this pace. Time will tell if I can keep it up.