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

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

This made me chuckle. Enjoy.

http://bookriot.com/2017/05/11/why-yo...

WHY YOU SHOULD BUY A BOOK RIGHT NOW
DANA ROSETTE PANGAN
05-11-17
There are moments in our lives when we just can’t make up our minds about whether we should do the thing, and by “thing” I meant “buying books.” Here are some reasons why you totally should.

1. Well, it’s not going to buy itself, is it?

2. You’re going to buy just one book. Just one. Surely you can stick to that even when you finally get inside the bookstore and see all the books you have not read yet, right? Right?

3. There’s still an eensy-weensy bit of space left on your bookshelf, enough for one book to squeeze in. Unless you’re planning on buying a Russian tome, you’re good.

4. Actually, who cares about bookshelf space? Just pile ‘em up on every flat surface in your home.

5. You don’t have anything else left to read. Okay, so you haven’t yet read an entire shelf of books in your house, but let’s not talk about that.

6. Books can make your problems go away. Or, at least, books can help you pretend that your problems do not exist in the time it takes to finish them.

7. As the saying goes, “Do not put off until tomorrow the books you can buy today.”

8. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming. It’s a perfect day to go outside … and head straight for the bookstore.

9. Walking up and down the aisles of a bookstore in search of your book is considered exercise.


10. You have 99 unread books at home. Doesn’t it bother you that it’s not an even 100?

11. You have only one book in your bag. Where do you think you’re going with only one book in your bag? Better stop by the bookstore, my friend.

12. Give yourself a reward for being sociable today. Buy a book and then lock yourself up in your room because that’s enough socializing for one day.

13. You have only the first book of a 21-book long series. Good luck.

14. You have only two copies of your favorite book. The newly released hardcover edition is looking gorgeous.

15. You have discovered a new favorite author, and now you have to read everything they’ve ever written, even their diary. Especially their diary.

16. It’s incredibly calming to be in a bookstore surrounded by lots and lots of books and store employees who don’t talk to you and just let you be. (Imagine if, like other store employees, booksellers followed you around the store and commented on every book you picked up. *shudders*)

17. It’s someone’s birthday and you should give them the gift of knowledge. It’s not your birthday, but maybe you can manage to give yourself one, too.

18. That feeling you get when you take a new book out of its wrapper and flip the pages to smell it? You need to experience that again.

19. It’s better than buying drugs. Your local book dealer is also much friendlier.

Sarah wrote: "I think my favorite find was a 1915 copy of Treasure Island. It's awesome. "

I am so jealous! Treasure Island is one of my favorite books and I like to collect various publications of it, so far I have 10.

Happy May Day! Share your May purchases here.

Bought at a Scholastic Book Sale:

April showers bring May flowers, or better yet, a good reason to stay in and read. Share your April book buys here.

A couple more this month:

Shannon wrote: "@Joseph Is it possible for you to post a link to the results?"

Try this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...

I came across this cool article online that encouraged me to make a survey out of it to see what your opinions are. So please, check out the link below to take the survey and let me know what you think. TIA.

https://goo.gl/forms/7zwI5QFJRpxH4Bv63

A couple more autographs I've gotten since by last post here:
Confessions of a Window Dresser by Simon Doonan
Girls & Goddesses: The Pin-Up Art of Joseph Michael Linsner by Joseph Michael Linsner
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose LeeKaren Abbott
Be A Goddess! A Guide to Celtic Spells and Wisdom for Self-Healing, Prosperity and Great Sex by Francesca De Grandis
Miranda's Magic Garden by Linda Atnip
Eleventh Grave in Moonlight by Darynda Jones
The Accidental Santera: A Novel by Irete Lazo

That brings my total number of autographed items in my library to... 468! Wow, I thought I only had 200 or so!

My first new books of March might be used, but one of them arrived autographed! The Accidental Santera: A Novel was signed by Irete Lazo and I also received Tarot of the Orishas Book and Sam Zabel And The Magic Pen.

Is your March book buying going to start like a lion or like a lamb? Share your fantastic finds in March here.

Shannon wrote: "Going into March and I'm three books behind. Not terrible but not encouraging either."

Plenty of time left in the year, and we ought to remember it really is the quality not the quantity of our reading that matters most. Myself, I'm currently at 8 books ahead at 63/345.

I found this article https://qz.com/895101/in-the-time-you... to include some very interesting information.

"How much time does it take to read 200 books a year?
First, let’s look at two quick statistics:
The average American reads 200–400 words per minute (Since you’re on Medium, I’m going to assume you read 400 wpm like me)
Typical non-fiction books have ~50,000 words
Now, all we need are some quick calculations…
200 books * 50,000 words/book = 10 million words
10 million words/400 wpm = 25,000 minutes
25,000 minutes/60 = 417 hours
That’s all there is to it. To read 200 books, simply spend 417 hours a year reading."

Using the formula above to look back at last year, it was interesting to learn that having read 403 books would mean I spent about 700 hours reading last year. How about you? Just replace the 200 books in the formula with the number you did read and see how many hours you spent reading.

Lin wrote: "They way I deal with anthologies in my personal library is simple. They are at the very front of my shelves. In alphabetical order by title. When it is a book that has been retitled if I intend to ..."

Interesting. The way I deal with anthologies is by putting them at the end of my shelves, and I organize them by publication date because I usually buy anthologies that have novellas and short stories of series I like, so I want to make sure I read them in order.

Lin wrote: "I am curious about number 8. Are you referring to anthologies? If so, these are not my favorite type books, but I don't hate them. "

To quote the article: "8. Books published under multiple authors and titles. Where are you supposed to shelve The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith aka Carol by Claire Morgan so that they’re together? Or if the new edition of a book gets renamed after the movie title, how is that alphabetized? It’s anarchy! (And don’t get me started on authors that republish their books with different names–I’m looking at you, Nora Roberts. I’m pretty sure you’re purposely trying to get people to accidentally buy the same book twice.)"

This gets on my nerves when I am shopping in the used book stores and I find what I think is a book I haven't seen before by an author is really just a retitled old work. I agree with the article's author, Nora Roberts is one who does this too often.

As both a professional librarian and a private bookcollector, I agree with disliking every single one of these! Check out this article and see if you agree, too.

http://bookriot.com/2017/02/21/book-d...

1. Die-cut covers.
2. Non-rectangular books.
3. Weirdly-sized books.
4. Books covered in fur. Or astroturf
5. Spiral bound books.
6. Books with toys attached.
7. Covers that are impossible to keep clean.
8. Books published under multiple authors and titles.
9. And finally, books with the title or author placed where library stickers usually go.

There was a Scholastic Book Fair at a local school I visited today, so of course I had to buy something. I came home with just:

My first buys of the month:

Share here your great February book buys.