Thom’s Comments (group member since Mar 28, 2011)

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

That's a lot of reading, Ashley!!

This is my harvest from a yard sale... Another yard of books!

Mary, I have read all of Stephen King except for Under the Dome and that one I've just started.

More books from Bol:
and so now I have something to enjoy in the sun.

I'm just finishing 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I would rate it as one of his best works.

I am currently reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King and love it. He has adopted a theme that seems to be very popular this millennium; time travel (thank God it isn’t about people with long, pointed canine teeth with an unquenchable thirst). This isn’t really a new theme as many well known (and lesser known) authors of the latter 19th and early 20th Centuries used it. The big difference is (with the exception of The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain) that characters moved from the present to the future and now all move in the opposite direction. One could almost conclude that this means that we’ve past our prime but I would rather take the more optimistic road and say the past is safer to portray than the future. Few (if any) authors got the future right. Some were admittedly, even scarily close but alas no cigar! Why do you think time travel is now stuck in reverse?

The postman just brought me these from Bol.
by
by
by

Nemesis by Bill Napier

What do you think of the ending of Roses are Red by James Patterson. I generally like self-containing books but this one surprised me. After a long reflection I would have to say that I like this ending but I wouldn’t want to see it too often. I won’t go into the story as I wouldn’t want to spoil it for readers that haven’t tackled it yet but I will say I feel like an exhausted mountain climber; after laboring up the highest mountain and reaching the summit, I see another even higher.

I increased my goal from 100 to 150 and have now read 104. I'm ahead!

Joseph, here in Holland you often come across book markets that don’t price the books individually but you choose the books you want (paperbacks and bonded). When you go to pay, the books are stacked and measured. Generally the prices are between 10-20 Euros per meter. If your stack is less than the meter, you just pay the percentage. Books come in all sizes and shapes so the number of books can vary greatly. I use “yard” loosely to give on that these books are bought by length and as an expatriated American know the trouble most Americans have in converting into the metric system.

Another yard of books..... The only downside in buying books by length is carrying them out the door!

I'm at the half-way point of by

I've received these from Bol.

I have often confessed my mania for collecting. Looking at the long list above of Perry Mason novels has inspired me to possess them. Inspire isn’t exactly the word the list has left me with. I think have got to have is a more appropriate phrase. I’ve read ten or fifteen of them, although that was forty years ago, they still remain with me as time well spent. I am not just a bibliophile but also a hardcore collector so the acquisition of the entire collection is a win/win proposition for me.

I don’t think parents can “turn their children into readers”. I tried and hope succeeded in instilling a love for books and the written word in my children. If they act on that knowledge is entirely up to them. Parents have little if any control over their children’s reading habits.

I went to a yard sale today and bought a yard of books for $10.00. Some of my purchases are:

The older I get, the more I seem to read. If you would ask my partner, I just make time to read. This making of time serves as a constant irritant to her as she tends to have to nag me into action around the house. Don’t get me wrong…. I’m not confessing to be a slouch or deadbeat dad but what I proudly acclaim is a love for books, reading and the expansion of my mind through the written word. When I was younger I, like I’m sure many still are, was addicted to TV. It really didn’t matter what was on (I Love Lucy or an episode of Bonanza) and I would watch in a zombie-like trance. As time went on and I thankfully matured, I came to the startling conclusion that the years I had spent in front of that square luminescent box were almost a total waste of time. This realization was just the beginning. I had to address the addiction, as addiction it really was, and vowed to limit my viewing to the evening news (as I am a big book reader but hardly glans at a newspaper). To fill up the time I wasn’t watching reruns I started to read books. Now (I’ve been TV addiction free for more than ten years) I have no problem finding time to read. This is the routine of my life…….. until September. Football season starts in September and I try to watch every game (live or delayed) until the Super Bowl. Needless to say the fall and early winter aren’t my best season for reading.