Book O.C.D.

[Tracy]

I am with Radomanthony. Used books with writing in them are the Velvetine Rabbits of books.

[Cindy]

I went to Goodwill today and bought 18 kids and YA books that I loved when I was younger. They were only a buck apiece and they are all in good, well loved, condtion. Can't wait to curl up in my chair later and catch back up with Ramona and the Witch of Blackbird Pond and the rest of my old friends.

[Carrie]

^ I loved the Witch of Blackbird Pond. I still have my copy.

[Cindy]

Unfortunately, several years ago when I moved back home after my divorce I had to get rid of pretty much all but a dozen or so of my books. I donated thousands of books to Goodwill. I still don't have a lot of space but I decided a few months ago to start rebuilding my collection with those books that meant something to me. I have regretted getting rid of those books ever since. *sigh* I read Which Witch last night and smiled from cover to cover. Today it'll be Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

[Jennifer]

I don't mind going to the library but they only have a few books from my fave authors. So I prefer to buy books, its hard to just buy one book. That, and I love adding to my library, I like people coming in and seeing all the books that I've read or that I'm going to read. Kind of a sense of pride thing going on lol.

[Danielle]

So reading everyone's post I realize that there should be a "Netflix" for book lovers. Then you can hold onto it as long as you want.....
As for me, I only write in books if I have decided I LOVE it and will keep it forever. Otherwise I try to keep them in great shape to pass along. You should see the books I read in the bath though, they look hilarious. I hope that does not make too many of you cringe. :-)
But you can look at my shelves and tell at a glance which books I really like versus the books I freaking love!!
Speaking of which, again I have run out of shelf space...any cheap thoughts on how to get more??

[Cindy]

I used to do board and brick shelves, Danielle. Cheap and easy and pretty portable too if you need to move them later. Of course, you have to have the space for them.

[Katie]

Ok, as a person who already has OCD to begin with, I had to jump in on this!

I strongly prefer hardcovers...books by my favorite authors should be hardcover unless it can't be avoided. I am a maniac about my books...if I go in looking for something particular, I have to look at every copy on the shelf to find the perfect copy: no fingerprints, tears, bent pages, scratches, nothing...it has to be perfect. I go a little nuts if the price tag leaves any sticky gook behind...and as someone else mentioned here, I remove the book jacket before reading so I don't muck it up!! And writing in your book.....GASP!!!.....NOOOOOOOOOOO! I must admit to using the occasional post-it to mark a spot, but that's as far as I go!

I have nothing against paperbacks...I clean house at the annual church book sale ever summer near our house in Maine...as in no less than two filled paper boxes! But all favorites should be hardcover and if you can get other hardcovers for cheap, I'm there! As for not being able to leave a bookstore empty-handed, I can't remember the last time I left a bookstore with fewer than 7 books. Like many of you, I'm trying to give the library card a better workout this year, but it's just not the same!!

It's so fun to hear about everyone else's obsessions and crazy book-a-holic behaviors! Keep 'em coming!!

[Cindy]

I've recently started collecting some of my favorite childhood books in early edition hardback. You can find old library books which are in very good condition for great prices. And now I can read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle whenever I want. :) I still prefer my current books in paperback but for the long term book hardback is a good idea.

[Bishop]

I buy almost exclusively hardcovers unless it's something that I am not sure about, then I read it in paperback. If I like it, yup, I seek out a first edition hardcover and donate my paperback.

I also have the problem of having to go back and buy every title by an author once I've read one thing I've liked. This becomes problematic for very old books or prolific authors. It's just so much money.

I check ebay et al. almost daily. I spend way too much money on books and brodart covers. Did I mention that I also cover my first editions?

I don't write in it unless I am studying it. I don't even open them all the way so as not to "break" the binding. I won't buy a book that is smudged, bumped, chipped, etc. Idefintely remove the DJ before reading.

I've collected books since I was a kid, the first edition thing has come in the last few years. I'm afraid it's progressive and probably terminal.

Libraries? Aren't those the things they had at college? I haven't seen one since. Far too noncommittal for my taste.

Yeah, I have a problem, but it keeps me away from the crack pipe.

[Carrie]

libraries in my area have pretty slim pickings!

[Kenzie]

I don't usually get time to go to the library. My parents have to take me and they are usually very busy. I almost never get to go to a bookstore, but when I do I spend money! Sometimes I borrow books from friends and lend them out. That way I get a larger selection and if I don't like the book I was lended I don't own it! And if I did like the book I can go to the bookstore and buy it for myself. I borrowed the whole entire Lemony Snicket series (except for books 12 & 13) from my aunt. Now all I have to do is buy them all for myself. I love getting books for my birthday and Christmas, but what surprises me is that I never get giftcards. Personally I love gift cards, but a lot of people tell me they don't like book gift cards.

Oh, and I love hardcover books. I don't mind soft cover, but the hard cover are my favorite. I really hate it when I am looking for a book and they only have it in soft cover, but I still buy it. Writing in books and bending corners are two of my pet peeves. I was looking back at my Harry Potter books and I saw that I had written in my name! I was so mad at myself, I told myself that I had defaced it.

[Angie]

i am very ocd about books. i have two half price bookstores not to far from me and i can't go in without coming back out with at least two or three. they just had a sale anything you can fit in thier green reusable bags another 10% off. i spent two hour in one and another hour in the other finding books. i was half and hour late to work because i took to long and there was traffic. i have a book shelf i made 7ft tall 41/2 ft wide full of my keeper hardbacks. i am currently obsessed with the unseen university editions of Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series. You can only get them in the uk and with the pound being worth 2 bucks it is costing me a fortune in shipping. i have made myself a deal ony one a month since it is costing about 40 bucks a book. But they are special edition hb leather bound w/ map inside and pic of the main character on the cover. and i feel you on the books to read i have a shelf in my entry hall with everthing i have to read and there are at least 70 if not 100 sitting on it. but i never leave the house without a book. and i read and watch tivo at the same time.(my other obsesion)

[Veronica]

GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I HAVE 2 GIFT CARDS(niether of which expire) FOR BORDERS BOOKSTORE!!!!!!!!! And thats not even the best part! THEY TOTAL TO $40!!!!!! I CAN BUY 8 BOOKS WITH THAT!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I also hate writing in books and folded corners. I can't stand them!

Guess what is weird? Other people prefer hard cover books, but I really like soft cover better. Hard covers have that annoying bookjacket that I don't even use. Also, paperback are a lot cheaper. It is the same story anyways, so why pay extra for it?

[Cindy]

I went to the bookstore tonight to buy one bloody book. They didn't have it.

So I left with 7 others. That'll show 'em.

[[deleted user]]

Cindy, You go!
I have done the same thing so often I consider it normal behavior! Bookstores count on people like us.

[Cindy]

So today I went to B&N and bought the book I was looking for at BAM last night. And left with 2 others as well. It's like a sickness. :)

[Stephanie]

yes cindy, i'm sure they are so hurt that you bought 7 books instead of 1!!!!

[Angie]

i understand i keep going into half price looking for books from a specific series so i can read them in order, and i don't see them so i buy two or six more that i just happaned to pick up.

[[deleted user]]

But Cindy, it is such a wonderful sickness!
I was out shopping with a friend today and did not enter a bookstore. I think I have the shakes!

[Ainsley]

Wow - so many threads! Firstly - I write my name on the inside cover of my books, so as to daily remind people who 'borrow'books from me whose book it really is. Alas, my friends have hearts of stone. Secondly, most of my books are paperbacks, but I've become disillusioned. I have a lot of Penguin classics, and my oldest (now 10 years old) are getting yellowed. I feel like starting a petition for Penguin to print on acid-free paper.

Lastly, way to go Cindy - I also do the same thing. So much so that I've had to cut back to concentrate more on friends and family, who I can neglect when I read too much. It's like Crack. (not that I have tried crack - Thomas de Quincy has turned me off).

[Veronica]

I, like anyone else who goes to school, wishes there were no such thing as homework. But I wish for a different reason. I wish because without homework, I can spend more hours reading.

[Elizabeth]

See, most of my homework IS reading- I'm taking a couple reading-intensive courses this semester (US in the Civil War Period and Who Was Christopher Columbus, in particular), and if it weren't for school I wouldn't read some of the books I have.

[Christel]

Nope this is the sickness.

Went to a book exchange the other day with 35 of my Hubby's paperback's came out with only 4 for him to read and the rest for me. Sneaky ain't I?? And I have more of his to trade in HAHAHAHA!!! It is a disease!!!!

[Julie (jjmachshev)]

Hi, my name is Julie and I am a readaholic. Seriously, every Sunday without fail I go to the bookstore with my boys. Our BooksAMillion usually restocks shelves on Sundays and ALL the folks that work there on Sundays know me and my kids. When I come in, whoever is free will just show me to the bins where the new books are waiting to go on the shelves and let me look through and get the ones I want so they have fewer to shelve. Last Sunday, with discount and coupons, I still spent $160 on books. I'm waiting for the rest on my late Feb/early Mar list for this Sunday. My hubby has given up!! But the ?good news? is that both my boys (16 & 17) are readaholics too. You won't catch any of us without at least one book somewhere in our purse or backpack...

It's good to find so many more who suffer from this same malady. I think if you haven't stooped to reading product packaging and cereal box contents at breakfast, you should lose your book OCD membership :)
Julie

[Synova]

Hi, I'm Synova, I'm a book junkie. I cannot come out of a bookstore without buying a book. I cannot go to the library because i like to keep my books in case i want to read them again. (For the same reasons I cannot trade them in). My friends refer to me as "the library" because I have so many books which I willingly lend, because I know my friends will return them. If you don't return them you don't get to borrow anymore. When I buy a new house, I want a library in it.
My Barnes and Noble membership is worth every penny! I try not to buy hardbacks, just because I can get 2 or 3 paperbacks for the same price. But I LOVE the trade paper size. I only buy hardbacks for the authors that I cannot possibly wait for paperbacks to come out (Diana Gabaldon, Janet Evanovich, J.K. Rowling and a few others...) I'm a total series junkie.

I am very glad to know there are others out there in the same boat as me.

[[deleted user]]

i can't beleive you people lend each other your books!
i may borrow books but i NEVER lend!
hard cover when i can get them
highlight only texts and few of those
only remember writing in one book Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue
used to fold pages but nearly always bookmark and can usually open book up to where i left off by intuition or body memory
i do leave them face down open too much but not books I really care for
used book stores
rarely new bookstores
amazon.com

[[deleted user]]

i just read a comment about flyjackets
THEY MUST BE LEFT ON!
They protect the cover, are you crazy! You don't take those off!!!
EVER!
and if they accidently come off you have to be sure to get them placed back exactly right!

[Kathy]

Dust jackets do not protect anything! In fact, if you aren't careful, they can end up completely messed up if you leave them on a book while you are reading it. I always take off the dust jacket when I'm reading a book, and put on a book cover that I got myself. Its leather and really protects the book. I don't have to worry at all. Yeah, I know that may be a bit over-protective, but it works. I hate a messy dust jacket.

And another pet peeve of mine is folded down pages. It completely irks me. If you take care of a book, it will last a long time and through many, many readings!

[Neil]

I don't write in my books or bend the corners its the cardinal sin. That said I don't mind buying old books with those little messages etc in the front of books. Its a little slice of that books life history.

[FromAna]

I have a book buying issue (its why we are here right) but here is my OCD I have to buy the book brand new in order for it to sit on my shelfs but once I read it (preferably paperback) the spine is worn in and I rip out all the front title and credit pages + the empty back pages. I don't know why its just what i do

Oh I don't bend my page corners or write in my books

[Daniel]

I won't lie to you, Ana: I find that incredibly strange.

[FromAna]

Daniel wrote: "I won't lie to you, Ana: I find that incredibly strange."

Trust me I know! HAHA

[Wes, Moderator]

Lori wrote: "ohmigod... i never write in my books. i dont even bend the corner down to hold a page.... i like my books to look crisp and clean...
i>

agreed

[Christina]

My books look like they did when I first bought them. I cringe when I loan one of my books to someone else to read and get it back with the spine creased and the pages bent, where they marked the page they were on. Worse yet, I have to go buy the book again and replace it with a new one!

[Denise]

Ashley wrote: "I think I may have book OCD..lol. I swear every time I walk into a bookstore I have to buy a book."

Ashley, you mean you can limit it to one? I usually walk out with a bag full and in used bookstores sometimes a box full. My biggest annoyance is when I am in line at a bookstore and someone says to me, "are you going to read all those?", well duh, what does that person think that I am going to do with them??? Of course at times, some are reference books or gifts for my kids, grandkids, or now my little great grandson, but what do people think I'm going to do with a stack of books??? Maybe I should ask the next person that asks me that. What a good idea, I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

[Denise]

Ashley wrote: "yeah me and my mom and went to B&N today and there was a particular book I wanted to get. I wanted to get the first two books of the "Erec Rex" series by Kaza Kingsley and my mom would only let my get one. So I just got the first book. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars on books..lol..."

I do spend hundreds of dollars on books. I have started limiting my time in bookstores and checking books out of the library. But I have OCD with library books too. I can't just check out one book. Here is my current status with library books:

I have 16 checked out (one ready to go back but it is an omnibus with 4 novels in it), I have 10 on reserve (and that is a short list for me but I am trying to not put so many on reserve at one time), and I have 3 that are in and need to be picked up.

My library will let you check out 50 books at a time and I have had in the high 40's checked out before. I want to put every book that sounds good on reserve but I am really really trying to stop that but I am afraid of getting down to one book. I'm not sure why because I have thousands of books in my house that I could read.

I'm not sure what I am going to do when I move to Phoenix (which is in the works) because the Phoenix library will only let you have 3 books on reserve at a time. I can feel a panic attack coming on just thinking of it.

[Carol]

How's the fine situation? I swear I'm single-handedly keeping my local library in the black by my late charges. I try; I really do, but time passes by so quickly!
CJ

[Denise]

Ashley wrote: "Karee~

You don't "have" buy a book. You can always go to your local library and find the book you want. That's what I'm gonna try to do more often. Go to my local library more instead of buying ..."

Every once in a while I just have to go into a bookstore. You know what I do now when I go into a bookstore? I make a list of the books that look good and check them out of the library. That way I get my bookstore fix in but don't spend all my money. Now mind you, I still end up buying several books. My last trip to Half Price books I managed to get out with buying just 4 books for myself.(No I didn't just buy 4 books, but just 4 for myself.) Two of them are Find the Difference Picture Puzzle books (another addiction of mine is Find the Difference puzzles, Sudoku, and Logic puzzles). Then I found this really great book titled The Story of Writing Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, & Pictograms, Second Edition. I got it on clearance for $1.00. Wow! I also bought Antique Trader Vintage Magazines Price Guide. I wanted it mostly to read the histories of the vintage magazines and about the people that wrote articles in the vintage magazines. I don't collect vintage magazines although I do have a few laying around the house.

Then when we were grocery shopping last week there was a bin of books and they were on clearance for 75% off the marked down price. OMG, how could I pass that up? Again, I sorted out all the books that I might want but then I wrote down several titles to check out of the library.

Then I went through the books to see which ones I wanted for my great grandson. I got him four. Two of them are really cool, one is called A Gaggle of Geese and a Clutter of Cats. This is very interesting. It tells you what animal groups are called. Of course we all know a litter of kittens but did you know that a group of peacocks is called a muster or kangaroos a troup? A group of turkeys is called a rafter. My two favorites since I read mysteries is a group of bears is called a sleuth and a group of crows is called a murder.

The other really cool book I got for Shawn is called How Big Is It?. It will be a while before he is ready for this book but it talks about the biggest things in the world. For instance the biggest spider in the world is 10 to 12 inches across (the size of a dinner plate). Yuck!

I got two more children's books but they are for me. One is A Beatrix Potter Treasury. It has a nice history of Beatrix Potter in the front and nice illustrations throughout. The other book (Pixie Hollow Pop-Up) is a wonderful pop up book that I will share with Shawn when he is a little older and not inclined to tear books.

[Denise]

stephanie wrote: "the only time i actually buy a book is when my local library is doing a book sale. there i can a big paperbag filled for only $7. i love it. i usually get my books from one of the many book swap..."

If you wait till the last hour or so of the library book sale you can get a bag for $1.00. (Or you can at my library.) A couple years ago I got two bags of picture books for my grandson for $2.00 and another bag for myself for $1.00.

[Denise]

Tomw wrote: "Heck, the library doesn't have it. Go to Barnes and Noble. They've got it, but, whoa, it's $35 WITH the member discount! Pay a bill or buy the book.....yeah, buy the book!! Tom, a lifetime bookaholic ..."

Tom, check Amazon. Sometimes the used books are pennies and all you have to pay is the $3.95 shipping.

[Denise]

Since we're talking about OCD here--has anyone ever bought a book that you already have on the shelf? I was doing that a lot. Or do you ever check one out of the library and then when you start to read it you already have read it but the name didn't ring a bell? I now keep two loose-leaf notebooks with pages for each author or if it is a specific genre (like books about books) I keep a page for the genre. I had to go to the second notebook recently because my 1st one was getting too crowded so now I have an A-L and a M-Z notebook. What does everyone else do to keep track of your read/unread books?

[Carol]

I have a Reading List I set up in Tables. Three columns: 1) Author 2) Book 3) Movie (I keep track of which were made into movies and how they compare. The List is alphabetized by author. So far it's 12 pages - approx. 50 books p/page. Is that anal, or what? (Too bad such order doesn't carry over to my housekeeping!) And, really, I swear to you, I DO ave a life! LOL

[Kate]

Ha, I like this topic.

I've discovered that I'm a book terrorist because I underline my favorite passages and make tons of notes. The more notes there are, the more I enjoyed the story.

And I have Book O.C.D. because I too am addicted to bookstores and have so many to-read books on my list I can't help but find one or more titles that suite my fancy. However, if I don't like a book I bought I go to the used book store and trade it in for another. So, my collection of books I have at home in what I call my permanent collection, is rather small compared to the amount of reading that I actually do. I love the library as well, but get frusturated when I have to wait months to read a more popular title.

[FromAna]

Marco wrote: "Denise wrote: "Since we're talking about OCD here--has anyone ever bought a book that you already have on the shelf? I was doing that a lot. Or do you ever check one out of the library and then whe..."

I've done that!
I buy can't stand the library - the envy eats away at me hahaha they have so many more books than I do

[Cheemoandia]

Ashley wrote: "I think I may have book OCD..lol. I swear every time I walk into a bookstore I have to buy a book."

Well I must be OCD also, lol.