Tudor History Lovers discussion
OCD for Books - Support Group
Susan C wrote: "Awful story about your walk for breast cancer. People are plain selfish and warped in the way they think. I'm very thankful your Mom made it to the 10 year mark, that's huge and should be celebra..."I always write thank-you notes, but not always the same year as the occasion for writing them. My grandchildren are well trained, though. I always get prompt thank-you notes from them.... You are RIGHT -- it's the right thing!
Susan C wrote: "Exactly"That is the saddest thing I've ever heard. When my son Eli was about six, a boy in his class had a birthday party and nobody went. The boy called Eli and asked if he could please come. Eli is very tender-hearted, so we put a present together and I walked him over there. The house was all decorated with balloons and streamers, and there was a big cake, and games planned... still hurts my heart when I think about it.
Ah, how sad Mary, it also hurts my heart and I don't know anyone involved. Eli and the other boy probably never forgot that day and what it meant to each of them. Eli seems to have remebered his friend's heartache and lives his life thinking of others. I wonder about the other boy,how it effected him. Even back then parents and children were so thoughtless, which often translates to being cruel!I only mention back then because you said you were a grandmother, I hope no offense was taken. I'm also the same way when it comes to books I've loved. I buy the other person their own copy!
Thanks Susan C, and Jennifer. I am still very hurt that my IRL "friends" and family ignored my desire to celebrate my mother beating the pulp out of breast cancer by doing a fundraiser and walk. People I don't even know gave; yet people who call themselves friend and my own blood (not including those few who did) couldn't be bothered to aknowledge me.Susan C: Oh... my... Gaw... I loved TTTW so much I would never lend it out, how dreadful for you. I love that Ben Franklin quote btw!
I remember my last thank you note recieved because it (pathetic, no?) happens so infrequently. I had a neighbor my similar age group a while back that wrote a thank you not after a small dinner party I gave. I was shocked and very pleased! She pretty much put a short thank you note on my door after a dinner party or helping her do something big like moving apartments. I wrote thank you notes in response to her thank you notes, lol. I told her so and she agreed that her mother also pounded into her head the importance of writing thank you notes.
Susan C wrote: "Ah, how sad Mary, it also hurts my heart and I don't know anyone involved. Eli and the other boy probably never forgot that day and what it meant to each of them. Eli seems to have remebered his fr..."Oh, Susan, no offense re "back then." My children are 41, 30, and 29, so "back then" is appropriate. Way, WAY "back then," when I was in fourth grade, a girl invited ALL the girls to a lunchtime birthday party at her house (we all walked home for lunch, and this girl lived a half-block from the school), EXCEPT a girl named Diane. When everyone got up at lunchtime and trooped out with Paula, and Diane was just left to walk home by herself, the teacher was furious.
There's nothing new about childhood cruelty. But I still know Paula, and she is kind and lovely....
My OCD has been recently inflamed by my husband saying we should supposedly get our house hold goods (also known as my book collection I haven't seen since MAY) early Sept. I am cynical in response.I have managed to have collection since we have been here that is two shelves full though :) a small comfort.
Colleen, I feel for you. I would be totally lost without my books.
Believe me I am, probably part of the reason I am building a book collection here; well that and my book OCD.
I'm with Lyn. I love to just go and look at my book collection. All of it. (I used to feel bad about how many I own until someone on here wrote they have at least a thousand) I'm not sure that was a good thing to hear, I just received The Devil's Queen about Catherine of de Medici. I still do not have my buying under control. It's insane!!!!!!!!!!
yeah, my book buying ideas are bust, I just can't help it.....I'm just going to have to read more :)
Well Thalia I just bought Plaidy's Catherine De Medici and Lucrezia Borgia series on Amazon UK just to get the new covers. An hour ago I was still _itching about my buying. I'm a lost cause.Does anyone on here know if you get an exchange rate on your credit card if you buy from Amazon UK and live in the US?
We're so insanely in love with our books. I just spent an hour rearranging my paperbacks,so there would be more room for my nonfiction European History books. My shelves are organized in a very particulary way that makes perfect sense to me.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the desire to always be havving more and more books. Susan C. I remember a long time agao before the move when I had all my lovlies with me on their shelves, I do love to just look at them and re-organize from time to time. As far as amazon us/uk sites I buy off of both so I think they just calculate it for you automatically.
Thanks Sawyer, I had my books in storage for about 2 1/2 years because of my deployment and I couldn't go even look at boxes but I thought of my books often. I had taken pictures of valuables before we moved in May including my books (duh, valuables to me) so the closest I can get till they all come home is staring longingly at pictures. And of course re-aranging them in my head.
Thanks Colleen for the Amazon answer. Are you in the military?
I love adding to my collection. Hubby doesn't understand why I will end up buying a book I read from the library...umm...I liked it? And I love it when folks see my collection and they look at you with that surprised, puzzled, not-quite-sure-they-understand expression on their face.
Funny. Also people are always amazed that you actually read all those books!
Susan C wrote: "Funny. Also people are always amazed that you actually read all those books!"EXACTLY!! You can see it in their faces, "You mean YOU actually READ all these???"
Colleen wrote: "Hard cover is over priced, mass-market pb is too common, and I cannot cannot stand the movie tie in covers. That's why I frequent used bookstores that are more likely to have one of the original co..."O Colleen , i detest the movie tie in cover too !!
I just thought i was being too picky.. hehe
I wish i had loved books in school as much as i do now.Ive added the classic’s on my TBR as I know I didn’t appreciate them back then.
I really got the passion for it about 5 years ago when i started a new job. A tattered copy of Memoirs of A Geisha was left under my desk.
I love buying books even though i know i wont read them for ages.
I love looking at them all shiny and new on my bookshelf. It just makes me happy and i dont feel guitly at all.
I tell myself that there are plenty worse things to be addicted too. Being addicted to books/knowledge is a beautiful thing.
Ive havent been really as pedantic about the state of my books until a girl i work with borrowed some of my books. They all came back tattered and bronzer all over them. I felt really annoyed and this reaction surprised me. So no more loans.. LOL. I think it was the lack of respect that upset me the most.
A funny thing is my very blokey brother has a large and beautiful collection of literature. They look brand new as if they have never been read.
He refuses to lend them to me as he thinks i trash my books. (I must admit i use too a little) I now understand how he feels.
Sorry for the long post , no one in my off line world gets it.
Susan C. I was for three years.Haven't we all gotten that question though? "Have you actually read all these books?" No I buy books because I don't have enough to dust, if I haven't read it I will!
Kate, the only movie cover book I own is Breakfast at Tiffany's but it is a classic book and it has Audrey Hepburn on the front page.
Colleen wrote: "Susan C. I was for three years.Haven't we all gotten that question though? "Have you actually read all these books?" No I buy books because I don't have enough to dust, if I haven't read it I w..."
You are so right about the "actually" read those books. They look at you like you're a bit of a freak. They have no idea what they're missing, a whole new world!
So glad you made it through your service safely and are here today to add so much to our discussions!
Thanks Susan C. you are kind to say that.I am aware there are people who collect books just for "show' but it must be prevelant when people think we are of that group! Maybe it's because of TV people don't read as often but I know I feel minorly insuted when people look at my mini-library and say something to the effect of "have you actually read these books?"
Colleen wrote: "Thanks Susan C. you are kind to say that.I am aware there are people who collect books just for "show' but it must be prevelant when people think we are of that group! Maybe it's because of TV ..."
I know I have a large collection with many that I've read (remember I have an office/library) so my books are displayed. I find I don't watch much TV anymore because I get more pleasure reading. I feel sorry for the people who "just don't get it" and reading is absent from their life. They have no idea what they are missing and there really is something out there for everyone.
JK Rolling once said in an interview that she despised when people whined about not having time to read. (like were all lounging eating bon-bons) She said everyone has time to read they just haven't made it important in their life. Her examples were reading while blowing your hair dry, eating a meal, riding the train/subway or a snippet before bed.
And Colleen I loved your comment that we had them so we would have more to dust, like collecting nick nacks.
My problem is that once I've read a book I have a hard time letting go of it. It's like it's a little visible piece of my mind on a shelf. My daughter is the opposite: She has a husband and four kids and she doesn't want to accumulate a lot of stuff, not even books (I like Clutter, she likes Clean and Organized; we don't look a thing alike, so I'm thinking we're not really related, though I do remember giving birth and taking a baby home from the hospital, but that was 41 years ago, so I might be mistaken), so she uses the library all the time. When I used the library I paid more in fines (ADHD) than I would have paid to buy the books; I'm not exaggerating. Now I buy all my books on eBaY, and I keep thinking of creative new ways to shelve them. I used to have some arty-looking stacks of books here and there, like I've seen in Country Living magazine, but now there are so many they don't look arty any more, they just look like I have too many books. Sometimes I cull them, removing the books I am ABSOLUTELY SURE I'll never read again. So after I've gotten rid of those three, I still have 786, and some of the stacks have migrated to the floor, for people to trip on and cats to knock over.
About five years ago, when I thought I was going to move, I gave away half of my books -- all my Ngaio Marsh books, all my Dave Barry books (what was I THINKING?), all my Dorothy L. Sayers books, all my Brother Cadfael books.... One by one, I've bought every single one of those books again.
My sister, who is also clean and organized, says I should put some of my books in clear plastic storage boxes and take them down to the basement. So I'm not sure we're related either.
With only two full bookshelves I use all of your book collections to prove to my non-reader husband to calm down about the "size" of my book collection. If I have extra money after bills and food next comes the cry from my inner bookworm "more books! More books!" My searching for list is staggering to me as I try to organize it and find what I can. I am actually irritated that my husbands truck needed to be fixed thus my secret misson to the used book stores aborted :(I have been finding myself only watching TV/movies that have to do with Tudor related things. I have always chosen books and my own imagination over idle watching of televsion.
I take a book with me everywhere attempting to read while I do other things.
And Colleen I loved your comment that we had them so we would have more to dust, like collecting nick nacks.
Thanks Susan C.!
Mary: If I read a book and dislike it I try to get rid of it as soon as I can, I think it brings my library down a peg to have a book I don't like just sitting there on a shelf. I trade them away for books I want. I can't stand clutter! Maybe you got the wrong baby at the hospital but then again that would mean you got the wrong sister too. Only joking! ;p
I tried to reprganize my books to make my European History books look nicer. My shelves are filled 2 deep, I think this is going to be the impotence to stop buying for awhile. I need something to stop the obsession.I like Mary's sister's idea about clear containers. If I could find some place else to store some of my books, then the shelves would look at least more organized.
Two deep! I never thought of that! I have those tacky wire shelves you hang on your doors and then the doors won't close, I don't care what they say in the instructions.... They're good for paperbacks, but they sort of clash with my antique decor. I'm going to try "two deep" right now. Thanks, Susan C.
I used to be neat and clean, but not anymore. I buy books by the carload, I think. Do you recommend ebay more than Amazon? I have never tried ebay.
Mary Lou wrote: "I used to be neat and clean, but not anymore. I buy books by the carload, I think. Do you recommend ebay more than Amazon? I have never tried ebay."Mary Lou -- It depends on the book. When you can buy a used book in very good condition on Amazon for 1 cent plus $3.99 shipping -- which is the case for just about every book that's been around for a while -- there's no point in running over to eBay. But I am trying to buy the Twilight series books, which are relatively new and VERY popular, and the prices on eBay are MUCH lower than on Amazon.
I find myself re-organizing often especially when I get a new armload of books. I think the only thing that saves me from having more books than I do is being picky about what they look like.I was watching a cleaning show on the BBC where this couple had paperbacks stacked four deep from the wall, 5ft tall. Talk about fire hazard!
MaryLou- I think it all depends, you can find a better selection on amazon.us and amazon.uk but can't always be sure of what the book will look like when you recieve it. On ebay the selection comes and goes but you are more likely to see an actual picture of the book and get a description fitting the exact copy. On ebay sometimes people will sell a bunch of books as a "lot". I just go back and forth and purchase based on whichever is the better deal.
Kate wrote: "I love buying books even though i know i wont read them for ages. I love looking at them all shiny and new on my bookshelf. It just makes me happy and i dont feel guitly at all.
I tell myself that there are plenty worse things to be addicted too. Being addicted to books/knowledge is a beautiful thing. "
Agree with all of the above 100%!
Bronzer? LOL How did that even happen?
Susan C wrote: "JK Rolling once said in an interview that she despised when people whined about not having time to read. (like were all lounging eating bon-bons) She said everyone has time to read they just haven't made it important in their life. Her examples were reading while blowing your hair dry, eating a meal, riding the train/subway or a snippet before bed. "It's the truth isn't it? We all have lives. We're all busy. We all read. There's loads of time to fit it in and if you want to do it, you find the time. I'm lucky because I can read in cars, which I know not everyone can do. I do it all the time. Have also read while drying my hair, painting my nails (this one's a little more difficult!), while eating, tanning, exercising (treadmill), walking and even while watching tv with my husband :)
Mary wrote: "My problem is that once I've read a book I have a hard time letting go of it. It's like it's a little visible piece of my mind on a shelf. My daughter is the opposite: She has a husband and four ki..."Mary, your post made me laugh out loud. You're hilarious :) Especially love the bit about bringing your daughter home (maybe) and about your sister! I had the same problem with library books and late fees so I buy all my books now.
Sorry for my crazy posting everyone. I've been away for a bit and it looks like this group has really picked up again! Everyone must be back from vacation now. It's great!
Jennifer wrote: "It's the truth isn't it? We all have lives. We're all busy. We all read. There's loads of time to fit it in and if you want to do it, you find the time..."I know, I always try to incorporate reading into any multi-tasking I do. I like to carry a purse big enough for a book in case I have to wait in line or in and office unexpectedly. I used to be guilty of doing a bit of reading and driving (in heavy traffic, so really not "driving"). I have been catching up on some reading by downloading free audiobooks off of itunes. Makes a long drive easier and I get something accomplished besides just sitting in my car!
Oh my goodness. I have just skimmed through all of these postings, but I suddenly feel so much better. Since I have read your confessions, here are mine:I think I identify most with Kate - with one difference: I have been an avid reader since I was 3 (according to my parents). When I was 12 I snuck out when I was grounded to go the library. I wish I had a photo of my mom's expression when she found out.
I can't help but buy books. Really, it's a problem. At last count I have 750 or so, and the pile just keeps growing. This has been encouraged lately by my boyfriend and I buying a house, where I converted the finished attic into a library. When I've had a bad day, or just need to 'get away' I go up there and just look at the books, or read the backs of books I haven't read yet, or start reading 10 books that all get put back.
I arrange several ways - Read v. TBR. The 'read' books get dispersed through the house, or, if I know I won't ever touch it again I put them in boxes (but no, I haven't been able to give away the boxes yet). Within the TBR I split them by classics, other fiction, and non-fiction. For the fiction categories, they are arranged in alpha order - the non-fiction is by subject, then alpha. I also have a shelf full of 'old' books that were published from 75-200 years ago. Those are on a special shelf that doesn't have direct sunlight facing it.
I also have a Kindle - I wouldn't have spent the money if I hadn't gotten it as an award at work, which translated into an Amazon gift certificate. I love it for a portable library, but often also have a 'real' version. For example, on vacation, it is great to have the Kindle instead of having 10 books, but I can't tell you how distraught I was during my first airplane trip, when I had to "turn off all electronic devices" during take-off and landing. Ugh! I had to sit there for 15 minutes each time and wait - thank god I had a window seat!
My apologies as well for the long rant - but nobody in my real life understands. They just think I'm a huge nerd but thankfully my BF just finds it charming.
Yes Paula, I'd say you fit right in with us ;)First, totally jealous of your attic library! Lucky you... I have big dreams for my basement library to be finished but it's going to be a long haul...
I also can't help buying books. I swear I won't and then I do.
I've been thinking about a Kindle but I don't think I'll get one. I would love though if I won it! Lucky you again. You'll have to bring a real book on the plane next time so you can switch when you have to turn off the Kindle. :)
Thanks, Jennifer! I'd recommend holding off on the Kindle right now, if you are unsure. I suspect there will be a price war very soon, and prices will fall. I must admit, however, one great quality. Last night I really wanted to get a copy of Lady Audley's Secret, and both of my local bookstores said they could only order used copies, and had nothing in stock. So in the parking lot I checked Kindle, and there was a free version available, that I started reading last night. I love that so many of the older classics are free!
I'm jealous about the attic library too!!!! My boyfriend gets frustrated because my books are EVERYWHERE in the house. I had to buy another bookshelf the other day to fit some of my latest reads. I always go into a bookstore thing 'I'm just going to look, I won't buy anything.' And of course, I walk out carrying some novel or history tome that I've been wanting. I was thinking about the Kindle too... They seem handy, but I have some books on my Ipod, and the feeling isn't the same. I like to physically turn the pages. I also like to read in the bathtub, so electronic devices probably aren't conducive to that activity!!
Paula wrote: "Oh my goodness. I have just skimmed through all of these postings, but I suddenly feel so much better. Since I have read your confessions, here are mine:I think I identify most with Kate - with..."
You organize like I do, I worked in a library though.
I was just on vacation and mind you I do not buy books at full price. I go to a bookstore and make a list of what I want, come home and go to either alibris or amazon. Well on vacation, I bought 5 full priced books UGH! I am now thinking that book addiction (if you're a passionate reader)is impossible to quit/break. I just need to set aside an amount of $ each month for books and stop worrying!
I love our book addictions. Yes, impossible to quit but the high is fabulous and much less harmful to our health than other addictions we could pick up :D
Question for my fanatical friends :D (I posted this on the Outlander site but know you'll all be answering with the same OCD compulsions that I have)I'm so excited because I found out that Diana Gabaldon (author of the Outlander series) is coming to a book store in my town next month. I want to go and try to get one of my books signed but here's my problem.
I have all of the books in mass market paperback but don't want to get her to sign one of those. The only book I have right now in hardcover is the Outlandish Companion. Should I get her to sign that and wait for Echo to be published in pb or should I just buy the hc copy of Echo and have it completely not match my set but be signed?
Jennifer wrote: "Question for my fanatical friends :D (I posted this on the Outlander site but know you'll all be answering with the same OCD compulsions that I have)I'm so excited because I found out that Dian..."
Oh, no! That is a challenge, but great that you'll meet her! Personally, I would have her sign the OC hardcover book. That way, the one book that isn't an actual text of the series can stand out appropriately. Just my opinion : )
See - now I would probably get Echo in Hardback to have signed, but not read it, and then buy Echo again in trade to read. (Who says I don't have a problem, LOL) I like Jennifer's answer, too, though.
I just thought I would share with my fellow OCD people that I finally got my books back after waiting for five months (I moved) and spent a few hours unpacking them and telling them I missed them while I reorganized them into new catagories. I labeled the shelves after I discovered my labeler. *sigh* stickey white labes will just have to do until I have to money to get brass plaques made ;p
I have sure missed you Colleen. You are my idol.
Lyn wrote: "I have sure missed you Colleen. You are my idol. "Me too!
Tudor History Lovers
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Boleyn Inheritance (other topics)
The White Queen (other topics)
The Queen's Fool (other topics)
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I never borrow books (I always get peanut butter on them, or something) nor do I lend them. (Didn't Benjamin Franklin say, "A Borrower nor a Lender Be"?) Sometimes, however, I'm so excited about a book that I know a particular friend will enjoy that I just give it to her. I don't know how many copies of THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE I've given away....