Bibliophiles Anonymous

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Are you a hopeless bibliophile? Do you own in excess of three large bookcases...just in your bedroom? Whenever you pass an independent bookstore, do you magically find yourself inside, pouring through the various shelves for that hard to find treasure? Do you use books like a drug to escape the world, broaden your mind, or otherwise enjoy life for a bit? Would the first thing you saved from your burning home be a couple of hard to replace favorites? Have you ever spent an excess of 60 straight hours reading a particular book or series? Do you feel a tightening of rage whenever anyone burns a book, even if the book in question is one you feel has no merit? Have you ever been caught in a 69 position with a particularly scintilating Shakespeare play? Actually on second thought, don't answer that last question.

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're a full-on bibliophile. You are one of those splendid freaks who instead of letting the boob-tube suck out their life force spends their free time reading or at least wishes to read more. For you I dedicate this space, this one thread to discuss those moments of overdoing it or even discuss which books really slammed hard on you and made you feel like a nice cigarette afterwards.

As host I'll start with my current story. Every night this past week, I've been reading the Turtledove "Darkness" series which is basically War and Peace style storytelling about a fantasy interpretation of World War Two. Fairly interesting stuff overall. I'm just finishing the fourth of six and can't wait to reach the final signed copy (all these books are also about 700 pages long so that may take awhile). Okay, now some of you share.

 

[shereads]

Luc + The Name of the Rose

You. Read. Good. On-topic.

 

[shereads]

Did I mention that I think you'd like this book? It's called The Name of the Rose.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0156001314/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-7499616-1010225#reader-link

 

[Dream Keeper]

Hi. I'm Kris, and I am... a Bibliophile! http://graphics.gaiaonline.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_sweatdrop.gif Wow, I feel alot better now that I got that off my chest.

 

[Clare Quilty]

I'm a big time bibliophile. However, I rarely buy new books at independent bookstores, this despite living about 500 feet from one. Barnes and Noble and Borders relentlessly send me coupons, and god help me, I'm cheap.

 

[Belegon]

I can't go anywhere without a book...I take a book to the movies to read until the previews start...

 

[Clare Quilty]

I can't go anywhere without a book...I take a book to the movies to read until the previes start...

Yeah, that's my move.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, that's my move.

Ditto. I have 12 full-size bookcases overflowing and stacks of books on the floor of every room but the WC, bathroom and kitchen. I live a few blocks from the best used-books store in SF so I only use Amazon for anything they don't have. I regularly buy books I already have (not on purpose) then give the duplicate copy away (usually to my brother who has nearly as many books as I do; our brother in Vienna has twice as many as I do). I guess it's a family thing.

Perdita

 

[Dream Keeper]

I have some authors that i have read every book by them. Stephen King is one of them. Stephen King happens to have the same last name as ma, so it has always amused e that I enjoy writing so much. The amusing part is the fact that I grew up reading his books, and it was him that inspired me to write. I love how vivid and flowing his words are, and they just pull me in. I try to mimic his amazing writing, but I will never compare, and my writing is not nearly as well thought out as his. Another author I love to death is J. K. Rowling! I love the Harry Potter series. Am I a freak for loving them at 19 years old? If so, that's good. Just as I had always wanted to be.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Clare, I know what you mean, though I find myself spending less and less at the chain bookstores though Amazon still gets a lot of my business. I also work at a bookstore which makes it very difficult for my paycheck to last out the door.

Sher, damn you. Now another book is being sent fedex across america for me.
P.S. There are a lot of bibliophilic books out there. Most writers are heavy bibliophiles so anti-censorship or pro-book books and opinions are rampant. My favorite two so far are Farenheit 451 and the idea of the Library of the Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. The way it has been used to rescue the books of burning libraries, traverse L-space, and solve mysteries long before the other characters have a clue is always fun in a pro-book way.

Belegon, books to the movies. Brilliant. I've only done that once so far, but I need to do it more often. Especially need to learn how to use the light from those crappy ads before the movie to get some more reading time.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

When we starting looking for a new house a couple of years ago, my hubby thought I was nuts when I suggested we find one with an extra room so I could have a library. I guess he'd rather have them laying on every available surface in our bedroom like they do now.

 

[Lisa Denton]

I love to read, not anything, but almost any category. From Stephen King I launched into Dean Koontz, whom I don't think is as good a writer but perhaps as good a storyteller. Koontz wrote "Intensity" which scared the freakin hell outta me and I don't scare easily.
I read whodunits and history stuff and throw in lots of sci-fi. The old sci-fi is where my bookcase shelves are sagging. Heinlein and countless others have been my escape and often saved my sanity through flights of fantasy since I was old enough to read.
Brian Daley wrote a trilogy about The White Ship which I lovingly tape the pages back together so I can reread it every couple years.
Now I pick up anything and find the unheard of authors are some of the best.
People often look at my bookshelves and then eye me suspiciously or with confusion or both.
I wasn't born stupid and reading doesn't make me more intelligent but I love seeing how others view the world.

 

[alyxen]

LC, would the Turtledove you mentioned be Harry Turtledove?

If so I enjoyed Guns of the South. That is the only of his works I have yet read. I found that to be a very entertaining read.

 

[Guest]

I own three, count 'em, three books that aren't computer/cabling or work related. All three hard bound. All three by the same Author.

Time Enough For Love

Job: A Comedy of Justice

Friday

by Robert A. Heinlein

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

LC, would the Turtledove you mentioned be Harry Turtledove?

If so I enjoyed Guns of the South. That is the only of his works I have yet read. I found that to be a very entertaining read.

Aye, it's good ol' Harry. I have kept mostly on the side of his fantasy books aka the "Fox" series and the "Darkness" series, but I might read some more of his historical fiction later.

 

[Lord DragonsWing]

Let's see. Coffee table covered with books, end table's stocked with books, shelfs loaded with books and a double closet that is filling up rapidly. Yep. I think I qualify.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I simply have no more room for any more books. I've learned to take them out of the library instead.

My most recent sin of excess is ongoing. Although I have no more room for books, I bought all 20 volumes of Patrick O'Brian's Aubry/Maturin Royal Navy novels and have them stacked on my dresser. I've read through the entire series four times over the last two years and am now halfway through my fifth re-reading.

I still read other stuff, but I always know that I have O'Brian waiting for me at home, and every few days when I need a Jack & Stephen fix, I dive on in.

I've even started using nineteenth-century slang when I talk Hell & death!

---dr.M.

 

[rgraham666]

Oh yeah. Severely addicted bibliophile here.

Started off with SF, specifically Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss in 1966. Shit! That was 38 years ago. Seems a lot less.

Ones that hit me hardest were All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Still have a soft spot for Starship Troopers by Heinlein and Neuromancer by B]William Gibson[/B].

Last I counted had over 800 books, but most are in storage these days. Sigh.

 

[cloudy]

My many bookcases are stacked two deep and two high, and still overflowing.

I take one with me everywhere, and look for the big, nice thick ones that will take me more than a day to read.

I'm currently working on "The Years of Rice and Salt," by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's been sort of tough to get through, even though I'm enjoying it. It explores the way the world might be if 98% of the population had died during the black plague. It's different.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Books are a means of escape for me so I don't want them to be something I have to think about hard to understand. I'm not much into the classics and such. I prefer a good mystery novel, though I do also have all the Harry Potter books and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

 

[snowy ciara]

stepping shyly up to the podium..

My name is Ciara, and I, I'm a bibliophile sob

I have more books than clothes. I have more books than cds/dvds/vhs tapes put together. I have more books than all of those put together.

Shoes or books? Books.

Food or books? Books (excepting food for the feline..)

Books or Books? YES

I had to make a rule: whenever I go to the big used book emporium I have to take some for trade. I can only bring home as many as I leave. It doesn't help: I still have too many! I have a theory that they breed like rabbits on my shelves.

I can't pass a bookstore without going in; and when I do go in, the sales staff all get obscene grins. Grins that say "Well relax people, we just made our daily goal!"

I had to start writing stories cause I was running out of stuff to read.

I'm a sick sick woman. "How sick?" you ask?

I recently came down with chicken pox. I went to the dr on Tuesday. I went back Wednesday afternoon and was reading the same book from the previous day. My dr walked and said "My God! You're still on the same book! This IS serious!"

 

[alyxen]

Aye, it's good ol' Harry. I have kept mostly on the side of his fantasy books aka the "Fox" series and the "Darkness" series, but I might read some more of his historical fiction later.

Ahh, I hadn't realized he did much in pure fantasy. From what I read on the cover of Guns, I got the impression he mostly did work on alternate reality style books. This is probably due to my only having read one of his works.

Are his fantasy works any good?

I usually stick with Eddings and Brooks on the fantasy side.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Ahh, I hadn't realized he did much in pure fantasy. From what I read on the cover of Guns, I got the impression he mostly did work on alternate reality style books. This is probably due to my only having read one of his works.

Are his fantasy works any good?

I usually stick with Eddings and Brooks on the fantasy side.

Yes, and they have a bit of historical clout to them. The "Fox" series takes dark age baronies and mixes in Gods and magic and werebeasts and all that fun stuff and the Darkness series is as I said above. I like his fantasy for creating a sort of fantastical magic realism.

And yes, he mostly does alternative reality.

 

[Belegon]

For an interesting work by Turtledove that reaches a bit further back allow me to recommend "Ruled Brittannia".

I am a great lover of Elizabethian drama, so the confluence of a work of alterrnate history by a writer I enjoy and the subject of Elizabethian England if the Armada had made it through to successfully invade made it a "can't miss" read for me.

Although any book about Shakespeare or Marlowe as personalities is necessarily conjecture, I enjoyed Harry T.'s ideas and enjoyed the book.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm incurable

I own a secondhand bookshop as a hobby. It doesn't give me an income - it barely covers the costs.

I have a large house which I'm trying to sell but 18 months on we haven't got all the books out. It has 5 double bedrooms and 4 living rooms. Even so I had to shelve the toilet. It is one of those where you close the door and walk to reach the toilet. There is a bathroom with toilet and another bathroom as well.

My wife objected to my idea of shelving the hall, stairs and landing. We compromised on the hall and landing for geography and history books.

My daughters had their own collections - at least 500 books each.

The main living room housed English Lit including poetry - 5000 odd. The front parlour was French and German literature, translations into English, and the classics - Greek and Roman.

The second living room was Non-fiction. The breakfast room was the reference library. The kitchen had the recipe and food books (the kitchen is fifteen foot by twelve). The utility room had the gardening and DIY books.

The overflow went into the loft.

Our new house cannot cope. I have thirty boxes in the garage waiting to be sorted.

I am closing the bookshop in a few months' time when I retire. Before then I have to have emptied the old house...

Anyone know of a cure for bibliophilia?

Og