blackleggings
It only ends once.
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Book Porn
- Thread starter AllyRose
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lovetoread
hello daddy
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Stop making me feel guilty about my tv watching choices.
Airka4real
occasional visitor
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blackleggings
It only ends once.
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KRCummings
Uh...
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Personal libraries filled with books nobody will ever read just because the owner wants it to look nice sorta piss me off. Not because the books aren't read, I probably wouldn't read them either as more often than not they're just cheap collections or Readers Digest condensed books and even if they're not it doesn't mean they're any good. More books suck than don't. It's because they're being pretentious. Bugs the shit out of me.
Saint Peter
shoots left
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Books make the audio system sound great.
oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
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That's why I like authors' working libraries in their preserved homes.
Batemans (Kipling) and Sissinghurst (Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson) are good examples. Batemans has many of his first editions but also the books Kipling read and valued. Sissinghurst is a time capsule of the late 1930s. None of the books are particularly valuable but they have been well-read.
MichaelinChina
Cybergypsy
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MichaelinChina
Cybergypsy
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A Kindle might replace a wall of books, but I'd rather have the books, and the lovely bookmarks.
kotori
Fool of Fortune
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After many times moving house, including many down-sized, I just don't keep anything unless I believe I might read it again. My "collection" is a hodgepodge, mostly paperback. I can't help it, I love books as objects, but I've learned not to keep anything I'm not willing to move.
So now what I collect is authors: I have a set of everything John Banville has published and most of William Trevor, all of José Saramago in English, save the most recent, quiet a few Edna O'Brien, the majority of Orhan Pamuk in translation. If I come across a hardcover of a Banville or Saramago which I have in paperback, I'll buy it and take the paperback to Ogg's (or one of his brother traders).
Fata Morgana
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I actually agree with this. Quite a few people when they see my shelves say "oh do you read these?" which makes me want to smash their faces in. What the fuck do you think I do with them you daft cunt?
Now I'm not going on one of my anti-kindle rants again (maybe later in the week) but there are several folks I work with who have kindles. They never fucking read! They just have to have the next gadget or as you say, are being pretentious.
I love my books, my shelves, re-reading them, the smell, brand new, second hand, whatever....don't care.
Ogg - you have the best stories. It's like we all sit crossed legged infront of you, spellbound whilst you tell 'em. Sometimes I'm so engrossed my mouth falls open and I drool a bit. Please don't hold this against me.
AllyRose
What fresh Hell is this?
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If you ever need help finding a place to bury their bodies I can help.
AllyRose
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That's a very good attitude. If I had to move again I'd probably do the same thing. Keep some of my favorite novels, figure out which ones I can donate to the shop down the street, and figure out what to do after I get settled in again.
Probably buy a bottle of wine and flip open a very tattered copy of The Silmarillion and lose myself in the pages.
Fata Morgana
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You're on.
AllyRose
What fresh Hell is this?
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AllyRose
What fresh Hell is this?
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Fata Morgana
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My two favourite things in the world = heaven.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/foxkitsune/tumblr_merndkIkf61s00v40o1_1280_zps9e6c0169.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/foxkitsune/tumblr_merndkIkf61s00v40o1_1280_zps9e6c0169.jpg
AllyRose
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For me that'd be the coffee and book. I like some parts of winter, but I'm more of an early / mid autumn kinda girl.
Fata Morgana
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Christ I didn't realise that pic was so big.
I love winter, snow, frost etc.
Actually I think my fave place to read is the bath. My bath is a really huge old fashioned enamel one so you can lie back in it proper. Nothing better than getting in with a book and a glass of Jamesons.
I love winter, snow, frost etc.
Actually I think my fave place to read is the bath. My bath is a really huge old fashioned enamel one so you can lie back in it proper. Nothing better than getting in with a book and a glass of Jamesons.
butters
High on a Hill
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shelves full of unread books is just a sad waste
of all my books, there are 3 titles i've yet to read - i'm building up to them
when people ask that stupid question, it simply illustrates they're not your regular reader. i have a personal investment in all my books - those i managed to part with were not ones i'd especially wish to read again.
DaddyValin
Literotica Guru
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You got her to read, and you got her to read Louis L'Amour; both are accomplishments. So, it doesn't matter if she is reading ironically.
oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
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shelves full of unread books is just a sad waste
of all my books, there are 3 titles i've yet to read - i'm building up to them
when people ask that stupid question, it simply illustrates they're not your regular reader. i have a personal investment in all my books - those i managed to part with were not ones i'd especially wish to read again.
I irritate my wife and her women's book group. I have read almost every book in our house, including hers and her book group's selections.
Since a very early age I have been a speed reader. I blame my older brother. When I was very young I kept asking him to read to me. He wasn't that interested in the simple books I could understand so he used to flip over the pages as fast as he could. When the books only had one or two words on the page I found it easy to keep up with his page-flipping.
When I was a few months older the books had more words on each page. My brother kept flipping pages at the same pace, so that's how I thought I should read. I did. After a few more months I could flip the pages myself.
I was a shock to the teachers when I started school at age 5. My mother warned the teacher that I could read. I can still remember the expression on the teacher's face. It said clearly "all mothers believe their offspring are exceptional". Within in a hour I had the first book of the school's reading scheme in my hand.
"When you have finished it, bring it to me, and we'll talk about it."
I was back to her within a minute.
"You can't have read it yet?"
I gave her a spoken precis. She gave me the next three books.
I was back within five minutes. I told her all three stories.
In a large class, she was non-plussed. Most of the class couldn't read their name. She pointed it me to the class's small library, including the whole reading scheme.
I had read their 'library' by the lunch break.
By the end of the first month I had read every book that Infants School (5-7 year olds) owned and was granted the right to go into the Junior School (8-11 year olds) next door to use their library. By the end of my first year at school I had read all their library too.
I could be a pain. When I was 7, the lesson next week was to be on Cold Places. We would be talking about snow, and polar bears, that sort of thing. I knew that my father was involved at work with supplying some Antarctic Expeditions so I asked him for help.
The next school week, for 'show and tell' I had brought:
A Emperor Penguin's Egg.
Some Biscuits from Scott's Base in the Antarctic.
Some Sample supplies kept from those sent on the ill-fated HMS Erebus and Terror expedition to find the North West Passage, and, of course, some books:
Nansen's Farthest North (full 2 volume expedition journal)
Scott's Diaries and other Arctic and Antarctic journals.
By this time I was known to be a bloody know-it-all. My classmates tolerated me as a freak who could help with homework. But my teacher had expected something special from me for "Show and Tell" and I had exceeded her expectations. She had asked the Head Teacher to be there when I performed. He came, with the Head Teacher of the Junior School, who was used to seeing me wandering around his school with a pile of books.
The Junior School Head Teacher thought I was overreaching myself. He looked at Nansen's Farthest North, opened it at random, and asked me to read it aloud.
I did. As far as most of my seven-year-old fellow pupils were concerned I could have been reading Russian. It was an account of some of the scientific measurement of ice pack circumpolar drift. But my fellows were proud of me. I hadn't let them down.
My speed-reading has slowed down with age. A large novel 5-600 pages takes me about an hour. It used to take 30-40 minutes.
What really irritates my wife?
She can take a week to read the same book and I know more of it than she does.
AllyRose
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Growing up there was this big tree off in the woods (go figure) that I'd be able to climb up into and relax in. My mom hated me going off because I'd be gone for hours, but once my father caught on he ended up building a small tree house for me to read in if the weather wasn't entirely agreeable.
That was my slice of heaven.
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