Hatrack River Writers Workshop: A Library of Unread Books

This is topic A Library of Unread Books in forum Discussing Published Hooks & Books at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=000210

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Here's an article of some relevance to my life, if the link works:

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12421

'cause I have this problem myself.

Posted by KPKilburn (Member # 6876) on :

Interesting article. I have hundreds of books I haven't read completely through. That's my retirement project - read them all.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

quote:
The bibliophile, not unlike a stealthy alcoholic, starts sneaking books into the house and stashing them away, sometimes wrapping them up as Christmas gifts with a card indicating they are from some other random member of the household.

Oof. I think I've reached this stage. I started hiding my Amazon.com boxes in shame so my husband wouldn't discover I'd ordered new books!

But I will read them, I promise!

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I'm afraid someday they'll find me, crushed to death under a pile of unread books, or maybe trapped and unable to get out of my house because the books block the door. (Anybody ever hear of the Collier brothers?)

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

quote:
I'm afraid someday they'll find me, crushed to death under a pile of unread books

Ah, death by books. Is there a sweeter way?

But at least you don't live in earthquake country. Though I suppose hurricanes are just as bad.

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited December 11, 2007).]

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

Very Punny.

Holy Snikee! That's it! That's how Paolini sold so many books! So, apparently, there are dangers to this disease.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I was nearly crushed just the other day, when I was digging for some Tolkien books that were behind a big pile of boxes, and the boxes fell over. Only I wasn't.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

You know, I read the Wikipedia article on the Collyer brothers and became frightened... I, too, collect all sorts of things, including machines that I think I'll be able to fix someday (in my kitchen is a washing machine that has been broken for, oh, three years!) Maybe it's time to purge. I hate throwing stuff out, though, not just because I might be throwing out something useful, but because I hate thinking I might contribute to the clogging landfill problem.

The thing about books is I like to keep them. I have friends who give them away once they've read them, but I hoard my books. The ones I've read I think I'll read again, or want to reference. It's a false notion, since I've only referred back to, or reread, some 5% of all the books I have. Still, I suppose it's a comfort thing. On the positive side, I'm getting a better feel for the kinds of books I might want to keep, and those which are one-time only reads.

And bless the public library! I can sort of trick my book fetish by thinking I have a store house of all these books, get all my impulse acquisitions out of the way, and focus on buying only the books that might be keepers.

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited December 12, 2007).]

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Every so often I clean up and rearrange, but I'm just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :

I do have a problem. I admit it. I love books. I used to have every book I'd ever read! I never went to the library growing up. But I did read paperback novels. They take less room to store. But some years ago I took the plunge. I boxed up boxes of novels I didn't think I'd ever want to read again (GARBAGE WORLD, about this asteroid and all the planets send their garbage there. Or, FOUR DAY WEEKEND, where the cars take over the country. Things like those. -- they ARE real published novels from the sixties!).

It's amazing how many I regret now. One I sold to Half-Price Books, then two days later went and bought it off the shelf!

Libraries are unreliable. They do get rid of books. How can I trust them to keep available the MAMUR ZAPT novels? They tossed their copy of MOGUL BUFFET. I KNOW because I bought it at the book sale. Yes, your own collection is the only one you can depend on when you really, really need to find that scene you want to look at again.

I still have boxes of old ANALOGs and GALAXYs. Regretfully, not my old AMAZINGS or IFs.

Sigh. I've only thrown in the garbage two books in my whole life. They were that bad. I didn't want to inflict them on anyone else.

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

Pffft. I HAVE no unread books. I am manic when I have a new book and MUST read it. Nothing gets between me and an unread book.

Edit: I used to not hoard my books. (I have thrown a few away. You don't want even want to KNOW the fate of Covenant the Unbeliever. The blaze was warming but I did feel a bit like a nazi.) But mostly I'd give them away to friends I thought might enjoy them. Then I'd have to go out and buy them again, so now I hoard them.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited December 14, 2007).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Wow, Jeanne T. I look at my "to be read" pileS and envy you.

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

Buying a book for me is a dangerous thing since I almost certainly won't sleep until it's read.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I can layer my progress. In that room with the falling-over boxes I mentioned are several layers. First on the shelves are my SF magazines, covering (with a few scattershot plunges into further back) the early seventies through the mid-nineties, all chronologically arranged. Next, in front of them, are my paperback SF books, in alphabetical order. In front of those on the floor are some non-fiction paperbacks, also alphabetized.

Over in one corner are my SF hardcovers, also arranged alphabetically. In front of them are unalphabetical stacks, spilling out onto the floor in front. In the middle, under the window, is a low shelf with a collection of old almanacs (nothing fancy, just what I've used and hung onto through the years.)

In front of all that (and the room's only window) are the aforementioned boxes. They're full of (1) SF paperbacks in no particular order, (2) assorted non-SF paperbacks, also in no particular order, (3) old magazines, mostly the, whatchamacallit, eight-by-twelve size (there might be some SF mags in with them), (4) some old mail that I have yet to go through and dispose of, and (5) old junk. There are a few other containers of this and that scattered about here and there.

And all that's just one room...