Saturday, April 30, 2016

Why Settle for a Vowel When You Can Buy the Whole Book?

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all: read a lot and write a lot.
There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut."




Long before I read King's words, I had embraced his philosophy. I had, in fact, embraced it in a way that may have occasionally appeared compulsive to the people around me. Those compulsions are more pronounced now than ever.

Here's the bookshelf above my writing desk. There is another row of books just as long on the connecting wall, but sunlight prohibited me from getting a shot of those.




These are the books on the shelf in my writing desk:


These are the books in a stack on my writing desk:


These are some books I currently have checked out of the library:


These are the books (and a magazine) that are on my nightstand at the moment:


For years, my book obsession had to take a backseat--financially and often time-wise--to raising four children. Now, not only do I have a bit more disposable income, but I have discovered I can buy used books on the internet. This is fabulous but also horrible because I can buy many more than I can actually find the time to read. Books that came in the mail today:




I have essentially set up my house so that I am never more than ten feet from a book at any time. And for those times when I leave the house, I stuff my backpack with both reading and writing materials lest I ever be caught somewhere without words to play with. The current contents of my backpack (arrayed on my lap desk which is where I write most often while at home):

L-r, top: my current journal, a packet on trauma-informed care for work that I have been trying to finish reading for weeks, two tablets--you know, the vintage kind of tablet, made of paper--where I work on rough drafts; bottom: current issue of Poets & Writers, book of short stories, my previous journal, in case I need to double check whether I've written something down already.

I used to jokingly call myself an addict, but these days I favor the label "zealot"--this shift in preference may or may not be related* to the fact that I desperately needed a "Z" word to round out the A-Z Challenge today.


Z is for Zealot

*Hint: it is totally related.

29 comments:

  1. Oh I miss books. I mean real books. But I can't seem to sit and read. Something about feeling like I'm wasting time. HUH? Silly for a retired person to feel that way, I know. Anyway I listen to books now so that I can multi-task. Knit and listen.
    Congratulations on finishing the challenge. It's great to have you back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's great to be back. I've actually never been able to do audio books for some reason--though I love the idea of multi-tasking, my mind tends to wander if the words are not dancing right in front of me.

      Delete
  2. I went though quite a few of my books and took them to our local thrift store. If I need a dictionary or some reference I usual come to the computer.
    Coffee is on

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are some books in our house I would like to donate or just get rid of (like out-of-date computer manuals and textbooks), but my husband absolutely refuses to part with any book, no matter how unlikely it is ever to be useful again.

      Delete
  3. Zounds - your book obsession is as bad as mine. I seldom have fewer than ten books checked out from the library and I ALWAYS have the maximum on the request list (20). I do end up buying used books when the library doesn't have what I want. Do I read them all? No, but I peruse them all. I do weed through my own collection every few years and send some off to the Friends of the Library book sales but even that is dangerous. The last time I did that, I sent books that I shouldn't have sent. I was trying to cull out things but I should have just left them. I will think three times before giving books away again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have culled occasionally--and I definitely haven't been able to read everything I've got. I do still rely heavily on the library and will only buy books that they don't have or books that I've read and loved so much I want to keep them.

      Delete
  4. I love reading!! I read on my Nook Color. Which has greatly cut down on the piles of books around my house. Yet, I still love to hold a book in my hand!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have a Nook at our house, but the library still has pretty limited titles for ebooks and I also haven't been able to break away from my love of the physical form of books.

      Delete
  5. I also am a bookaholic. I was doing really well there for a while, avoiding buying more books by making use of e-readers and the public library. Exceptions were made when people gave them to me as gifts - what can I do? I don't want to be rude. But then I found a title or two at the local thrift shop, and a few more at the library sale table, and my brother cleaned out his bookshelves (to make way for more books, natch) and I am about back to square one. I'm reading as fast as I can.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I go through buying binges and end up overwhelming myself. Even at the library--I will check out way more books than I can possibly read before they're due. I sometimes get a little sense of panic over how many there are left to read--it's never ending.

      Delete
  6. You are far from alone. I am trying to kick a 60 plus year book owning habit. I'm not succeeding. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
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