Is reading one of your obsessions?

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Sounds like you want to do what I've done: I don't have a living room, I have a library. I do more reading than living anyway. There are 11 book cases, including one that's about eight feet wide, that completely surround me and take up every possible bit of wall space. Plus there's three more bookcases in the bedroom.

In the rare instance where anybody else sees the inside of my apartment the first thing the idiots ask is if I'm running a library. And people wonder why I don't like visitors.

Then they ask if I've read all these books.

No, only 59.45% of the fiction, 94.35% of the manga/comic strip/graphic novels and less than half of the anthologies. I haven't quite gotten around to inputting all of the non-ficiton into the database yet.

And yes, I am obsessive.

I think I'll go read a book.

Grey

My room has hundreds of books lying all over the place. I've read them all, some of them multiple times. I was getting into King novels shortly after I first learned what those funny shapes called letters meant, and I haven't stopped for any real length of time since.

So... yeah.

Grey, you're my new hero - mwah!

Hey, wait -- you have a personal stock of manga, comics, and graphic novels in your house? Dude, you're my idol.

I'm about to start drooling all over my laptop... That is AWESOME. You've inspired me to move out with a set of bookcases as soon as I can, or take over a room in this house for that purpose.

That's what I want, a library all my own, with all my favorites, mostly paperbacks falling apart, shelved alphabetically by author and in chronological order within that author's works, with my stuff on human nature and prehistory easy to get at instead of having the big bookcase behind the recliner. To be able to find stuff I keep coming back to and having it reprinted.

The worst part is being stuck someplace (like an airport for five hours) with No Books!! ! (ABQ food & book stands close down around supper time, and LAS has zilch, nada, nothing but slot machines. Yick.)

As best I remember, I've been reading compulsively since age 4 and discovered science fiction at age 10.

I am a voracious reader. Curling up in a chair with a good book to read is one of my favorite pastimes. I do read fiction once in a while, but I am mostly a non-fiction reader. I often find that reading a really difficult book is a great way to get to sleep, especially if the book is in a language other than English. Reading is how I keep up with my other foreign languages so that I don't forget them.

I was crazy about that book when I was a kid, loved her drawings & writing in books & on greeting cards & stickers.
I do read obsessively, when I see words I read them before thinking about whether to do so, it's automatic for me. So I read food labels & same old things because that's what I see, when not actively reading something on purpose. Didn't realize not all people have the reflex-like mental habit of reading, until recently.
I was the child of the "head librarian" in our city (big deal at the time, a strong identity for me to be known as "daughter of_"). Was able to wander the place & browse for hours on end, no questions asked. When younger, could get away w/ eating pastries under a table next to the checkout desk, and you weren't even supposed to have food in the place. Enjoyed that special status-sure it must've been obnoxious to others, though.

I did not learn how to read until the year I turned 11 after that my books became my best friends.

If I wasn’t reading I was spending most of my time arranging books in sequences like author, title, genre etc.

Even when I watch TV I read. I can’t watch a program with out the caption on.

Well, I only have 102 volumes of manga in graphic novel format, plus whatever is in with the American comics, 11 long boxes worth, I think, total. The non-manga graphic novels and comic strip collections only take up one full size book case. Not counting the non-fiction reference books on comics that are on another bookshelf along with reference books on science fiction, mysteries and pulps. I don't buy that much manga as it's just too expensive. And I've kind of lost interest in keeping up with comic books as I've grown older. Plus I think there's a couple of boxes of British comic stuff around here someplace. I've got it all organized.

I actually got rid of eight or nine long boxes of comics that were in storage at my parent's place a while back. I finally faced the fact that I really wasn't ever going to re-read those again. I traded them in at a comic shop for... yes, more graphic novels.

Grey

I know how you feel. I spent years living in tiny studio apartments. I had to keep most of my books in storage. My dream was to one day have a place big enough that I could get all my books out of storage and onto shelves. I'd go window shopping for bookcases, planning on what I'd buy when I had space.

It was great the weekend I moved my boxes of books in and unpacked. I must have spent hours each day for the next week or two getting reacquanted with old friends and organzing and categorizing and shelving books where they belonged.

I have three units along one long wall that were designed for video cassette storage. They're perfect for paperbacks. By putting books on top, I get nearly 84 feet of shelving space. I got a good deal on some nice bookcases for the larger paperbacks and hardcovers. When my apartment complex rec room was being remodeled, they were going to throw out a huge three section bookcase that I snapped up.

It's great having everything handy. The only trouble is I'll sit down in my favorite reading chair, with books on all sides within arm's reach, and I'll start reading a book, get part way through and then the next time I sit down, I'll pick up another book and get part way through. I've got dozens of books with bookmarks in them waiting for me to get back to them to finish.

Grey.

That's funny, I just flew out of LAS a couple of weeks ago. Between the flight to Las Vegas and the flight home, and waiting in airports and getting to and from the airport, I read Ian M. Bank's "The Player of Games." I would have gone crazy sitting at LAS waiting for my plane without a book to read.

So what Science Fiction authors do you like?

Thanks, most people look at me like I'm crazy when they find out I actually read books.

I remember once a pretty young woman, who was otherwise intelligent, once said to me "You sure read a lot of books, don't you." In the same tone of voice as if she was accusing me of being a sex fiend or something.

I was crushed. I really liked her.

Once a guy at work asked me what I did the day before, which was my day off. I told him I read a book. He was flabbergasted. I had read a whole book in one day. He could't imagine reading a book a year. I didn't tell him that it was the 17th book I'd read in the previous three weeks. By the same author. (Granted, that's a bit extreme even for me, the guy writes short books, and I was really obsessing over a new author.)

Grey

I actually hated reading until high school when I suddenly fell in love with it, discovering that the world wasn't comprised solely of grade school story books. I began reading a mix of "the classics" and psychology books I borrowed from my mother's home library (and sometimes from her office).

I love reading. But sometimes I love collecting books even more than I love reading them, so I have many books which I haven't even read yet.

I just love books, collecting, reading, looking, and browsing. Everything.

I was really lucky cuz my mom's a librarian and every week she'd bring home a stack of books for me. It was great. To this day I've kept up my weekly trip to the library to get a stack of books. My method is fast. I grab about 7 books in 5 minutes. I figure if I don't like one, there's six others to choose from.

I never go anywhere without a book. I can't stand in line at the post office without a book. Being without reading material would be like being naked only more uncomfortable. It allows me to become invisible in public and I can tune stuff out a lot easier too.

I can't go to bookstores because I can't afford to buy books and it's pure torture to see all those brand-new, shiny books that I can't have.

But, but, a library insists that you give the books back.

How could I let my little friends go? How could I organize them and categorize them and enjoy them sitting neatly in their assigned places on their shelves? Libraries are just too cruel. And the books smell funny.

Actually I rarely buy new books. Um, well, [looks at stacks of new books bought in the past month and wonders if that's why I'm broke again] I guess compared with normal folks I do buy a lot of new books. But I normally buy used books to save money, and I often go to Friends of the Library sales where you can buy books for 50 cents each, or if you wait until the end, they'll often sell you a grocery bag full of books for $3 to $4. I can fit at least 40 books into a bag, if I'm neat. Books that I don't want I take to used book stores and trade them in for books I do want.