Friday, February 4, 2011

Biblioaddiction & Rehabilitation


For anyone that knows me understands I'm a biblioaddict.  I can hardly begin my day without a book or magazine in one hand and hot cup of coffee in the other.  On those days where this ritual is disrupted, I am not a happy person and dare I say am quite grumpy.  I acquired my psychopathological disorder at an early age.  Even when I was a scrawny, underdeveloped teenager, I loved books, though I must confess I did not read all that rested on my shelf.  It was something about the way they felt, the aroma of a used book, the transcendence of knowledge being passed down from one era to the next.  It was about the personal relationship I had with each book.  Well, at first anyway.  Overtime, my collection grew until it consumed my apartment, then my house, and finally my house and my attic.   You see, once I acquired a book I could not divorce myself from its covers.  Fortunately, I have been working through my issues. You can think of this as sort of a bibliorehab.  I have recently inventoried my books, sold many, donated some, and even discarded a few.  It truly hurts to type those words.  Nonetheless, these books were taking over and let's face it, I'm sure there is some underlying deep psychological issue at play here.  As time went on, my collection grew thinner and thinner and I can happily report is currently at a healthy ratio considering the other items residing in my home. 
Now, I must confess, I have cheated slightly.  I have discovered E-readers, and while fervently  opposed to such devices at first, I now feel comforted by their existence.  You see they will allow me to house the thousands of books that will allow me to bury my deep emotional instability and at the same time not assume any actual real estate.  This is surely a win-win.  There is no doubt I will sorrowfully miss the smell of a good used classic, the crisp pages of a NYT bestseller, and the feel of a shiny plastic cover. The E-readers are much more sterile, but they provide me with new tools and I honestly move through books quicker (probably because I'm not smelling, touching, and providing strange affection to my hardback friends).  As they say, you can only take one day at a time, one foot forward, one gallant stride into the unknown and soon enough you will be whole again. 
The initial purpose of this post was to track and share what I am currently reading or have read in the past couple of months.  Perhaps this may lead to others reading some of my recommendations or providing me with some good recommendations.  I am always searching for my next read.  Well, without further ado, my list is a s follows:

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to check out some of these titles...they sound intriguing! Thanks for the suggestions. I, too, am addicted to reading!

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  2. Dang do I wish I had more time to read! Maybe I should subscribe to fewer blogs.... nah. I'll just keep relying on smart folks like you to give me the abbreviated versions. :)

    Rhyme Me a Smile

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  3. Just doled as some cash to Amazon for something that kept coming up in web sidebars:'Making Ideas Happen' by Scott Belsky... I love the Behance website... starting to post artwork there. Yes it's all about time but as you know it's all about priorities. I like to read too... and want to do more of that ... need it like anything else to feed the spirit.

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