Hoarder...You?

 

 

Yes, I admit it...I'm a hoarder, a book hoarder. 

If I walked down the street and saw a book on the sidewalk, I'd pick it up.  Books constantly leave my apartment, but they also constantly come into my apartment, as well.  Working in a book shop, book hoarding is a constant issue.

I donated 103 books recently and it's barely noticeable in my apartment.  I tried using the the theory, one in - one out. That worked for about 5 minutes.

I even have people giving me books!  Do they think I don't have enough?  And it's not just books containing words...I'm a sucker for pretty blank books/journals as well.

I even go to used book shops and look at books.  Admittedly, I'm always on the lookout for a beautiful edition of a book I love.  Or a beautifully illustrated children's book.   If I ever see a copy of Birthday Moon by Lois Duncan, I will always snatch it up.  It's a beautiful present for young and old alike.  Wow, just saw how  much a first edition costs... and I just gave one away, damn.

 

I will be selling some soon...1st editions I bought and saved for just this purpose, Mr. New Orleans, Big Fish, Lemony Snicket, etc.  Hoping to find someone with a book hoarding obsession like mine...that will pay good money for first editions of some great books.

But in the meantime, I keep bringing them in and taking them out out the book storage unit that is my apartment.  If you need something to read...let me know.

What's Your Favorite Book?



What's your favorite book?  Do you love suspense, serial killers, angels, vampires, distopian, biography, non-fiction, fables, self-help?

Have you ever read a book more than once? At different times/ages in your life? Why?

Isn't it amazing what different parts stick with you, depending on how old you were when you read it?  I've read To Kill a Mockingbird no less than 10 times and could read it again today and get something different out of it.

Every book means something different to every reader, even when upon re-reading.

A number of years ago, when I was part of the corporate craziness, I took a team building class.  In one of the group exercises, we were given one word: home.  For five minutes the eight people at the table and each of us had to write down every word that came to mind.  We then compared our word lists and counted how many all eight of had in common.

Three, yes three.  This dumbfounded me.  Each person's list had at least 20 words or more.  So in a book full of words, the chances of everyone  getting the exact same feeling, idea, story - are slim to none.  We all apply our personal filters subconsciously to everything we do.  If, as part of you filters, you see family as a broken home, you could view a story about the perfect family with suspicion or wonder.  So reading a book at multiple times in your life, will mean different things to you.  You are reading it with different levels of life experience and new filters.

Now the question is...have you read something as a child and loved it, but reread it as an adult and didn't care for it?  I can't personally name a book I have this relationship with.  But I'd love to know of someone that does, what book, and why?

I have to say that if  start reading a book and I don't enjoy it...I put it down.  Life's too short to read something you're not enjoying.

I've asked a number of people what books they've reread:
(There are undoubtedly so many more that aren't listed, but it's the start of a new reading or rereading

list...)  *The most listed book from everyone I discussed this with...To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee!  So if you haven't read it yet, start today!

1984 by George Orwell
A Confederacy of Dunces by John  Kennedy Toole
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Anne Frank: The Diary of a young Girl by Anne Frank
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
Beachcombing for Shipwrecked God by Joe Coomer
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Chita by Lafcadio Hearn
Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
The Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher
All Diana Gabaldon, except the newest one
Dune by Frank Herbert
Edgar Allen Poe stories
Far Pavilions...both by M. M. Kaye
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
All Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
All Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
All J. R. Tolkien
Kate Chopin's short stories
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Little Princess by Francis Burnett
The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue
The Mirage by Matt Ruff
The Mistress of the Art of Death series by Ariana Franklin
All Nancy Drew
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
On Writing by Stephen King
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
The Outside Cat by Jane Thayer and Feodor Rojankovsky
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
All Raymond Chandler
Restoration by John Ed Bradley
Secret Garden by Francis Burnett
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
*To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
WarDay by Whitley Strieber
Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Golderg
Wuthering Heights  by Emily Bronte
Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia Butler

 PS.spell check recommends Dust Pan in place of Distopian.