Anya ,'Dirty Girls'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
My parents keep books I'd happily burn for warmth after running from the frost.
They didn't throw away anything I didn't take out of the house. Some is charmingly nostalgic, and some is a reminder of how crap my taste was.
I'm not much of a book-keeper myself. If it's not non-fiction, I have to like it a real lot to hang on.
Seriously, you guys, don't leave your books at your parents'.
Unless it is my parents' house.
The way they cull books when the shelves get full? They send them to me. Or to my aunts who eventually send them to me.
I'm now officially out of bookshelf space and wall space for bookshelves.
I think I may start sending some to a friend with very similar reading tastes.
I read more words than I ever have, I bet, and fewer books.
This. Between school, comics, and fanfic, far less of what I read comes in bound, made-of-paper, non-illustrated form. But overall, I'm reading far more.
Though in recent past I've been able to go to my shelves, pull down three or four books, and give someone a complete answer with example and citations for some school work. "Oh!," they gasped. "It's just like a real library!"
Uh, yeah.
A friend of mine was talking about Borders' summer reading list (buy three, get one free), and how she was just noting the names of the books so she could read them. She mentioned On the Road, and I said, "Oh, I have that," and grabbed it for from the bookshelf. Then she said Siddhartha, and I said, "I have that too," and got it for her as well. It was pretty awesome.
I need all those books right there where I can look at them and feel the weight of their words and knowledge and stories and wisdom.
It's like we're crows and books are shiny things.
When I was travelling, I'd send books that I'd finished to my parents' house rather than sell them or carry them around with me. I must have sent home four or five boxes in less than a year. It's like MM said: I just like having them around. It makes my house feel like my home. I remember when I was a personal assistant a few years ago, and I couldn't figure out why I always felt a little uneasy in my boss's house, until I realized it was because she had no books. No books!
A 2002 Census Bureau study shows that only 56.6 of all American adults surveyed read a book of any kind in the previous year,
Only 56 and a half adults? Man, some of the Buffistas are NOT pulling their weight.
Hey, I'm the .6! Now if only I could finish a damn book.
Hey, you know what would motivate you? A Book Club!
ducks
I'm saddened but not surprised by the Census numbers, and I bet Internet time has something to do with the drop. I know being online takes away from reading time for me, anyhow...
But the thought of all those homes without books makes me incredibly sad.