Not that anyone reads my journal, but....I have book questions

[darkelf105]

I want to know how you guys read. Do you have a system? What are your criteria for picking up a book? Finishing it? Do you have the mentality that you just gotta finish the whole book, or are you what Nancy Pearleman, librarian extraordinaire, refers to as a mature reader, a reader that can just quite a work that is falling flat for them? Do you start things, then stop, only to pick them up years and years later? Are you a courtly lover of books, or do you beat the crap outta them like I do? Dog-earing, what's your stance? Do cracked spines annoy you?

I was just curious because I noticed that I have something my friend likes to call "bumblebee syndrome". I flit from subject to subject, novel to novel, idea to idea...sometimes I commit, but most often I just drop the book to maybe return to it days, months, or years later. I always finish my book, just not necessarily in any linear pattern. I leave books open, turned down, like broken birds. I crack spines and dog-ear pages. When I was little, I would literally ingest pages of my favorite books. Apparently, I am a devourer. I must wholly own what I am reading. Food analogies work best for how I read...I leave unfinished novels laying around like unfinished sandwiches. I taste, I bite, I chew. I find books either nourishing or fulfilling, or after the fact, realized that though it was quite tasty, the book I was reading really had no nutritional value at all. I get book cravings. Cravings for space opera, for horror, for Victorian era shenanigans, for non fiction. I read for every reason under the sun and for reasons I cannot understand. Most often, though, I graze, because when I was younger, I would read anything anyone put under my nose. Now, I am a much pickier eater. And I lament the lost ability to read ANYTHING, even if it's badly written. Needless to say, my library card is always maxed out, I buy books only to discard them, my room has so many books and manga stacked up, I will literally be buried if there is an earthquake of any magnitude in Ohio. And one day, I will read them all, but never be finished nor satisfied. The nourishment that books provide is much more complex then the dynamic between my physical appetite and my digestive system. I read for nourishment that can never be sated. It’s a good thing, I think, this feeling of never being full. Of satiation but not satiety.

Lately, I have been reading lots of manga. It's because between work and school I have no time to read a real book, and much like what I eat between work and school, they still the reading cravings, but can't really be considered real food. So I ordered a bunch of novels to read, but since I am craving pizza both literally and literary, I ordered, as follows:

"Sebastian"
"Myth Hunters"
"The Nimble Man"
"The Circus of Dr. Lao"
"The Crimson Sword"
"The Sorceress And the Cygnet"

I hope they quell the cravings, because I have so much more I have to read.

Comments

[crowyhead.livejournal.com]

I'm rough on my books -- I like to dogear and mark 'em up, I'll happily tape a cracked spine and keep going. The only thing I can't stand is when people are careless enough to get books wet. Guh. Also, it pains me when I see people bending the cover of a paperback all the way around. Like, normal wear & tear from love doesn't bother me, but outright mistreatment does. :)

I usually have at least one fiction book and one nonfiction going at once. Lately I've been having a little bit of book ADD, because working in the library I constantly see more books I'm interested in reading.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, working at the library definitely causes book ADD. Put I find so much more I wouldn't ever come across on my own because I get to see what other people are reading. It's awesome.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Yes.
Also can I have Dr. Lao when you are done with it?

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Sure....can I borrow Pet Shop of Horrors volume 2 from you? There are 12 holds on it, bu no holds on three or four, so they will come soon and I will not have read two. Sad face.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I only own volume 1. Sorry =/
I borrowed number 2 from the library. I wonder why there are so many holds on it all of a sudden?

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Sadness. Oh well. I can wait.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Sorry! If I did have it you could totally borrow it from me. Manga is a quick read for most people so maybe you will get it sooner than you think.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I used to read most books all the way through. Now I work at the library, have a huge list of material checked out, and not enough time to read it all.

[hittokiri-korru.livejournal.com]

a) The Subject has to sound interesting to even consider the book
b) I'm defiantly gotta own,
b2) Never could finish, a book in time to be returned
b3) would likely procrastinate in returning
b4) b3 would not currently apply because my sister works at the library
c) bookmark, always bookmark. with something I'll improvise if I have to
c2) I have pokemon card in many of my books that way i can mark it if i decide to read it again.
c3) Dog earring and spine breaking don't particularly bother me, bookmarking is so much easier and efficient.
d) The book has to be very very interesting to even care to finish it
d2) e.g. Vampire Hunter D is good but I still haven't finished it much like many other books
d3) I can only make it halfway through a book before losing interest
f) Likely to judge a book by it's cover (title is more appropriate)
f1) would not likely touch a book called "31 emotions"
e) Prefer Hardcover to paperback
g) Prefer fictional stories
h) don't care for so called "classics" especially Lord Of The Flies
i) It's the story that counts not the writing

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Aw, you sound a lot like me at your age :). As you get older, you'll find some of that will change. I used to think that "classics" were boring, but as I have aged, I realize that what I had to read for school really did have a huge impact on the way I think and am, even if I thought it was boring at the time. I usually don't finish a lot of what I start, either. But I always come back.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Ok here we go:
As a child I would read anything you put under my nose. I've read some crappy goosebumps and Nora Roberts because of that. As I got older I got pickier about what I read, in the sense that I will put things I find boring down, not in the sense that I read particularly "good" books. Since I know quite a few book people I rarely pick up anything that hasn't been suggested to me. (And when I do I am usually pretty sorry I did so.) I love animals and fantasy, but I have surprised myself by looking at how many of the classics I have read as well. I may bitch and moan about them, but I have read them and remember enough which means they made a big enough impact on my life.

I like my books being new, or in "like new" condition. I love saving money by getting books from goodwill, but they usually don't have much I would read. I hate reading dog-eared and spine broken copies of books. I don't think I would mind writing in the margins so much because it is an interesting look into what other people were thinking. However I hate when I get a book secondhand that was bought for someone and you can see the inscription in the cover. It makes me incredibly sad.

My love of nice new books probably comes from my experiences as a child. There were many books I borrowed from the school library, but they were never truly mine and I hated the lectures from the librarian when I returned it late. My mom says we went to the library quite a bit when I was a kid, but I really only remember being disappointed in the children's section. One of the most common birthday presents I received was books. I was usually disappointed because they weren't books I was particularly interested in reading (Rugrats, Little House on the Prairie, etc.) But I still treasured them as gifts and read them quite a bit. When I got older and got an allowance I always spent my money on books. (This is where my childhood series Animorphs comes in.)
I don't have a specific formula for putting a book down. I think if I know nothing about it and find it boring it will be abandoned within the first hundred pages, whereas something liked Wicked which I hated, I finished because I wanted to see how they handled the ending. (I guess that is a little bit of my competitive side coming through.)

Blah I guess I rambled quite a bit, but I am usually sad that my choice of books is "weird". I almost never like the popular book/character.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

No weirder than mine. I abuse the books I love, so I stopped borrowing from you because your face was horrible the first time you caught me dog-earing one of your manga. Never again, grasshopper. And I think from now on Naked Hakkai shall be my book posting icon...in my mind the pleasures of reading go hand in hand with the pleasure of Naked Hakkai.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I agree with posting naked Hakkai. I'm sorry my sad face made you feel that way. I really wouldn't be mad at you if you borrowed my books at all, because as I have told Philly, books can be replaced.