So many books…
May 29, 2007 at 10:52 pm 8 comments
I was thinking about the amount that I read today, and was wondering, am I nuts?
I do know that some people read more than others. I see it every day at the library. I can tell that a person who checks out eight to ten books at a go is a reader at heart. I talk to other readers who carry books with them every place that they go. There may always be a spare moment that will find you doing nothing. There may always be a few blessed seconds that you can read.
Do you think I am trying to avoid life? Instead of living life am I living through my favorite characters? Or, could it be that I just like to read? I guess there are people who are T.V. watchers and can watch hours and hours of T.V. There are those of you that go to the movies. And some of us just like to read. But do I read too much?
Is there a thing as too much? I don’t know. I do know that I keep a pile in my house of books that I am reading and the pile never seems to go down. Oh, books get read and taken from the pile but they are easily replaced by books that I have yet to read. I come to work and browse the shelves or talk to a customer and before you know it, I have two or three more books stuffed into my bag to take home.
And I really have a lot in common with my customers that read. Even when we read vastly different things. To connect with another reader is a great thing. To know that there are other people who carry books around with them wherever they go. I could not go on vacation without three or four novels. I never know what mood I will be in. I need to have a choice of things to read. And God forbid if I finish all my books! I hate being at the mercy of finding a paperback at the checkout counter of the supermarket. I need a selection! I have to choose what I want to read.
I ran out of books once on a cruise. I knew that I could not use the ship’s library because we only had two more days and I would not have the time to finish something. I went to the gift shop and the collection was meager. The sales clerk made fun of me because I was making a fuss at how lousy the selection of books was. He kept telling me that I was on a cruise and I should be doing other things! All I could think about was “are you kidding?”
And I certainly hope I don’t bore you with all my reading adventures. I know at the Dartboard I tend to talk about books a great deal, what I am reading, what I am planning on reading, and what certain books have meant to me. I think that books have made such a dramatic part of my life. Books have always been there for me and have never let me down. Bookstores are havens of joy and safety that welcome me with open arms and let me stay and breathe in all that new paper. And I have made my home and living in a library, just the place for a little guy like me.
But sometimes I step back and look at all the books I have read and wonder what it is all for. How many books will I read in my lifetime? Will I still be able to read after I die? Will I ever actually get caught up or will there constantly be a wealth of material out there for me to get through?
I don’t have any answers. If you have any thoughts, please share. I gotta go now. I have to finish a book!
Entry filed under: books.
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Dewey's Dartboard 
1.
urspo | May 30, 2007 at 3:10 am
I have never thought of ‘reading too many books’ is a problem. But then again I am biased; I read a lot of books too.
Joke; when is something a disorder? when the patient does it more than the doctor.
2.
Jim | May 30, 2007 at 4:25 am
Hmmm… if your fingers are permanently stained with printer’s ink, your glasses are about 3″ thick, and your arms are locked into a permanent pose of holding a book, then I’d say you probably read a bit too much.
Otherwise, where else can you get lost in another place and time without having to turn on the boob tube? I have read some books over the years that have just pulled me in to the story and I ride along until the last page… the really good ones leave me wanting for more, like if the story would just go another 50 pages.
I usually have a book with me whenever I’m out and about. Sometimes reading on the train is the perfect way to keep the less than stellar people away.
I tend to go in fits and starts… I’ll devour a couple of books a week, then I might go for a month with the newspaper providing enough intellectual stimulation, then I’m back into books again.
There will always be more books than the time to read them 🙂
3.
Sidney Hound [liits] | May 30, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Books are a comfort, I don’t think it’s possible to read to much it is, however, possible to watch to much TV. The BBC’s moto is “To educate, inform and entertain”, the Beeb and the other TV companies do just that…just [having seen TV in the US, I guess the same can be said to be true]. Books also educate, inform and entertain. The fact that they do it at a pace that you choose and when and whereever you want is the difference. Books don’t force things down your throat in the way that TV does. To sit in front of the TV for hours at a stretch and mindlessly watch what you’re given is a pointless exercise. You would never pick a book without reading the synopsis but most would turn on the TV and watch without a secont thought.
4.
tigeryogi | May 30, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I haven’t been without a book by my side since age 9, so don’t worry. You’re in good company! 🙂
5.
Tony | May 30, 2007 at 2:08 pm
D,
This is your blog…if people aren’t interested in what you have to say and that interests you, then they best be moving on. You ought to write sometimes, using comparisons of your life to themes, characters, situations in books you have read. I always think its interesting when people do that.
6.
Michelle | May 30, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Hi ! I have the same worries about my reading. My husband knows to leave me alone when I have a book in my hands ! I also worry that I am trying to escape. But as you probably do, I work hard, have family obligations, community obligations, and gosh-darnit, I don’t drink, smoke or fool around ! I guess there are worse ways to spend your time !
Peace
Michelle
7.
johnmichael | May 30, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I don’t think reading too much is a bad thing. Remember, reading is fundamental.
I think reading takes us to worlds we could never go to in life. We meet people who we would never bump into, even accidentally. It opens our mind to new things. It helps us to understand the unknown.
You could never read too much. And some people don’t read nearly enough.
8.
Zoe | May 30, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Have you ever read the story “The Night Bookmobile” by Audrey Niffenegger? It’s about a women who discoveres a bookmobile that contains everything she’s ever read in her entire life… books, magazines, cereal boxes, everything. She meets the bookmobile at various times as her life goes on and every time the collection has grown larger. The bookmobile is part of “The Library,” where the collection consists of everything ever read by anyone who is currently alive. When somebody dies, their books are deaccessioned. It’s a fun story, and a little sad too. Worth a read if you can find it.