Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Confessions

Everybody's got some bookish dirty laundry, right?  This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is all about Bookish Confessions, so I get to open up my closet and take out all the bookish skeletons.  Here are all the (not so) super secrets about my reading life...

1. I don't own an e-reader... - I can't say I haven't been occasionally tempted, but I'd still rather hold a paper book in my hands than read yet more off of a screen.  I already spend far too much of my life staring at screens.  Also, see #3, I have no need of some other way to acquire more books.

2. ...or a library card.  - I haven't checked a book out of a library since I graduated from college 6 years ago.  I hate library bindings with their crinkly covers and having a deadline for reading.  I also just like owning books even if they're used, and really, a hefty part of my collection is used.  I support my local library by buying not borrowing. ;-)  I'm a library book sale hound!

3. My physical TBR pile is hovering around a thousand - Yes, really.  Will I read them all?  Will I even attempt to read them all?  I don't know.  Will I ever be able to successfully stop acquiring books I might not read for years?  All sources point to no. 

4. The shelves are double stacked, and I hate it. - But perish the thought of having to get rid of some of my babies!

5. I never read The Taming of the Shrew or A Tale of Two Cities. - Sorry, Mrs. Steiner, I did totally copy my summer reading journal off of my best friend, and badly, at that.  Thanks for not failing me out of 11th grade Honors' English.

6. I think I may be the slowest reader on the planet, if not the slowest, then at least the most distractable. - Most good book bloggers have read as many books as I've read this year by January, or February at the latest.  I work too much, have too many social occasions, and am a little bit too in love with my iPhone and my computer.  Plus, I just read really slow, much to my chagrin.

7. I'm a book monagamist. - I can't read two books at a time.  When I attempt it, I feel like I never actually finish any books, and I never seem to be able to get really absorbed in any of them.  I'm much more satisfied with my reading when I'm reading one book at a time and can be totally invested in it.

8. Blogging (and working, too!) killed the chunkster lover in me. - I used to really love a good chunkster, but you know what a slow reading book blogger reading a chunkster is?  A boring book blogger.  For example, see this summer's posts while I've been reading The Stand.  It's not exactly a pretty picture.  Plus, now that circumstances demand that I be a full-time working, functional adult, a good portion of my reading time takes place on lunch break.  Hauling a massive chunkster back and forth to work = major pain.  This is perhaps one argument that could persuade me to change #1. 

9. I'm an eater reader.  - I eat while I read.  We live in the age of multi-tasking, right?  I'm so, so careful not to make a mess, but er, every once in a great while, the fact that I eat while I read, um, shows in the pages. #shame

10. I stole my middle school library's copy of Bridge to Terabithia. - Okay, I didn't steal it.  I lost it, really couldn't find it anywhere, and paid for it.  Later I did find it, and read it again, and cried again.  If I was going to lose/steal a book from the library, this was a great "choice."

So, any bookish secrets you'd like to confess?

19 comments:

  1. Great Top Ten! I am an eater reader, too. I try to keep my books away from the food, but sadly some of the pages have fallen victim.

    Here is my Top Ten.

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  2. I hear you on the chunkster thing... I love them too, but yeah, when blogging while reading them? So boring!

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    1. Yeah, there's only so much, "Hey, look at this picture of my cat," you can get away with before people realize that your blog is becoming woefully unbookish while you plow through that chunkster. LOL!

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  3. Number 3 sounds just like me.

    Reading while eating -- I do that too, but I read on my phone, so no messes!

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  4. get a Kindle app for your iPhone and limit yourself to HUMUNGOUS books only? :D

    My husband got me Dance with Dragons for my birthday, and I spent the entire time reading it wishing I had it on my Kindle instead (though I got the Kindle AFTER I got the book...making me wish that you got a complimentary ecopy with purchase lol) because it was just sooooo freaking heavy!

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  5. What a fun list to read! I have a library card but I'm sure it's not good anymore. I haven't been to a library in . . . well, many years. And you're number 3--yep. Me too. Scary. And as for #10, I still have my middle school copies of The Summer of My German Soldier and Farewell to Manzanar. :-S

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    1. Ooo, Summer of My German Soldier would be a good library book to lose/steal, too! Because with our 1000+ TBR piles, we really need some stolen library books, right? LOL!

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  6. I do own an e-Reader but I don't use it. I know what you mean about chunksters and blogging.

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    1. My mom has a Kindle Fire. I could use it for reading if I bugged her about it, but I just have no interest. I think if I ever ended up getting one, I'd be like you, not using it anyway!

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  7. WHAT? You don't have a library card and you cheated in Honors English? I'm not sure we can be friends anymore ... Just kidding. You make me laugh, so I think I'll keep you around :)

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    1. Don't give up on me, Susan! I'm trying to clean up my act! LOL!

      It is pretty ironic of me to have cheated in Honors English, but the whole summer required reading thing just always riled up my deeply buried inner contrarian. Summer reading time should be mine all mine! ;-)

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  8. Love your confessions.
    A lot of bloggers don't do libraries. I'm only scandalized in that I wonder how you guys have room for all your books.
    In college I wrote a paper on Anna Karenina and hadn't read it. And I got an A. And I felt so guilty that I read it later on.

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    1. We don't. Have room for all our books, I mean. I have, at points, been actually afraid that the house is sinking beneath the weight of the unread books. =/

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  9. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope that you are persuaded to give the Shade series another chance. Shift took it to a whole new level. I would say get it at the library, but your #2 put an end to all that.

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  10. Enjoyed your list. I completely understand what you mean about being a slow reader. I feel the same way about myself. It's actually on my list. My goal for the year was 52 books. I've actually already achieved it this year, but I don't expect to break 100. And with your physical TBR list being over 1000....OH MY GOODNESS!!!

    Check out my TTT.

    Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know

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  11. Totally there with you with the library thing. I only use it for my studies - I love owning the books I read for fun! Number 3: OH MY GOD! o.O Thousands?! Can I live in your home library? ^^'' To number 5: I've read some Dickens and Shakespeare, but not those two books...
    About the chunksters: I just thought about it and I realized that I also used to read more chunky books in my teens than I do now. I still don't really mind them - they just don't seem to pop up on my reading radar as much...

    Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier :)

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  12. More than 1000 books! Oh my goodness! I think the last time I counted I was around 265 or so, but I know that number has increased since I counted. I hate double stacking books, but I have limited bookshelf space, which mean sit might be coming to that soon.

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  13. At least three of these apply to me, as well - I am also a super-slow reader, and often feel a slight sense of shame at the end of the year, when half of book-blogdom has read 100+ books for the year and I have read...20. I, too, can only read one book at a time. Can you imagine how slow I would be if I read more than one?! And I also like to eat and read at the same time, but I do it less now that I live with someone else than I did when I lived at home with my parents or when I lived alone...

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  14. Fabulous list, Megan! Some are definitely me (3, 6, 8, 9). I wish I could say #7 too, but sadly no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to make it happen.

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