The dragon’s cave

Being able to check books out for six months has had an unexpected side effect: instead of reading books, I now hoard them.

It’s not like I’ve stopped reading entirely — I’m in the middle of Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days right now (and really like it) — but knowing that any library book I check out won’t be due for six more months makes it all too easy to just let the books pile up. “I can read them later.” And so I hardly spend any time reading. (Granted, I’ve been busy with a few other projects as well, which also contributes.)

I mean, I have 63 books checked out right now. Of those, I’m actively reading two, maybe three. Not 63. I do love surrounding myself with books, and if I were plowing through these books at the rate of a few a week, then the piles wouldn’t be an issue. But I’m scarcely skimming the surface.

So, I’m going to try to return most of these books, focusing solely on the ones I’m actually going to read. I’ll also try to wait to check out more books until I finish the ones I’m reading. I already know I’m going to fail miserably. ;) (Today I checked out Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration and Berlioz’s Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes, by the way. Mmm.)

Ideally I’d spend an hour or two each day reading. It’s tempting to get pulled into one of the dozen or so projects I’ve got going on at any one time — most of which need attention — but I’ve noticed that when I slack off on my reading, the quality of my work suffers. Reading is the energy source for everything I do creatively, in a way. No fuel, no fire.

Now if only I had more time… ;)

The fantastic thing about reading is that there is surprisingly more time for it than we usually realize. Reading while walking isn’t as hard as it looks (my rule is put it down while crossing the street, however). Reading while waiting in lines. Reading between innings at baseball games. Reading between classes (if you take or teach classes). Reading while eating (unless more alive company is available). Reading while taking the bus. I find that simply carrying a book around with me (always) provides tons more reading time than you would perhaps find otherwise.

Note: I think checking out 63 books at a time is better than BUYING 63 books at a time. It could be worse. I really love to buy my books (and write in them and keep them and reread them)… and well, I hate to say that I haven’t read all of them. I was so excited to when I made the purchase. It does, however, make perusing my shelves like going to a (small) library sometimes. But still, they are piling up around me and not getting read as fast as I buy them. You are doing better than the alternative :).

Man, and I thought I was bad for having 10 books checked out at once. I agree with you, reading is amazing, but staring at a pile of books that I’ll never be able to read also makes me sad.

so that’s why you wanted to “borrow” mistborn. :)

My public library has helped me with such a problem as this one by providing a way for me to make lists on my library account. This way I can keep track of the books I want to read and check them out as I’m ready to read them and don’t feel like I “have” to check them out in order to remember that I want to read them! Not sure that this is really the issue you’re dealing with, but I’d check out and hoard books too if I didn’t have this list capability and they let me check them out for 6 months! Of course, I can check books out from the library I work at and can keep them for the entire semester, so no help for me there!

I’m with Carly on this one- I buy my books. I just like having my own copy. Plus if I return a book to a library, in a year or two I’ll have forgotten all about it (retention? Zero), but I can go to my bookshelves taking up half my room and say to myself, ‘Self, we remember reading that book!’ and can retain a lot more. Plus I often reference my own books in school papers.

Furthermore I agree with Carly in suggesting carrying books with you always. I’ve read several books this way. I remember last semester reading a Stephen King book in it’s entirety over two weeks (in hour sections) waiting for one specific class. Now I carry a book called One L anywhere I go! Tomorrow I have a cardiologist appointment and you’ll find me there in the waiting room with my nose in my book. Great way to spend otherwise wasted boring time staring at the wall.

Carly: True, there really are a lot of small moments for reading. (I do carry a book around with me everywhere in my backpack, but I usually don’t read while standing in line. I think I’m going to start again, though.) As for buying books, um, the problem is that I’m buying them as well as checking them out. :) (I’m at 965 right now, all in my apartment. I just bought The Westing Game and Crown Duel on Wednesday, for example. It’s hopeless. :P)

Marisa: Very true. Which is why if I’m reading a book that doesn’t really capture my interest, I no longer have any qualms about dropping the book. Life is too short to read books I don’t care about.

Steve: I will get it back to you, I promise. It’s right here on my desk, safe and sound. :)

Terri: That’s really cool! I wish LibraryThing had that kind of functionality… (Where you could have lists of books in the system that you don’t own. Like wishlists, which they were supposed to add a year or so ago, but I haven’t seen them on there yet.)

George: It is really nice to read a book without the pressure of a due date dangling in the future. And book storage is important. :) You know, I’ve never read a Stephen King novel. I’ve been meaning to read something by him, but I don’t go much for horror and it’s hard to get myself to read it. :)

Hopeless is the wrong way to look at it. It’s pretty dang fantastic–which is how I assume you look at it too (or you wouldn’t keep buying them). There is nothing better than “owning” a book in every sense of the word. For me, that has to begin with the physical possession :). Carry on!

Oh, yes, that “hopeless” was definitely tongue-in-cheek. :P