Comments on: The dragon’s cave

by: Ben

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:04:58 +0000

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

by: Carly

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:34:01 +0000

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!

by: Ben

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:43:26 +0000

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. :)

by: George

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:23:08 +0000

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.

by: Terri B.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:28:26 +0000

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!

by: Steve Godfrey

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:49:58 +0000

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

by: Marisa

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:46:00 +0000

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.

by: Carly

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:49:25 +0000

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 :).