Morning Meanderings…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)


Good Morning!  My name is Sheila and I am a bookaholic.

Symptoms:

  1. Inability to leave my home without a book in my purse, one tucked between the seats of the vehicle, or an audio in the CD player.  (In many cases – all  of the above.)

  2. The ability to pick up on other people “book conversations” at great distances.  Almost like bat ears I can tune into a book related topic.

  3. Most often (in case #2) being able to walk up and join in the conversation without having to know these people.

  4. Skipped out on meetings or other events because you were in a really good part of a book.

  5. Own a t-shirt that says “I’d rather be reading” – and it is true.

  6. Have misplaced a book and unable to find it as quick as you had hoped, went out and bought another copy so you could continue where you left off.

  7. Refer to Barnes and Noble as my “Mother Ship” and all my friends know this.

  8. Can not pass a bookstore without jonesing a little.

  9. All the Librarians know you by name.

  10. Stay up way too late into the wee hours of the night (which has now become morning) and discover you only have a few hours of sleep before you need to go to work.


And the point of this conversation this morning is #10.  I stayed up way too late reading last night.  Then I woke up at 7 am (I never use an alarm).  I sat up, and thought – 5 more minutes, and layed back down.  I woke up again at 8:05.

I go to work at 8.

AND – and, I had a commitment to deliver keys to a van to friends of ours this morning on my way to work.  They needed the keys by 7:30 – 7:45 am and I said “no problem, It’s on my way to work!”

GAH!

So…… yeah.  I have issues.  Please make my day by adding to this list of bookaholic symptoms, or share your stories from the top ten here.  Oh you know you have them…. 😀

(P.S.  for those of you who received a survey in your email box last night but couldn’t link to it here…. it is coming yet today, I meant to draft it and instead published it….  yes, my madness continues….  perhaps I need coffee…)

105 thoughts on “Morning Meanderings…”

  1. I do not call B and N. the mother ship however the rest are true-what about the fact that you own more books than you can possibly read and still feel compelled to get more.

    Reply

  2. I nearly pass out from happiness when I walk into a bookstore/library and smell the books.

    My TBR list goes UP every time I read a book rather than goes down – I cannot resist pretty book covers!

    I own a Kindle and I still packed 20 books to come home with me on vacation this summer.

    I feel naked if I do not have library books checked out.

    I take (minimum) 3 books with me when I go to babysit at night.

    Reply

  3. Here’s a #11 for you:

    Has ever had someone tell you that you should start you own library because there are books all over the house.

    BTW my mothership is actually Books-A-Million, which is odd because there are B & N’s all over the place in Pittsburgh, but there’s a fab Books-A-Million in Wheeling, WV that has incredible sale tables and the best coffee ever. Its worth an hour drive every so many months just to go there.

    Reply

    1. Andrea – we used to have our business office in the house. When we moved it to the business 3 years ago, that large room with french doors became my library. My friends hit me up for book “loans” all the time. i love it!

      I wish we had a Books A Million next to us but we do not…. I love that store!

      Reply

      1. We have Borders and B & N everywhere, but in the last two years Books-A-Million has been creeping north. There are two that are about 50 miles from me. The one in Wheeling is in an awesome shopping plaza with a Cheddar’s Casual Cafe and a huge movie theater. I love going there. I’m like a kid in a candy shop!

        Reply

  4. You know that feeling you get in the morning after you’ve been up too late reading? It’s called a Book Hangover. 🙂 [I can’t take credit for that, someone else coined the phrase]

    And yes, I too identify with WAY too many items on your list …

    Reply

  5. Hi Sheila,

    I was going to take your survey this morning but am having trouble locating it. Whenever I tried to click the links on the email it kept saying it could not be found. Is there an easier way to access the survey? Just let me know and I will do it!
    Thanks,
    Colleen Turner
    candc320@gmail.com

    Reply

    1. Hi Colleen – I mention what happened there on the bottom of this post…. 🙂 The survey is coming up in a couple hours. I accidentally published it last night but didn’t want it to go live until today. Sorry about that! 😀

      Reply

  6. I love the Book Hangover! I’ve suffered from this frequently. Sheila, I would LOVE to have the library that you described in my home. We have books EVERYWHERE. It’s a blessing and a curse that my husband and I are both avid readers.

    Reply

  7. Yes, so sorry I just read this email after the previous survey email!! I would have to add to the bookaholic list that you know you are a bookaholic if you would choose buying a book over buying food. Sounds crazy, but I have not gone out to a certain restaurant or suggested going somewhere cheaper because I knew I wanted to buy a book and only had so much money to play with!

    Reply

  8. A few more for you….

    I spend an inordinate amount of time before travelling deciding which books I want to bring with me. What will I want to read on the plane, in the hotel, what would be fun to read wherever i’m going…..All at the expense of remembering things like phone charger, pyjamas, etc.

    I often cook with a book in one hand. Not a recipe book.

    My husband knows to pick my book up off my sleeping body and stick a bookmark in my place, even before he takes my glasses off.

    I love the World Cup, not for soccer, but for uninterrupted reading time when the rest of the family is in front of the TV.

    I have a complex algorithm to decide whether I should buy a book or borrow it from the library. I am out of space for new books and have a one-in-one-out policy.

    Reply

    1. Janet – love it!

      The only reason I would ever use an e reader is for travel. My carry on usually has about 6 books in it. I have no idea why I do this… obviously I am not going to read 6 books on the plane… but I want to be ready for whatever mood I am in so they are usually different genres. (I also don’t want them tossed around in my suitcase and getting damaged).

      When I cook, I usually have an audio going in the CD player on my kitchen counter. 🙂

      Reply

  9. My earliest memories involve inhaling the scent of books in a library—the one in our small village, that shared the building with the post office!—and forever after, those sense memories became part of my soul!

    Later, in adulthood, I developed the same feelings in bookstores, to my everlasting chagrin! Witness the huge TBR piles.

    Here’s another symptom:

    When coworkers invite you to lunch, you make excuses, because you’d rather go somewhere alone so you can read!

    Reply

  10. #11: I take great pleasure in adding to my TBR list (which I have alphabetized in a notebook…my students are aghast when they see the amount I have written in there!) when I read others’ blogs and write down all the books they have read and I haven’t.

    Hang in there…there are worse things you could be doing! ha ha

    Reply

  11. Haha! Guilty of #3! I am also guilty of butting in on those conversations, but usually people are really nice about it. Only occasionally do I get the, “How rude!” look. Love this list!

    Reply

  12. Ohh, the smell of books is heavenly!

    How about: You plan weeks and months ahead to be able to read all weekend (i.e., read-a-thon), looking forward to it all the time, planning food and creating stacks and stacks of books to prepare, hoping/dreaming to stay up all night long to read. :p

    Reply

  13. LOL…and yet SO TRUE! Let’s see…I never leave the house without 2 books. The one I’m reading and a back up plus my eReader traveling in my bag. Whatever store I’m in, if they have a book section…I.MUST.LINGER. =0P Perhaps the biggest one that I think we are all guilty of is having so many books, so little time…and still wanting/buying (guilty) more! It’s an obsession, but a healthy one, right? Right? ^_^

    Reply

  14. I don’t own a kindle but have the app on my phone and even though I have well over 150 books on my library on there (i only paid ofr one of them) I still go on amazon every mornign to see what free books I can get. I hardly read my kindle books because I am so busy reading my physical but It is nice knowing I have that many books at the tip of fingers.

    Reply

    1. Mindy – wow – you really know how to get the deals off Amazon. I have never looked into that (reader free here) – are the books they offer good ones?

      Reply

      1. most of the books are Christian fiction and sci fi, usually an earlier book in a series that has a book that is about to come out. Not too long ago they had almost all of the Series of Unfortunate events books available. Most books are available for a short time (that’s why I check every day). Some books have been on there for months now. They just recently put a list up with the top 100 free books along side the bestseller list. Well worth checking into. The app I have on my Blackberry was free. They have alot of apps free for phones now.

        Reply

  15. Even though I have shelves of books my heart still goes thump, thump, thump when a book package is left on my porch. It might also be a problem if the ups man just slows down a little and throws your book out the door rather than actually setting it on the porch…hmmmm.

    Reply

    1. Jo-Jo….oh wow… I did laugh at the visual of the UPS gut tossing the package. We as book bloggers should probably create some sort of thank you for them… a card, maybe some cookies. 🙂

      Reply

  16. I have book hangovers all the time (thanks Heather!). At least now I know what to call them. I’ve even done the replacing time too many times to count. I think the other sign that you have a problem is when you keep buying bookcases (which I did last night) and when they aren’t qutie full you go out and buy books to fill in the empty space (which I’m so not going to do this time, or at least try not too).

    Reply

  17. About six months ago I was in the library looking at the “recent release” section when one of the librarians walked by and said, “Hi, Molly!” It was at that moment that I knew I had a book addiction 🙂

    I also find myself inventing reasons to drive by Half Price Bookstore just so I can go in and see what new bargains they have.

    Reply

  18. OH, HELP. It is all so true! I can plead guilty to all 10. I promised I would be good on this trip and only buy a couple of books I have been looking for. Well, I think we unpacked at least 50 or 60 from the car when we got home last night. On top of that, there were 12 waiting for me that had arrived in the mail. I have so many books I could open my own library. When I worked at the library, I often uses my collection as an annex and loaned books the library didn’t have to people I trusted.
    I am beginning to believe it really is a disease.

    Reply

    1. Pat that is a lot of books! I allow books out to people I trust too, as long as they come back my way. I once had a book out to a co-worker and after a year when I asked her about it she said she had given it to someone else. Hmmmmm, what’s that about?

      Reply

      1. After I said I picked up 50 or 60 books, I wondered just how many I did get. I counted them as I unpacked yesterday. It was an even 100. I am going to have to make myself get rid of some of the books I have read. There really is no room left in my house. There isn’t room for what I already have. I’m working on it. I set aside 6 books today and started a box for the used book store.

        Reply

    1. Vivienne – we do meet, for me daily. 🙂 My therapy is right here chatting with all of you. Of course…. I think I am just feeding the addiction….LOL

      Reply

  22. I skipped a reunion of my 9th grade class (our last year of junior high) just so I could stay home and read and work on my blog. And some of those people that were going to be there were people I really wanted to see, but….

    Reply

  24. 1,2,3,4,8, 9 and 10 so yes definitely a bookaholic. I suffer withdrawal symptoms here sometimes from lack of English bookshops and libraries full of English books. It is therefore lucky I keep adding to the TBR shelves at home via sources such as Bookcrossing, Bookmooch, Online Bookstores, Airport Bookshops, Charity Bookshops and ordinary ones on trips to the UK, et, etc.

    Reply

  25. I’m actually thinking of using my library as a formal lending library — this is at some point in the future, of course, but it’s a definite possibility.

    Reply

  26. eee gads! I HATE mornings like this! Nothing like starting your day out IN CHAOS!! Hope the day got better

    Yes, I am a bookaholic. One embarassing moment was when I sat in the lobby waiting to see the Dr. and was so engrossed in the story that tears were flowing and when they called my name & I looked up everyone was just looking at me like I was crazy! LOL

    I am guilty of #’s 1,2,3,6,8 and 10 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hey Loren- I have done that at the YMCA…. tears falling while on the eliptical…… ” Dumbledore… how I can’t believe it’s true!” (oh yes, I remember the book…) LOL

      Reply

  27. My body goes into a complete state of euphoria when I do the following:
    1. Enter a bookstore.
    2. Smell a new book.
    3. Touch a new book.
    4. Buy a new book.
    5. Arrive home and find an Amazon book on my doorstep.
    6. Talk about a book.
    7. Receive an e-mail response from an author I e-mailed saying how much I enjoyed their book.
    8. Look at my bookshelves bulging with TBR books.
    9. When I have a block of time on the weekend to just read.
    Do I have a problem? Maybe, but I’m not ashamed to admit it! 🙂

    Reply

  28. I thought of another today.. does anyone else pet their new books?

    I got a book in the mail today and my mom walked into the room to talk to me and caught me just looking at the book and petting the cover. I was so embarrassed – but the cover was beautiful!

    Reply

    1. LOL Lydia…..

      Only if it is one of those great soft covers…. I have a couple of those where I hold it out to my friends saying “You have to touch it!”

      Pretty sure they think I am insane…

      Reply

  29. I’m in total agreement, and need to add:

    Inability to leave a bookstore without buying a book.

    Planning vacations around visits to bookstores (Powells, I’m looking at you).

    Planning vacations around bookish events (BEA).

    Reply

  31. #11 — if you’ve ever asked to borrow a rolling library cart to push your selections out to the car. Well, maybe that just applies to homeschoolers. O.K., it’s probably just me. 😉

    Reply

  32. I have a sweatshirt that says So many books, so little time; a t-shirt that says I *heart* books; and another t-shirt that says Books is good. Geek clothes are awesome! Glad to see I’m not the only one.

    Reply

  33. Great list! I always have to have a book in my purse too…even if I know I won’t have more than 10 minutes to read and it’s a huge hardback!

    Reply

  34. Sheila, i do have books secreted everywhere, just like alcoholics always have vodka bottles hidden in strange places in the movies. I choose purses according to their capacity to hold a book (mass market paperback, paperback, or hardcover). And just in case, I have a poem in my wallet (suppose I am stuck in the longest supermarket line in history?).

    Reply

    1. Lisa – I choose purses that way too! You are my book twin!!! 😀

      I should take a picture of my kitchen table. I cant remember the last time it was book free. There is usually two or three on it all all times…. either being read or being prepped for review.

      Reply

  35. Can I add #12?

    When packing for a trip, you worry more about how many books to bring than how many pairs of socks.

    That is me today. 4 books & just dumped a bunch of socks in the bag:)

    Reply

  36. Hmm…I’m a total bookaholic. 1. I run to the mailbox everyday just in case. 2. My first stop at Costco -the books. Sometimes I make up reasons to go there so I can see the books. I can hardly walk out if I haven’t bought one. 3. My biggest reason – I got rid of our dining room so I could create a library. We didn’t eat there often enough so I claimed it and remodeled. It is now my favorite room in the house. 4. Oh I forgot, I am known at work for my books from the highest to the lowest on the pole. At break time when everyone else plays darts they ask what book I am bringing.
    Mmmm…books smell good (and I pet them too)! Plus I load up the kindle!

    Reply

    1. Alipet813 – there should be a prize! You gave up your dining room for a library! I am fascinated by this. 🙂 Love the work connections too…. I get that. 🙂

      Reply

  39. You are so funny. I couldn’t stop laughing at your symptoms. Here is one of mine
    – “When I am depressed, worried or scared, the smell of a new book makes me feel so much better. ” 🙂

    Reply

  40. Sheila,
    I always spy on people’s bookcovers who are on the subway or plane to see what everyone is reading, and if someone is reading an ebook, I just have to ask what they are reading! (It’s almost cheating that you can’t judge an ebook by it’s cover!)
    I’ve also been known to ship books home when I’m on vacation (and it’s not even the BEA!) because some of the best books to be found are the “local” books and the suitcase becomes heavy very fast.
    The stupidist thing I ever did?Our family are such bookaholics that when we went to Hawaii for Chirstmas one year, we figured that was Christmas enough, so we would just make gift giving simple by buying books for each other when we got over there. BIG MISTAKE. Do you know how many good books there are about Hawaii IN Hawaii?

    Reply

    1. Kay r- great story! 😀 I too like to check out what other people are reading… I like to watch people to the book. Its odd but I think oh – she fits with that book….. LOL

      Reply

  42. There are some books where you’ve just got to keep reading, no matter what the time is… in fact, sometimes you don’t have a clue just how late it is because you’re so engrossed in the book! 🙂

    Thankfully, I have an alarm on my phone that goes off weekdays (work days)… else it’d be quite late when I get up!

    Reply

  43. This list is awesome! I would add the following:

    I cannot enter a bookstore without coming out with at least one or two more books.

    My TBR pile includes more books than you can possibly hope to read in a year.

    I can speak endlessly about books in any forum but freeze up when having to give a speech publicly.

    I feel adrift if I only have one book going at one time.

    I go on vacation having more books than clothes…and still purchase more while on vacation.

    I’ve foregone meals in the interest of reading/finishing a novel.

    I’m sure I am missing so many more!

    Reply

    1. LindyLouMac, I used to do bookcrossing years ago – loved it. Do you have any stories of where the books went? I think only a couple times did people register the books on line so I could see there travels. One was picked up by a truck driver and that was kind of fun!

      Reply

  45. Yes over the years my books have had quite a few travelling adventures, but nothing I can recall recently. I have been a Bookcrosser since we moved to Italy in 2004 and I still participate.

    Reply
  46. Pingback: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? « One Persons Journey through a world of Books

    1. I didnt either Lindyloumac, I remember I was just excited when someone actually logged a book and it was really traveling! Unfortunately – that only happened a couple times while I did it. I do love that program – it is a wonderful idea.

      Reply
  50. Pingback: Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) « One Persons Journey through a world of Books

Hmmmm... what do you think?

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s