Top Ten Tuesday | Book Problems

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Book-Related Problems

We all have plenty of these, right? I could also probably come up with more, but these are all pretty prominent ones for me. You’ll notice that many of them are connected and furthermore, related to the purchasing of books. Not a coincidence.

Top Ten Tuesday Book problems

BUYING TOO MANY BOOKS | This is a constant problem for my wallet. I buy books regularly. I preorder books in large chunks several times a year. I’m forever getting boxes from Amazon and Book Depository and Book Outlet. It’s a real problem. I spend more money on books than any other thing except maybe clothes for work, but I’ll tell you: it’s close. I try to curb myself. I cannot.

STARTING SERIES | I do this a lot. I start a series but then never get around to finishing it. I’ve still not finished Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly series. I haven’t finished Mistborn or Monstrumologist or Shatter Me. I still have to read the new books in Sherry Thomas’s Elemental Trilogy and Rick Yancey’s 5th Wave. I’m behind on A.C. Gaughen’s Scarlet series and Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series. I could go on. What does this mean? Do I have a commitment problem? I don’t think so since I’m all caught up lots of others, but man. This is a frustrating one.

LACK OF SHELF SPACE | See #1. I don’t have room for all the books I buy. I have shelves that are full–only two, but they’re packed. I have containers under my bed–full. Some like storage boxes scattered around–full and growing piles. ACTUAL PILES. It’s horrific and amazing at the same time.

READING INSTEAD OF INTERACTING WITH HUMANS | There are very few people that I would rather hang with than read a book. Reading is so important to me and I want to do it all the time. I bring more than one book with me everywhere I go, even to work when I can’t read at all. So when I do get some free time, I usually want to be reading instead of shooting the shit with people. I mean, I still do things with real people in person. But even if I’m enjoying myself, which I do, I’m thinking about getting home and picking up my book.

FORGETTING DETAILS | This kind of ties into #2. I have a hard time picking up books in a series because my memory is kind of crap. I’ll remember big things, but I’m talking VERY big picture. I might completely forget minor characters or the group the bad guy works for or that one thing that happened that is going to turn into this other thing but it won’t make sense if you can’t remember the first thing. It’s bad. Also, details run together on me. This ESPECIALLY happens with series books. I’ll remember a thing happening, but can’t for the life of me remember which book it happened in. Thank God for wikis.

READING TOO MANY BOOKS AT ONCE | I usually have a handle on this one, but sometimes it gets out of hand to the point where I’ve got so many books going at once that I can’t decide which one to pick up and I kind of break down and need to text my girls furiously for help. I used to NEVER read more than one book at a time; now it’s my regular thing, and sometimes it gets the best of me.

STICKING TO MY COMFORT ZONE | I don’t have a problem always reading things that I’m comfortable with because I don’t really see it as a “comfort zone.” I see it more as I like to read things that I enjoy. But this likely often keeps me from finding NEW things that I’d enjoy, and that bums me out. It always comes down to reading something new that I’m unfamiliar with or picking up a book by a favorite author or a well-loved genre. I’ll pick the familiar every time.

LACK OF CLASSICS | I wasn’t an English major in college, but I’ve always loved reading. However. My knowledge of classics is ABYSMAL. Like, awful. I’ve never read any Dickens. Never read THE GREAT GATSBY. I’ve read Jane Austen, but no Charlotte or Emily Bronte. It’s really, frankly, terrible. I like the IDEA of classics and I’d be open to reading more of them, but I’d have to summon up some epic motivation.

DISORGANIZATION | I’m a librarian by training although not employment, but you’d think I’d have more of an urge to organize my home library. False. Maybe it’s because I don’t have shelves for everything. In fact, I’d venture that it’s exactly that. But the shelves I DO have aren’t alphabetized or organized by genre or color or anything. I loosely organize them by how much I liked them and then by author, but I don’t have shelf space for any more books anywhere, so new books by those authors get thrown into a pile somewhere. (Ahem. Like, lovingly placed I mean. I don’t throw my books.) I have a general idea of where certain books are, but I’d really love more storage space for them so I could do a full, hardcore LIBRARY SHELVING.

BUYING BOOKS AND THEN NOT READING THEM | Remember when I said that buying books is probably my greatest pleasure and most devastating vice? Have I not said that yet? It’s true. You know what makes it worse? I buy all these books and then maybe read, I don’t know, a smallish percentage of them. Every time I write a post about bookish resolutions or something like that, I always mention that I want to read more of the books I buy. I’m making more of an effort to do this every day.

What are some of your bookish problems?

Comments

  1. Forgetting details is why I end up re-reading so often. I just read so many things that I can forget the small stuff from some of my favorite books. I don’t like it.

  2. Hahaha, I’m always choosing books over people too! My friends are always judging me for be anti social and always reading! Ditto with the starting series but never finishing them! I have so many on the go right now! Hopefully we will both get to the end of our series soon! My TTT

  3. Great list! I really hate it because I’ve started way too many series as well. I’ve probably only finished about 10% of the ones that I’ve actually started. I also have a lack of shelf space, which I’ve only recently begun to notice. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all my new books from here on out! I also suffer from not reading books that I’ve purchased. I guess I just lose interest in them because they’ve been sitting on my shelf for so long. I absolutely LOVE your blog design! It’s so pretty. 🙂
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

  4. Nice list of book related problems!!

  5. christine danielle says

    I have a problem of buying too many books too!
    TOP TEN TUESDAY

  6. I definitely agree with you about the “buying too many books” thing. It’s just tough to see a good deal on Book Outlet or Amazon and give it up because you know it’s won’t be that cheap again! My knowledge of classics is also pretty embarrassing … I can’t remember any that I’ve actually read (aside from high school English classes, which didn’t do me much good because I didn’t have the greatest teachers!)

  7. Great list Amy! I definitely agree with forgetting details in a book, I’ve now resulted in taking important notes when reading in case I do forget something! Although I sometimes forget when I’m too involved with a book :’)

    Here’s my TTT if you would like to have a look 🙂 http://emmasbookery.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/top-ten-bookish-problems-that-i-have.html

  8. Yes! I can identify with all of these! Especially reading too many books at once – I hate doing it but can never seem to stop!

    Christina | Passion Obsession

  9. Ah, bookish problems! I love that you went into detail on your post, and can totally relate to a lot of these. Last year, I realized that my book buying was getting WAY out of hand, and so, I made a conscious decision to try and curb the buying impulse a little this year with our Picky Pledge project (which has helped). And your series problems? Totally why I prefer binge reading series – it’s easier not to lose track 🙂