February Fandom Fest 05

[amruniel]

Books

The lovely Goodreads-app tells me I'm the proud owner of approximately 500 books. Which is a very low estimate since these are just a) the books I've scanned so far and b) the books that are actually somewhere on my shelves. Seeing that there is quite a bunch of my books somewhere in the attic, and that a few of my babies are either at Himself's or at various other places I guess there are some 750 or 800 books in my possession.

And yes, I've read most of them. Nearly all of them, quite frankly. There are very few books I haven't read and/or haven't finished over the years.

As you might have guessed by now I'm a compulsive reader ;)
Some might even say "addicted".
Which reminds me of the following:

(that awkward moment a TV series diagnoses your addiction)

My mum taught me to read very early. I think I was able to read easy texts/children's books at the age of 4 all by myself and I've never stopped since.
I think instilling my love of reading is one of the things I'm most thankful for in my upbringing. I don't know how I would have survived my childhood and teenage years without my lovely books to hide in. Or how I would survive my adult life, for that matter ;)

In my younger years I've finished 3 or 4 books a week, more during the holidays. These days my reading habits have changed quite a bit. Since I own a tablet and fanfics have become portable and instantly accessible (THANK YOU, smart phone!) I read a lot less actual books and a lot more ff's. But every few weeks I still get the urge to go through my lovely books and then there's books galore for a few days.

There's nothing more beautiful than owning, touching and smelling a new book. That's why I'll never change to eBooks, I think. For me, smelling the ink, actually turning the pages and lovingly feeling up the covers of my newest babies (yes, I'm weird like that!) are things I can't live without - and an electronic device will never be able to replace these feelings. However, I do have the Kindle-app on my tablet and it's full with free books I enjoy very much. Free books by -oftentimes- self-published people are something I usually wouldn't have access to, so this facet of eBooks is something that speaks to me. It's another, new, path of discovering stories worth being told and read. (And frankly, FREE is a huge incentive for a girl who could very easily spend the majority of her salary on a single trip to the bookshop.)

Anyway - changed reading habits or not, I guess I still read some 300.000 words or more a week. Which, now that I think about it, is a sure sign of addiction. Uh, well, why not? A person needs a vice, right?

And - even though it's probably obvious - to conclude today's "I LOVE!!!!"-post let me reveal my most favourite book(s):

The Lord of the Rings

Well, duh! ;)

Comments

[silvan-lady.livejournal.com]

I too was a compulsive reader pretty much until I started writing. However, I LOVE my Kindle - I can now take several thousand books on holiday with me!

And I have the Kindle app on my phone and tablets so I can catch up on whatever I'm reading in odd moments too.

I also have many books in the attic, I will probably never read them again now that I have electronic copies, but parting with them is just too hard!

[amruniel.livejournal.com]

I can't bring myself to switch to Kindle becaus of the missing sensory input ;)
And -of course- a Kindle will never look as good, as a wall of books... and since I still dream of one day owning a place large enough to have a library...

I would, however, love to get a free electronic copy for every "real" book I buy. There are so many advantages of ebooks (like you said: instant access to hundreds of books while on holiday! No more extra suitcases/bags solely for books! What a dream!) that I'd gladly take the an 2for1 option. But as long as publishing companies don't go that way, I'll primarily rely on ink on paper.