15 Things About Me and Books

[jazzfish]

(from John Scalzi. I forget how I wound up at his place.)

1. The only author whose books I obsessively collect is Steven Brust. Partly this is because they're all damned fine books, but I'm not sure where the rest of the impetus came from. Every time Orb republishes one of his older works I snag myself a copy, though. Even in cases where I've already got two other editions.
   
   
2. My personal yardstick for "plenty of books" will always be Pop's house: wall-to-wall, chair-rail-to-ceiling in the den and overflow into the office. Plus several short shelves of kids' books in the back bedrooms. Half this many is not "a lot of books," no matter what visitors keep telling me.
   
   
3. I first read Lord of the Rings in third grade. Starting with The Two Towers, because that's what was in the library at the time. That initial image of Aragorn climbing the hill to sit in the high seat and look for the hobbits is still plain as day in my mind, as is my personal confusion between Sauron and Saruman. At some point that year or the next I acquired copies of my own: paperback, with brightly coloured covers. I've still got them.
   
   
4. In elementary school and junior high, and probably on into high school as well, my allowance went almost exclusively to books. $2 a week meant a new volume of the Belgariad every two weeks, or a Xanth novel, or what have you.
   
   
5. The books I remember reading and loving as a (pre-Tolkien) kid fall into two categories: myths and Victorian. (Pooh and Beatrix Potter and Just So Stories and such.) I'm pretty sure this contributed to both my love of fantasy and my dry sense of humour. I mean, come on, any kid who grows up thinking that a passage like "And when Mr. John Dormouse was complained to, he stayed in bed, and would say nothing but ‘very snug;’ which is not the way to carry on a retail business" is both giggle-worthy and the kind of thing you'd say in conversation is likely to turn out a little odd.
   
   
6. I've bought practically no new mass-market paperbacks (other than those required for class) for at least the last five years. Maybe longer. I blame Green Valley Book Fair, the employee discount at Waldenbooks, and a general snobbish preference for trades or hardbacks.
   
   
7. I live for the moment of recognition. That point when everything suddenly makes sense, or when you just see the events of the story in a completely different light. Gene Wolfe is of course wonderful for this, but there's lots of other SF that does it just as well. Agyar and Ender's Game come immediately to mind.
   
   
8. One of my major goals in life is to create a database containing all my books. (This of course requires that I live in a place where I have enough shelf space to unpack all my books.)
   
   
9. I read books cover to cover. Always have. Introductions, afterwords, About the Authors, dedications, even the Library of Congress page. (The 'subject' headings and one-line summaries are often amusing.)
   
   
10. I have no compunction about going through my library once a year or so and purging excess books. I couldn't tell you what the requirements are, but there're usually a dozen or so that just don't make the cut. Sometimes it's condition, sometimes it's just "I am sick of staring at this book that I have not read and will not read." I blame Green Valley Book Fair for most of the latter; they seemed like good ideas at the time.
    
    
11. Roger Zelazny's Jack of Shadows had a profound impact on me in eighth or ninth grade. My first thought on finishing it was "He can't just leave it like that!" followed closely by the realisation that yes, he really could, because the story was over; what happened to Jack afterwards was immaterial.
    
    
12. "Young adult" lit is often a lot better written than the stuff one finds on the 'real' shelves.
    
    
13. For the most part I detest American 'classics.' (I make exceptions for Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and Ambrose Bierce.) I've recently begun suspecting that this has more to do with a general kneejerk distaste for American history and less with the merits of the works themselves. That doesn't make me any more eager to read Hawthorne or Melville, though.
    
    
14. Audio books don't do a whole lot for me. My mind tends to wander, and then I blink and it's two chapters later and I've lost track of who's doing what to whom. This is barely acceptable with books that I know well, but means that it's just not worth it to try and 'read' something new in the car.
    
    
15. I worked at Waldenbooks for a little over three years. And, you know . . . despite the hell of retail, despite Stupid Corporate Tricks, despite the idiot customers, if I could be assured decent management and insulation from Corporate I'd go back. Not full-time, by any means, but ten-fifteen hours a week of finding books for people would work for me.

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[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

Many times in life have I uttered, "I know it came from the kids' section. Please, do yourself a favor and read it anyway."