I have a confession to make. AA has made it clear that the first step to curing a problem is to admit you have a problem, but are all addictions really problems?
Let me take a step back here. I believe all people get their fix one way or another. Some people have shopping addictions, some people love food too much, others decide that heroin is the one thing they really need in life. Then there are people like me, people that go through addictions as though they were fads. One month I'm obsessed with Italian food. The next, it's Lord of the Rings. Then a new friend. Suddenly, I'm obsessed with sex. I guess I'm addicted to addictions.
I've messed around with drugs. I know what I like, but I do them rarely. I almost never drink, I tend to like weaker prescription sedatives –vicodin, morphine, valium, and I'm quite fond of "magical" mushrooms, although I've only tried them once and in Amsterdam. With all of this drug experience though, I only once actually started to use the stuff too much, and even then, it was only for about a month and then I got bored of it.
Why would I waste my whole life fiending for one specific thing when I could have a new fixation every month or two? I like to keep things interesting.
Getting back to the topic at hand though, my current fleeting lust floats around fanning pages. I yearn for imaginary people living imaginary lives. I need to know why Jack jumped over the candle stick and what came about because of it.
Gather has definitely worsened my condition. Sure I bought 5 books at a used book store about a week before I joined the site, but now, I go to the book store with cash to burn. Give me $40 in Barnes and Noble gift cards, watch me spend $30 of my own money. I just bought 5 new ones today, 1 last week and 4 the week before that. I read every night, but my book shelf just keeps filling with adventures I may never get to at the rate I'm going.
I finally realized the problem today when I bought a book about the philosophy of books. Hopefully, this will shine some light on this insatiable passion for knowledge so I can move on to my next idiotic obsession and start being more like the average mindless 22 year-old.
Wish me luck my comrades, I'm off to stupider pastures and dumber knolls.
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Comments: 54
You can have a passion for photography, but when you start doing it every time you have free time or show up late to appointments, it starts being an addiction.
great... just keep munching on them books.
Ahem. How often does the one lead to the other?
I finally realized the problem today when I bought a book about the philosophy of books.
Books about books! Now you've entered my world. Might I recommend:
Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman.
Rereadings : Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love edited by Anne Fadiman.
Ruined by Reading : A Life in Books by Lynne Sharon Schwartz.
A Reader's Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose by B. R. Myers.
And a book I'm currently reading, Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler.
I could go on. Yes, I have a problem. But I can quit any time I want...
I guess it's the same with all addictions - junkies of whatever type relate to those who speak the language. As to books, I'm hopelessly addicted to 'A Course in Miracles' and need a miracle to recover. And I'm addicted to smiles, from which I refuse to recover. Smiles to you!
Magi
And I agree—the arrival of a new "friend" does, indeed, cause a temporary obsession with sex. For the most part, with me, it's always subsided within a couple of months; but it's been a year now with my current, and I still have my moments.
missing work, lying cheating and stealing to feed the demon of the books
then, maybe then, it will qualify as an addiction.
As a completely seperate addiction, at random times I get really obsessed with doing it with my boyfriend, then suddenly I just stop caring about it.
Come on people, I just bought 15 books in a month. I work 40+ hours a week, go skating 3 days a week, and am not home very much outside of those times. I don't have the time to finish 3 books a month, much less 15.
And yes, it is an addiction. You know why I was late to work this morning, because I woke up too late. Why was I so tired? Because I couldn't stop reading when I should have been sleeping.
Last night I bought Cash by Johnny Cash, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Fight Club, and I still have the other 2 Lord of the Rings to get through, so I'm having issues deciding which one I want to get to next.
I'm leaning towards Fight Club or LOTR, but it could go any direction.
I have a quadruple column of books on my nightstand. Right now. three of those columns are books I've read, no less than 2 feet in height each.
The fourth is my "on deck" column, also a foot and a half high.
I'm obsessive when it comes to books and when I find an author I like (e.g., Tony Hillerman in the past, Margaret Atwood at present), I have to OWN all of their books. It's the completist compulsion...
Hey, I would say, get help, but you could be shooting horse, smoking crack or looking at the sky through the bottom of a bottle of Ripple, so this is the LEAST of your worries.
Just keep grabbing those points and ordering those gift cards! It's all good.
A freind of mine was forced to go to AA down in Texas. Now the fundies have got their claws in her and she sends me religious tracts. And religion is just another addiction of course.
As for books, War and Peace is the usual cure for book addiction.
best
Ian
L.
Oh, good advice Ian.
You must read "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx & Crake."
There are plenty of other good Atwood books, but these two made me want to be Canadian just to be closer to her....
I hope I didn't offend? I wasn't being serious with that remark, I just couldn't resist pointing out that placing those two sentences one after the other could be read suggestively...
And Jayne, compulsive reading, like any compulsive behavior, can of course be detrimental to one's well-being. Moderation and selectivity are key. And I think Edward's suggestion of a list is a good one. I'm doing that myself, to an extent, in order to bring some discipline to my own reading.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. -- Henry David Thoreau
Ed, I read classics a lot, but I had a compulsive list obsession, so I don't want to go about making lists any more because then I list my whole life away. I really made one of people I did it with once and then I decided I had a list problem.
Thanks for the advice Eric. I will check those out on my next B&N run.
I have the same issue with addiction addiction. It's ok for me but it sometimes bugs people around me.
Linda, I love libraries, but what I figured out is that you can buy a book at B&N and then if you don't think it's really something you want to own, you can take it back after you read it. That way you only own the ones you really love....that and you should try some used book stores. 5 books for $20 can't be beat.
I love books. I am an addict. I'm okay with that.
:)
I'll stick to the free Border's Books/Walden Books progam...no joining B&N for me! I buy used books on Amazon the day they come out. *grin* Everything i've read about 'frequent user' programs (or FU programs as the show The Loop calls them) says that they are not worth it IF you have to pay. If they are free (or if they give you a gift for joining like the Aveda one) then go for it. I tell B&N nicely to shove it each time when they ask me to pay to join. Although I heard a rumor it's now free to join.
The way I figure it...being addicted to coffee, Gather, LiveJournal, more coffee...there's worse things out there. Like the guy at my fave deli once said "Everyone needs a vice, I could be snorting coke, but I'm not"
And I love my Borders card, cash back for buying books, hells yeah.
I understand the book thing. I moved about 8 months ago, I can't move into the perm house yet and only miss the availability of the books in the 34 boxes.
Now my son is moving from the old family farm house and I need to find a place for the books I left there. . . .
You sure are getting the business about "addictions" (wink)
Awww, you poor thing Cena. I've had that feeling before, it's horrible.
Really enjoyed the read.
My husband and I always try to stay away from bookstores before we finished reading the books that we bought and still have more than 10 books not yet read!
Great article though!
.
you list 9 books that you want to swap and then get 3 credits to spend on swapping, you have wish list and a reminder list, and there is much more than romance and mystery, I found alot of current books. Good place to circulate.
Often it only costs about $1.50 to send a book by mediamail and most people on the site are very prompt and the books are in good condition. So, i urge you to check it out, a good deal! DRipp