Go on, have a read, it won’t do you any harm
Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 25 of May , 2008 at 5:42 pm
I think I need help. I can’t stop buying books and I seriously don’t have the time to read them all. Actually, I probably do have the time but my eyes get tired too easily + that quote from Einstein about reading keeps haunting me:
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
He doesn’t indicate what the certain age is though. Is it 20, 30, 40, 50, 60? He doesn’t say if women suffer from the same fate as men, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some study that says reading makes women more intelligent and men less so. I keep saying to myself that he doesn’t mean my age and anyway, what would a fuzzy haired, left brained genius know about creativity?
The little stack above shows a selection of current and upcoming reading material. I’m just about finished ‘The Last Lecture’ by Randy Pausch. I bought America Unchained, The World wihout us and Quirkology during the week. Was down at the recycyling yesterday and picked up Modern Ireland and One Hit Wonder off the “take a book” shelf.
Proof of my book problem is that I’d never have bought either of those 2 books. One is a school book and the other is chick lit. My greed for books just meant I had to take them off the shelf. I didn’t suffer any buyer remorse, which was great for me as I do suffer from that particular condition quite often. Although I had no symptoms of the big BM, I still had to justify my taking them home by saying that maybe my nephews or nieces will need the Modern Ireland book and my sister would like the chick lit book.
It’s a terrible and unrecognised condition. Anyone that ventured to set up a 12 step programme for book addicts would surely be hampered by the fact they couldn’t hand out any reading material to help the addicts find their higher god. To do so would be like passing around a spliff at an NA meeting or bringing cream buns to weight watchers.
The first step of any programme is to admit you have a problem, and so I have. Maybe this is the beginning of a whole new journey for me. A world without books? Somehow I can’t see it happening and I really think Einstein was wrong in his assessment of reading after a certain age. Any thoughts on this?
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Category: bookie wookie, ifiik
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Comment by paul
Made Sunday, 25 of May , 2008 at 9:13 pm
i know how you feel. I blame the book covers myself. Nick Hornby has a book about book buying. Also find the newly discovered blogging has damaged my book reading (although not my book buying).
Comment by Rosie
Made Sunday, 25 of May , 2008 at 10:59 pm
i’ve latched onto buying books in charity shops as a guilt-free form of retail therapy - it makes for an interesting book collection. a recent visitor asked who owned all the books in the flat, then asked if i actually owned all the books, like ever.
i do not, sir, but i’m working on it.
Comment by John B
Made Monday, 26 of May , 2008 at 9:01 am
That Einstein quote only seems to make sense in the context of scientific research and the creation of a genuinely original thought.
Comment by Paul Groves
Made Monday, 26 of May , 2008 at 9:14 am
I hope you never kick your addiction.
There is nothing better than holding a book in your hands and getting completely lost in the words - well, obviously there are one or two better things but hopefully you get my drift.
One of the few drawbacks I’ve found about mainly working from home these days is that I don’t have a 45-minute train journey to and from the newsroom to immerse myself in a book. I’m not reading as much as I want these days.
I’m doing plenty of blog reading, but not nearly enough book reading.
We make use of charity shops to buy and offload books. But I also used to leave copies of books I enjoyed on the train with a note for whoever found it to read it themselves or pass on to someone they know might like it.
You might find this post on books vs blogging interesting.
http://tinyurl.com/5htl6q
Comment by aj@lecraic
Made Monday, 26 of May , 2008 at 8:25 pm
Must check out that Nick Hornby book then, thanks Paul.
@Rosie I should do more browsing in charity shops, maybe I wouldn’t get the buyers remorse then.
@John That makes sense. I can finally stop that quote gnawing away at me!
@Paul I’ve been a book lover since I was a toddler. I had this blue book I called my “Billy Doran” book. It was just a book about electronics of my dads, and while most kids had a teddy bear to go to bed with, I wouldn’t go to bed without my little blue book. I would love to own a newsagents and bookshop. A chance to buy one came up some years ago and the owners wanted me to buy it, but unfortunately I didn’t half 500k to spare at the time 
