--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > OK, here are some symptoms of the book disease: > ... > On to my symptoms: > > - Inability to pass a bookstore without entering > (and probably buying, though > I'm getting better)
I used to buy a lot of books but I got so tired of packing them every time we moved that I decided to get rid of a lot of them. Now I do my reading by borrowing from the library. If there's anything I decide I want to read, I put a hold on it at the library. You can do the whole thing by internet now, so I just think up books I want to read, go in and do a search, then put it on hold. Uusually, unless it's a super-popular brand-new book, you don't have to wait that long, and they call you when it comes in so you can just go and pick it up, and then browse the shelves looking for others that look good (contrary to the saying, I think you *can* judge a book by its cover - I've found quite a few good ones that just about leapt off the shelf into my hands.) I still do have a lot of books, most of which are reference books at this point, or collections of poetry. There aren't a heckuva lot of novels I've liked enough to want to read them again - at least, not when there's so many other books to read. I'm also a bit phobic about going into certain kinds of stores, chief among them the big-box-type bookstores and music stores that are so prevalent everywhere. Most of the time, if I go into a store like that, unless I've really psyched myself up for it, I end up feeling kind of dizzy and disoriented and I have to leave - unless I absolutely know the exact thing I want and can find someone right away so I can ask them to help me find it. There is a good book store close to where I live that, despite being quite small, has a surprising number and variety of books and will search for and order books for you that you want. My sister owns a bookstore in Port Hope, Ontario, where she and her husband live, so I guess I'd be ordering from her to give her the business! (If you're ever in Port Hope, drop by the Furby House bookstore - not named after those weird mechanical animals that were all the rage a few Christmases ago - it was already called this when they bought it from the guy that started it and it may have been his ex-wife's maiden name.) Tell Susan (my sister) that you know me from the jmdl - and she'll look at you like you're nuts, because she won't have a clue what the jmdl is, but she is a very nice person, even if she is my sister ;) On the other hand, I will never pass up the opportunity to acquire a new CD, or two, or three - I'm beginning to wonder if it's a bit of an obsessive-compulsive thing, because sometimes I buy so many that I don't think I have enough time to listen to them all! Especially when my darn kids don't like *my* music. My daughter would listen to Jennifer Lopez all day if she could. Fine enough, but there are other kinds of music out there (even if I have to force-feed it to them!) The way I get around the big-box-phobia thing is either by buying online, or picking a day when I feel confident enough to walk into one of those things (breathing deeply and slowly before going in) and then just doing it - then the next time, it's not as bad, and so on, so I can do it if I have to. But then I'm often disappointed at the limited selection you find in HMV and so on - it's like all they sell is the top 50 stuff, and here in Canada, with our population only one-tenth of the US's, you're not as likely to find the stuff that isn't really popular - sometimes you can find "Best hits" types but if you're trying to replace all your old vinyl stuff from the 60s and 70s, you're lucky to find them. As far as children's books go, as a kid I loved the Enid Blyton ones called "The [Whatever} of Adventure." There was the Sea of Adventure, The Valley of Adventure and so on. I liked Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows as a kid but recently, when i went back to read them, I was a bit disappointed - they're all so darn guy-centred, like some snooty English boarding-school disguised as the woods or the meadow. I read once that A.A. Milne originally had all his characters in the Pooh books - including Kanga - be male... until someone reminded him that in order for a kangaroo to have a baby roo in her pocket, he would have to be a she. Did anyone ever read any of the books of E. Nesbitt? She was an Edwardian writer - one of the ones I loved that she wrote was "[number of ...5?] Children and It" about these kids that found this creature called a sand fairy in a pit - it caused them all sorts of problems and I don't remember much else about it, but I did love it. Someone mentioned the Eloise books - I loved those too. I wanted to live in a hotel like Eloise and get into all the trouble she used to - and the illustrations are priceless. I also enjoyed "The Princess and the Goblin" by Mc or Macdonald. Also anything about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or anything about witches or magic. There's nothing like a good kid's book - if it's really good, adults will enjoy them as much as, if not more than (or on a different level from) kids, as the Harry Potter phenomenon proves. I've read all the Harry Potters and can't wait for the movie... and the next book! Between Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings coming out around the same time, well, I haven't been this excited about movies for a long time - let's just hope they live up to the hype. The trailers look good, but with a lot of films, the trailer shows you the best stuff! I don't think we'll be disappointed with these two though. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca
