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Confessions of a Print Addict

J

ja9

New Member
Hi, my name is Janine and I'm addicted to print.

It started small, just a quick paperback at the airport, or thumbing through a magazine at the doctor's office. Nothing I couldn't handle - I told myself that I could stop any time I wanted to.

Before long I was carrying a book in my purse, and sneaking off during my lunch hour to read in the parking lot. I told myself that nobody knew, but I'm sure they could all smell the ink on my fingers.

Soon it was out of control. I was going online to Alibris and Amazon every day, and scouring used book sales. I would back my car up to garage sales so that I could open the trunk and pour in paperbacks. Mysteries! Romance novels! Science Fiction! Children's books! I was totally promiscuous, not even caring who I read or what it might do to me.

I finally hit bottom when I caught myself reading a People magazine. How had this happened to me? I knew I needed help, so I started only going to places where I knew nobody read books, like Republican conventions and bass fishing tournaments. I think it's working - I really feel like I have it under control now. I know it's a disease and that I'll have to struggle with this every day of my life, but - hey! Wait a minute! Is that a Borders over there? With a "Sale" sign in the window??

I'll be right back...
 
*stands up*

Yes, my name is Wabbit, and I am a print additc too!

*cries*

*everybody claps*

Welcome :D

Who is next to speak?
 
I'm a print addict as well. Not only do I crave it, but I passionately defend it in my librarian classes as well.

Sometimes in my library science classes we talk about the future of books and libraries, and there are articles about the virtues of electronic information resources, ebooks, etc. E-resources are gaining so much in popularity and becoming so widespread that some librarians think that's where we're headed, and that print will become obsolete.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

No, No, No. I just cling to the idea that there are too many people who take pleasure in the physical presence of books, despite the fact that they're bulkier than a microchip. Even kids still have positive experiences with print books, at the library or whatever, and they will take that into adulthood, I think.
 
My name is Halo, and I'm addicted to reading and buying books.

Even though I have 70 books on my TBR pile, I still bought two more today. I blame my new job - it's just up the street from an excellent half-price bookshop. I think I probably need help with this problem, but I don't want help, so there. I am in denial.
 
Hello, my name is ell and I'm a printaholic.

It started innocently enough. It was a part-time thing, just recreatonal. It wasn't a problem. I could stop whenever I wanted to - I was in control.

I'd go to the library maybe once a week. In the summer, I started going daily. The smell, the feel, the intoxicating delirium of being immersed in other worlds. I couldn't get enough. Pretty soon the library just didn't do it for me - I had to return the books. But I needed them around me all the time!

So I started going to bookstores. Big bookstores, little bookstores, used bookstores - it didn't matter. Then I discovered online bookstores. But I still felt in control. I told myself that as long as I could pay the Visa bills at the end of the month it couldn't be that bad. I hid my addiction from my family by stashing new purchases in the backs of little-used cupboards. My garage sale forays were disguised as weekend jogs with books discreetly dropped off in our own garage before entering the house. I was only fooling myself.

I knew I had a problem and finally hit bottom when a 15 minute walk to a dentist appointment took me 3 hours. I just couldn't stop myself from going into every corner store, bookstore and drugstore that carried any form of book in the offchance that I might find something readable to take home.

I'm so glad to have found this group. And with the help of wabbit, cajunmama and others, I know I'll be okay! I no longer need to spend hours browsing stores. I can get good recommendations and not waste my time on pap. Thank you.
 
Hi. My name is Mari, and I'm a printaholic. Er, except for newspapers. I'm so tired of getting ink on my hands. Yay for newspaper websites.

Other than that, however, I make a ritual out of reading. My ideal way to read a book is to read a first edition, so that the experience will have the look and feel and heft that it did in the period in which it was first published. This is rarely possible, of course, but I do approach books as physical objects as much as I do for their content. I do not get dreamy about the paperless society of the future (the nearer and nearer future).


P.S. to KristoCat: Keep fighting the good fight!
 
Hello, my name is Kookamoor... and I am in denial.

By the way, ja9, your introduction is one of THE best I've ever seen on any forum. Looking forward to seeing you around!
 
hello, my name is honeydevil and i think i'm in the wrong door,... i have my addiction under control since i'm living in the f***ing country and can't go anywhere without my car... on the other hand i have one room in my house that is reserved for books and reading... books are everywhere, BUT i'm in control, at least i hope i am... bye

(P.S. I agree with Kook on all points...)

(oh and Ja9, where are you from?)
 
Yep, Southern California - Omigod...I'm a Val!...brought up in Northridge, and now I live in Long Beach, which is sort of the antithesis of where I ever thought I would end up, but here I am. Have you ever noticed that just about every crime that's committed, especially if it's a really, really sick one, happens in Long Beach? It's as though this is some kind of weird vortex of sociopathic behavior. Remember the harmonic convergence some years back? I've decided that Long Beach must be the psychotic convergence.

On the other hand, I live at the beach, so that's nice. I like the cool air, and since my other passion is gardening I appreciate that there is no frost.

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm enjoying being here. Cool site, and nice people.
 
It wasn’t my fault, I swear. Mum made me and the doctor. Mum couldn’t cope with me because I was a mischievous little kid, so she figured out that if I learn to read I would give the contents of the house a break and she taught me before I started school. A few months later, I had a fit and the GP came up with the brilliant suggestion that reading might be the cause and that I shouldn’t be allowed to do it. That did it! Stories and fairy tales disappeared but I read shop signs, ads in shop windows, newspapers when my dad let them lying about, his papers from work, you name it. I was hooked. :(

Cries helplessly, banging her head against the wall.
 
stop, you're addiction can be controlled, just stop with the head banging, that creeps me out...

we're all here to seek help, except for me, i'm still in the wrong room...
 
Clueless...I too learned to read before I started school - my poor mother would fall asleep reading "Baby Animal Stores" for the 5,000th time, and I would elbow her and demand "Read, Mom!!". What else could she do?

When I was a teenager, if I had done something really bad my punishment was to sit in the den and watch TV with the family, instead of holing up in my room with a book as was my usual wont. To this day I hate television and don't own one - as you can imagine I am a big hit at work when everyone is asking who saw last night's "American Idol" or whatever.

Reading isn't for the faint-hearted, that's for sure.
 
ja9 said:
Reading isn't for the faint-hearted, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

In my last year at Primary, a teacher caught me in the corridor with a book sticking out of my pocket. She was horrified by the book (an adventure book by an author that was very popular with children and teenager, no adult content whatsoever), phoned my mum and sent me home for the day. This teacher happened to be the school librarian. She only allowed us to take one book a week and try to persuade us to choose the thinest books on the shelves. Really encouraging, wasn't she? :D
 
I'm like a dog....my ears go up when ever i see a book store...and my friends know it...
When we near borders, they grab me and drag me away, im basically screaming and kicking...lol, but they usually win :(
Then dad gave the lecture about spending too much money on books on his credit card :( sad, sad day

*raises hand and joins the print addicts
lani
 
What kind of librarian would encourage you to take only one book, and the thinnest one at that? Sounds like the literary equivalent of Nurse Ratchett!

I notice that I actually get twitchy and uncomfortable if I'm stuck in a situation where I have to wait for something and I don't have a book or something to read with me. If I'm standing in a long line with nothing to read I start shifting from one foot to the other, sighing, looking at my watch, etc. etc.. I can't stand it that I could be using the time to read and instead it's just being wasted.

In many ways it really is like an addiction. Put me in the same situation with a book, and I'll happily stand there all day; it's like I got my fix or something.
 
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