Rachel at Confessions of a Book Geek tagged me to give 25 bookish facts about myself. It took me a while to actually finish this post so I am so pleased to finally be posting it! It was really fun to write, though, to think about bookish me and what I’m like as a reader was weird and strangely interesting. I’m not completely sure I should reveal some of these bookish things to you guys, I am not always a great bookish person it seems. But you guys judge for yourselves.
#1. I am a book hoarder. I didn’t used to be, I had a huge book cull when I left for uni and upon my return, but I don’t like getting rid of books even slightly. I find it hard because I used to be massively into rereading old favourites, partially due to financial reasons (I was a poor student for 3 years and unemployed for a while after that) but also because rereading old favourites can be one of the most comforting things to do. As such, I hate to get rid of books because the urge to reread one of them will strike from time to time and I don’t want to not have it available.
#2. I hoard books digitally too. I am such a sucker for a Kindle deal it is ridiculous. I basically just need to pass my wages over each month to Amazon, I should have shares in the company considering the amount of Kindle books I buy. I don’t seem to be able to stop myself.
#3. I’m very particular about my GoodReads shelves. I like to have the corresponding cover to what I have on my shelf, it has to be the correct edition, and I am very particular about any read books having the right start and finish dates.
#4. Despite having OCD in regards to my digital GoodReads shelves my actual shelves are so disorganised. I actually did do a big clean of them recently, but you know how people have things alphabetised and organised by genre and cover? Yeah, that hasn’t happened. I have four shelves I can house my books on (and plenty of floor space) and so I have a general category for those shelves. Top is adult/romance, second shelf is fantasy of all types, third shelf is YA (except YA fantasy, unless it doesn’t fit on the fantasy shelf) and the bottom is miscellaneous. Yes, miscellaneous is a perfectly appropriate category.
#4. My shelving disorganisation extends to the digital realms too. You know how you can create collections on your Kindle and make it look all nice and pretty? Yeah, I don’t do that. I delete off what I read and just leave my unread editions and have to redownload if I feel the need to reread. About the only organisation I have is I have a finished collection (in case I forget what I’ve read already… it’s happened) and I have a favourites collection (because it makes them easier to find when the reading urge takes over). If you can advise of a better way to sort it would be appreciated as currently I have over 100 unread books (did I mention my book buying problem?)
#5. I am an impulse book buyer. I’ve said it before and I will say it agin, I have a book buying problem. To my shame I am an impulse book buyer who doesn’t always read the books she impulse bought. I have books which have been on my shelves since uni. Since Uni! I graduated 3 years ago, why have I not read these books?
#6. I get the worst book envy. It is the reason for my many impulse book buys. I see what people have and want it, I want all these pretty books and overflowing shelves and I want to claim them for myself. My jealousy leads me to buying books left right and centre because I want to enjoy the too, except I find my book buying impulses are very much aspirational because I have very little hope of catching up on this reading anytime soon.
#7. I am terrible for carrying on reading a book even when I’m not enjoying myself. DNF? What is that concept? I frequently begin and put down books after the first chapter, or page, but I never put down a book if I’ve actually committed significant time to it. I think I’ve DNF’d about 2 or 3 books this entire year. Really, I’m far more likely to skim read a book to see what happens than put it down. No matter how much I’m not enjoying it. It may be a waste of precious reading time, but I don’t want to be a quitter.
#8. I am a cover snob. Not only do I get major book envy but I also get cover envy. I want the prettiest edition of a book, not just the one that’s available easily or the cheapest option. Sure, sometimes I will pick the cheap option for convenience, but I continually want to add the nicest looking books to my shelves. It’s why I own more books than I have the chance to read.
#9. I am the worst about going to the library. I know I should borrow rather than buying, my bank balance would thank me immensely, but I’m not big fan of them for some reason. I should support my local library more, especially as they are cutting funding and jobs and handing a lot of control over to a volunteer organisation due to budget cuts, but still I can’t bring myself to go there often.
#10. I don’t like the idea of picking favourites. It’s a thing, I’m a poor decision maker anyway so favourites is a difficult concept for me. I have lots of favourites depending on mood and genre.
#11. I am an easy to please reader, as shown by my star ratings. Honestly, if I like a book there is very little difference in my rating. It’s all about how much I enjoy it, if I’m bored it’s bad, but everything else gets 4 stars.
#12. I used to read exclusively on my Kindle (for price and convenience) but now I’ve become a major physical copy owner. Seriously, it’s strange having so many piles of books. It used to be small and manageable but as I said before, blogging ruined things for me.
#13. Whilst we’re on the topic of how I like to read, I am a massive fan of hardbacks. I’m terrible at reading them (they’re heavy!) but they look just beautiful on your shelf and they feel like how books should, thick and heavy and luxury. The price is the only other issue.
#14. I abuse books. I used to be terrible for dogearing pages and the amount of food and crap I get on my books is shocking, it’s only recently I’ve begun to look after them like a sensible person.
#15. Sometimes I get the idea of a book I want to read in my head, but it doesn’t actually exist. I will watch TV and get an idea in my head of the story I want to be reading and it’s awful because normally I can’t find a book which fits my idea. I know, maybe I should write my idea instead… but that is just a ridiculous idea for too many reasons.
#16. I read a lot of YA but for some reason I find it hard to read MG. I know it’s all basically determined by your MCs age, but if my character is too young I find it hard to connect to them. There are exceptions, of course, I love Harry Potter, Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass series was fantastic, I really enjoyed The Glass Sentence, so MG can work, but I’m far more wary of it at the same time.
#17. I absolutely love reading, but I don’t talk about books very much in real life. So few of my friends are massive readers so I don’t get much chance to fail about a book I loved. Sometimes I can talk to my brother about them, but as a whole my blog is my fangirling outlet.
#18. I feel guilty when I’m not reading something. Anyone who visits on Sundays here on my blog will have seen my Sunday Summary posts and will see I average 3 or 4 books a week, this is partly because my commute give me major reading time, but it’s also because I feel guilty if I don’t have a book on the go. It’s stupid, but there you go.
#19. If a book takes longer than about three days for me to finish then I worry I’m not enjoying it. I am a speed reader, normally, so if a book is taking me too long to finish I begin questioning my enjoyment. This is also a bit weird, because some books are ones you have to savour and not devour, but my brain forgets this sometimes.
#20. I have the worst book amnesia. It is one of the pitfalls of reading so many books, some really special ones stand out, but too often my books fade in my memory. I remember vague bits about them which drives me to reread them. I think that’s one of the bonuses of book amnesia, you find yourself enjoying books more in rereading because you don’t remember everything.
#21. I never used to understand people owning signed editions or limited editions of books. The content is all the same right, who cares about the rest when we’re all reading the same story? That has changed lately, I want the fancy copies of books and the signed books and who knows where this change of opinion has come from, but there you go. I blame blogging and Instagram.
#22. My books do not leave the house unless under duress. I don’t know why, but my books are house books. I worry too much about damaging their pretty pretty covers (I am a reformed book abuser, it seems) so I can’t take them anywhere.
#23. I love combining books and music, or I like listening to other people’s ideas for combining them. Seriously, bookish playlists are my jam, and I love listening to them.
#24. I am either swept up into reading a book immediately from people’s recommendations, or I put off reading it indefinitely. I don’t know why I’m like that, but I am. Maybe it’s fear of being disappointed in a book, or maybe me being stubborn wanting to stumble across independently. Who knows?
#25. You’ll know when I’ve loved a book because I become a walking advertisement for it. I do it in every aspect of my life, when I love something I learn everything about it and spout off random facts to anyone who will listen. I simply cannot help it.
God, it was both easy and impossibly hard thinking up bookish facts about myself. Who would think writing bookish things about yourself would be so difficult? I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, though, and please feel free to do the tag too. I tag you so I can learn more about you (what is more fun than remembering bloggers are people too).
Do you have any strange bookish facts about yourself? Please tell me about them, I love stuff like that.
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