Mo’s Comments (group member since Jul 14, 2007)

Mo’s comments from the Book Buying Addicts Anonymous group.

Since purchasing a Kindle, my book buying addiction has gotten even worse, it seems. With the click of a button, I can have a sample and then with another click, purchase the entire book.

Just wondering if my fellow addicts are still purchasing paper books or if you have gone completely electronic?

I missed the Oprah $50 discount which expired November 1. Anyone know about any other discounts? $359 is such a steep price.

Tamara, I owned an Ipod for about 6 months and then lost it. :-( While I had it, I was like a kid in a candy store though. I kept buying and buying music. It was crazy - everytime I thought about I song I used to like, I downloaded it. I spent hundreds of dollars on songs. Hopefully, you'll have a lot more self-control than I. I'm afraid that this same lack of self-control could get me into trouble with a Kindle, too (except it would be 9.99 books rather than 99 cents songs).

My copy of The Holy Bible, New King James Version, is the most valuable to me because I've read it during so many important phases of my life; it is very inspirational and reminds me that I can make it through anything.

Oh, and my other concern is that I will go book-buying crazy! Kindle books are cheaper than paper editions and I'm just scared that I will start downloading like a madwoman. I've been saving a lot of money with Paperback Swap and don't want to turn back to my old book-buying craze. This happened to me in terms of music with the Ipod. The first few weeks, I was downloading everything I could think of. To do this with books would be even more expensive.

I have always struggled with wanting to read too many books at once and deciding which "currently reading" book to take with me where. Well, now there may be an answer to this dilemma. The Amazon Kindle stores up to 200 books (or thousands with an additional memory card or something like that).

Does anyone have a Kindle? What do you not like about it? My only concern is that I haven't seen one and think I might miss the comfort of holding an actual book. I'm also concerned that some authors have not given Kindle the right to make their books available through Kindle (e.g., Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling). There are over 190,000 titles available including newspapers and blogs but, with my luck, the titles I really want won't be available when I want them. I couldn't find William Faulkner or Suzanne Collins when I searched Kindle, for example.

Oprah is offering a $50 discount to her at-home TV audience for those of you who already know you want one.

Soft is my preference. It's more enjoyable to read.

Writing my own book has been a lifelong dream for me as well. I've put that dream on the back-burner many times as other priorities arose - e.g., family, a non-writing career. Hopefully, at some point in life, I will turn back to that dream. I suppose part of my love for reading is also tied to my dream to publish my own writing. I have been reading a lot of how-to-publish-your-writing type self-help books though for pointers.

I'm jealous about the gift-certificate. Wish someone would give me a one. So what books did you buy? Sorry to hear about the insomnia. Hopefully, by now, you're better but if not . . . perhaps reading can pass some of the time.

I have the same problem. There are just so many books to read and so little time. . . (sigh) What a great problem to have, in my view! :)

I must have been about 4 because I was already addicted before starting kindergarten. My mother inspired me because she read to me ALL the time and taught me to crave visits to the library and local bookstore. Mom is a teacher.

Bright From the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind . . . by Jill Stamm, PhD; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett; and One Year to an Organized Life (can't remember author's name - still waiting on it to arrive from B&N.com)

I thought that joining Paperbackswap.com would help me get rid of some of my books. Although it has helped me get rid of books that aren't keepers to acquire some wish list books, I have mailed 81 books only to receive 76 - a total attrition of only 5 books. I've just concluded that life is too short - I love books and I'll just have to find space for them. Books make me happy - plain and simple - and I need to be surrounded by them. Phew! That sounded like something that I should be telling a therapist. Smile. I really am sane, I am - just addicted to books.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

I'm a little late on catching the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2007. As if I needed a reason to go the bookstore and browse for a new book, book buying addict that I am . . . Check out the winners of 2007 if you haven't already. . . And please share any other 2007 award lists that have recently come out if you'd like. The book shopper in me can always use a little help. (Smile). Oh, also, if you've read any of these books and disagree that they should've made the list, save me some $$$$ and let me know that too!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/boo...

As a self-confessed and proud book buying/reading addict, I often start a book and then throw it down because the book snob in me just cannot waste precious reading time on uninspiring, mind-numbing, sleep-inducing material. There are too many GOOD books to read and just too little time in life to read them all to force myself to read a book I'm not enjoying. What is the last book you started and stopped and why?

I recently started and stopped Jen Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black, not because the book falls into the categories of any of the adjectives above (I'm sure it's a pretty good book b/c it's raved about by chick-lit lovers everywhere). I stopped because I generally don't enjoy chick lit and found this book to be much like a lot of the chick lit I've started and stopped in the past - no matter how good it is, I often either skim it quickly or just become too bored to finish it. I am beating myself up for paying $13.95 for the book when it is now at the bottom of one of my deep office drawers to be retrieved . .. oh, someday.

These are all "comfort books" for me that I read again and again, enjoying them each time as if that time were my first: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God; Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time; Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever; and Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows. These are all books that taught me to love and appreciate reading as a child.

I have a fetish about the font of the print in the book and the feel of the pages. (I have bought so many unworthy, terribly written books just because they "feel good" in the bookstore and regretted it later. Likewise, I'm sure that I'm missing out on a number of really good books simply because the font/type sucks or the cover is ugly. I know, I know, you can't judge a book by its cover.) If a book doesn't have the feel and look I want, I don't enjoy reading it as well and likely will not finish it unless the writing is just entrancing. And although I prefer collecting my favorites in hardcover, I must say I like the feel of a paperback for reading. Weird, I know. What I've started doing is trying out books by getting them basically for free through paperbackswap.com, at a discounted rate through amazon.com, or in a Mass Market Paperback edition and then, if I really really like the book, I'll invest in a hardcover.

Oh and I also was an English major in undergrad, so I still fight off the urges to (1) highlight; (2) write my thoughts in the margin; and (3) circle and immediately look up words I don't know.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison in both paperback and hardback because it is one of my favorite pieces of fiction. The Holy Bible New King James Version.

I have an extremely hectic schedule right now so I haven't been as active with this group and haven't had nearly enough time to read as I usually do, but here's my wish list of January "to-reads": The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, New England White by Stephen Carter and (if there's time) The Kite Runner.