― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link
I love this idea; it is beautifully put.
I didn't have a lot of books when I was little (just Mom's box of old Nancy Drews and Cherry Ames, etc.) and I didn't have a lot of guidance as to what would be good to read. Contrast that to my husband, who grew up surrounded by books and who didn't have a tv growing up, and I have a continual conversation in my life of, "what you've never read that? REALLY?" So I love buying stuff for the kids and having A.'s input on what they will love - plus I finally get to enjoy it myself.
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link
This is how my cousins were raised. I remember being befuddled by that when we were young! They're not doing that for their own kids, FWIW -- don't blame them at all.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link
Also, selling them on Amazon = cash for other things = great. And it somehow eats into my messing around on the internet time, rather than my work time, so it's like a 2nd job which reduces the amount of crap I own.
On the other hand, I suspect that I own 100s of books that I will be completely unable to make myself get rid of (and that's excluding the maths books).
― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link
That being said books >>>>>>>> tv (to the nth power)
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link
a) I like owning a lot of booksb) It means I'm always going to have something to readc) Who in their right mind gives away their books, unless they have to?
― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link
Which you make up for by writing, so it all even out.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link
(But no, I wouldn't give my tv up either... I like even some of the dumbest stuff on it. Trust me when I say this; I still occasionally watch the soaps that I watched as a kid!!!)
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:21 (seventeen years ago) link
As for being book deprived, don't feel bad for me; now I am Totally Not. Plus my 8 year old is a much better reader than his nephew is, which I'm pretty sure has something to do with the fact that I keep all these books around and my sister doesn't (so I get to feel superior, and who doesn't secretly love that?!)
Lately all I want to do is let my kids watch tv, but they are both sick and driving me nuts right now. If I didn't have the tv (and the computer), I'd be locking myself in the bathroom to hide. With a book, probably.
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:25 (seventeen years ago) link
The surprising thing (or not?) is that it led to me loving awesome literature, too.
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link
and yet i'll take my gazillion books over my gazillion records any day when it comes to moving.
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link
Likewise, though my father kept mentioning the possibility of forbidding certain comic books etc, and I was part of the generation-within-a-generation that wasn't allowed to play Dungeons and Dragons.
I believe in limiting and to some extent supervising television intake, depending on the kid's age (though I think it's key for children to enjoy things their parents find stupid), just not in doing so in favor of reading (past the age of "practice makes perfect"). Especially these days. My parents tried it at one point, but I was reading hundreds of books anyway and my brother has a learning disability, so a uniform policy was too tough to cobble together.
(My parents don't read, watch TV, watch movies, or listen to music, so in this case this stuff all came out of my father's suspicion of Evil Influence and my mother's New England eyebrow-raising at anything that Doesn't Serve Some Practical End.)
― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link
2. Continued lust from an adolescence of looking into Manhattan brownstones where the walls were lined with endless curious tomes.
3. A tendency towards obscurer reading, and a tendency towards only buying things on sale, meaning if there's any chance I'll want to read a book someday, and I find it cheap enough, I'll grab it, because when that day comes, I will not be able to find it again.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link
Um. What exactly do they do for spare time?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link
My mother quilts and plays bridge, and town politics are sort of a spectator sport here. Sometimes she knits sweaters for upcoming birthdays. Bridge is kind of an indulgence, but it doesn't cost any money -- she's horrified at the number of movies I own. My father, well, he's got his own recreations. (He's Very Religious, along Pat Robertson type lines.)
― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link
I keep the ones I keep because I like having them to open and read from. About 160 of them are volumes of poetry. About fifty are various reference works. The rest are just damn good books.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link
this is pretty much the reason why i have so little vinyl. freaks me out. feel like i need more stability for me n vinyl to happen.
― rrrobyn, breeze blown meadow of cheeriness (rrrobyn), Thursday, 1 February 2007 18:41 (seventeen years ago) link
I have kept a running list of every book I've read since January of 1992. Seriously! This may seem obsessive, but sometimes I'll think of something from a book but won't remember where it came from - or need to figure out a title or author - and it really helps.
(I also have a running list of books I want to read, but that is so out of hand that it should never be discussed.)
― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 1 February 2007 19:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Edward Trifle (Ned Trifle IV), Friday, 2 February 2007 09:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Friday, 2 February 2007 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link