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I love that when it comes to books there is some much to talk about that doesn't even involve the actual story! You all are making me laugh!

I too look to see how many pages in the book and sometime I get really upset when I see a line on the last page and freak out that I may have ruined the book for myself. I never, ever read the last page-I can't even imagine! I also pronounce the accents in my head, especially with an Irish book. I also make myself nuts with the pronounciation of names and I really irked if I can't figure out how to say a character's name. I smell my books all the time, especially library books, some of them just have that smell...ahh...with some books I have to stop every few pages to take a whiff, I look like a nut.

I envy those of you who can push yourself to finish a chapter or the next 1/3 of the book or however you divide it up. When I read at night I tend to fall asleep so quickly, I try to fight it but I just can't. A lot of times I'm at a really good part and I want to keep going but I just can't. I'm trying to do more reading at other times of the day otherwise I'll never finish anything!

I collect bookmarks, my daughter has made some for me because she knows how much I like them. Some of them remind me of the books I read with their help. Sometimes I use one and leave it in that book on the first page.

I like cross-stitching, and so I like to make bookmarks. Problem is, when I'm cross-stitching, I feel like I'm neglecting my reading!

Add me to the list of "have to see how many pages a book has." I will then divide the number by 2 to see if I can read it in 2 days. I work REALLY hard to avoid any of the words on that last page for fear that I'll see something that will ruin it! I am also one that has to read from chapter to chapter. If it can't be done, then I will have to finish on a page that starts a new sentence-no reading the first paragraph of the next page for me! I hate books with long chapters!!

Me too,and something that really bugs me, like Joanie said was not being able to pronounce the names and so I'll have a sound that I think is correct so that if I find out it was actually different it's like the character has become a stranger to me and I have to get to know them all over again!

I like to use old tickets as bookmarks. Tickets to movies, bus tickets, concert tickets. I always leave them inside the book when I'm finished. They can always take me back to when I first read the book. I love opening my copy of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and seeing a ticket stub from Phantom of the Opera. I love opening my copy of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and seeing my expired subway pass from Barcelona, it adds another dimension to my appreciation of a book.

What a cool idea Logan.It's like a two lane walk dowm memory lane(if that makes sense)

Logan, using bookmarks to remember what else you were doing at the time--brilliant!

I can never stop a book unless I'm at a chapter's end. Just can't do it.

I have trouble pronouncing some names and if that happens I never say them to myself and then when I discuss the book I have to describer the character because I don't know the name.

Val, I do the same thing. If I can't pronounce their name then I'll just call them by their initial. So Myrishkoetzen becomes M------- while I read it.

The only time i used something other than a real bookmark for reading was when i went to NYC in feb to meet the author David Maine. My girlfriend and I bought a subway ticket to get to the bookstore, and we sat there chatting with Maine for an hour. His newest book Monster, 1959 had just hit stores that day and i had just purhcased it, so i used the subway ticket as the bookmark and left it in there for memories sake! (well, i mean, i also have three books by him that he signed for me and a napkin that he wrote his biggest literary influences on too as memories... but you know what i mean!)

Ive never done that before or since.

Logan, no kidding! Who the heck can pronounce Myrishkoetzen?


Also, everyone here's a neat make your own bookmark link:

*LOL* Pretty funny -more people would read if they just had bookmarks.I never realized how serious a problem a lack of bookmarks could be... :)

I also have a compulssion to buy Tshirts that say really odd or innappropriate things ... but that maybe more fitting to another thread.

Some of my favorite bookmaks: one that says "I can't wait to critize the movie version" Another one says "Shut Up! I'm trying to read", there is one of a little girl sitting in the toilet and reading a book that's upside down. AHHH!

LOL this whole time... and still LOL. I kept skipping this thread because i was too far out of the loop... however, i just started at the beginning and read it and am cracking up at everyones quirks! This is the best thing about the group, knowing there are others like me.

I also have to check to see how many pages are in a book and also scan the book to see how long the chapters are.

I could never ever ever read anything at the end of the book. I would be constantly paranoid that i discovered something I'm not supposed to know yet! :)

I use any and everything for bookmarks i.e. business cards, napkins, photographs etc. I tend to lose them somehow otherwise although i have had this free paper one from a whale watching cruise for some time now.

I love this group... :)

I love bookmarks too, but for the last few years I have used pictures of my daughter and husband. That way I can remember what they look like when I am neglecting them with reading!

I like that Stacie!

lol Stacie... genius!

**LOL** Stacie!

Tisha, I do the same thing! I will pick up any little scrap of anything to mark my place in a book. I have fancy book marks around the house but I always seem to lose them if I actually use them. So, instead I just pick up whatever is around. Or I use the ones that the used bookstore shoves in the books everytime I shop there. ;o) I never seem to lose those. Those just pile up in the drawer in my desk...

LOL...I use everything as well. In my current books I have a hair band in one and a hotel door card in the other.

Stacie that is too funny. My library (from my hometown) has a wall of pictures, I used to think they were from visitors, but they were all pictures left in books.

Santina, I drive my husband nuts by telling him, "I just need to finish this chapter before ... (insert: turn off the light, leave the house, take out the trash, etc)"

Joanie, figuring out how to pronounce character's names drives me crazy too! Especially if they are really odd names. I'll show it to my husband and ask him to pronounce it if I can't figure it out.

Stacie-LOL except looking at it would just make me feel guilty

The way some are with chapters I am with Good reads.I'm always telling my husband "Just a minute I'm just finishing reading this post".
I think it's driving him a little crazy.

So I found myself looking at my bookcases today and thinking about the new book vs. used copy discussion that has made up more than a few threads in this group.

First off, I will readily admit to suffering from Katie's brand of OCD in that, when shopping for new books, I absolutely must take home the most perfect book available.

Then my eyes were drawn to the books that I've bought used. Admittedly, some of these are in pristine condition. It always makes me happy to find a mint copy of a book at the used booksellers, it makes me think that there's someone as anal as myself in keeping their books in good condition.

There exists, however, a significant percentage of books in my collection that look like someone has, for lack of a better descriptor, used the cover as a place mat while making a model of the Eiffel Tower and then kicked the book down a flight of stairs. The covers are worn, the pages are dog-eared. Previous owners' names are etched inside the cover.

I have to admit, I love these books. I get a sense of well-being from them like I've just returned from the pound with the ugliest mutt there and am about to give it a good home. I feel like I've rescued a book from oblivion, or the Island of Misfit Toys, and given it another shot at life.

I like the sense of history that comes with well-worn used books. Those books have been places and seen things. For example, the copy of The Brothers Karamazov I'm reading right now was purchased from a second-hand store in Tucson. However, on the back is a sticker from Powell's Books up in Portland (a store that I make an annual pilgrimage to). I like daydreaming about who had this book before me and how it made its way from Oregon to Arizona and what the person/people who held it before me thought of the words as they read them.

I like that it screws up the symmetry on my shelves too. It adds that nice little dash of chaos that I crave in my life. I like to picture the new books as tall and proud teenagers who like to mock the used copies, until the used copies break out some long and winding anecdote about sitting on the dashboard of a Chevy being driven cross country by Neil Cassady back in the Fifties. Yeah, my books tell stories to each other, not just me.

I think I had a point when I started this meandering epic, but whatever it was is now lost. Guess there's nothing left but to click po-

Logan, look at you waxing poetic about books! Do you talk to your wife like that? You woulda had me at Hello.... haa haa. I swear, if you arent a writer, you really should be. You have such a way with words!!

That is funny Lori cause while I was reading it I was thinking "I think I am starting to have a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ crush on Logan!"

It is like you walked into my house and are talking about my bookshelves. However, I could never write about it as eloquently as you just did, Logan.

Uh-oh.. Do I smell a lurv connection.. haa haa... Stacie, Logan IS one of our reigning men around here... (wink wink) I think you might have a bit of a cat fight on your hands there....

Just teasing. Really.

Ahem, WIFE!

haa haa haa... I was just teasing Emma... haa haa....

Haha, I knew that. Hehe. Very funny suggestion.

Aw... I'm just doing what comes naturally. I spend far too much time drooling at my bookshelves. It's not healthy. But it's fun, so I let it be.

Yeah Emma...I have a husband and a kid! A girl can dream. I am, of course, also teasing. :) But, you really do have a way with words Logan.

Speaking of bookmarks...here's a great way to build your collection. Be an elementary teacher during book fair week! Those things are so cheap and your students will think that you need one of each one of them as a present! Actually I love it, because I teach music and them knowing how much I love to read for pleasure is good for them I think.

Hmmmmmmm you kids are all crazy. That is my decree.

Okay, I have a new quirk to add to the list. I have always been the type who can't read things out of order. If it's a series of books, I must start at the beginning and go through them consecutively or not read them at all. I hate to think that I've incompletely understood or appreciated something I've read because I don't have full knowledge of what comes first. And, I hate spoilers, so the fact that I might spoil something from an earlier book for myself because I jumped in later in the series makes me nuts.

That might not seem too strange, but I recently found this quirk taking on a new dimension. I decided that I can't read "A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present" without reading "1491" (a book about the Americas before Columbus) first. Is that weird? Perhaps, yet still I sit, People's History uncracked, as I wait for the library to send the email telling me 1491 is waiting for me on the reserve shelf.

And a word about the tattered copies of books that we romanticize and whose history we wonder about...reminds me of a book I read when I was little called "The Best Loved Doll". It was about a little girl who was invited to a doll party and was told to bring her best doll. She ended up bringing an old, tatty, well-worn doll whom she loved with all her heart. When she got to the party, all the other little girls had brought their best dolls -- the prettiest, shiniest, fanciest dressed dolls. The hostess gave prizes to these pretty, shiny, fancy dolls and their owners and our heroine was left feeling sad and embarrassed for her seemingly inferior doll. Until, the final and grandest prize of all was given to the heroine because she had "The Best Loved Doll". "The Best Loved" is a descriptor I've used forever to describe anything that has been loved into disarray, such as our favorite dog-eared, spilled upon, crinkled, creased, and worn books.

i am totally like that too in that I have to read a series in order or not at all. This has caused me to wait months for a copy of a book.

OK.......here's my quirks. I admit it...I am a book junkie. I WILL PANIC if I leave the house without a book in my possession. God help me if I find myself waiting at the bank or at a railroad crossing with NO BOOK. I would rather be late because I had to look for my book before leaving home than go without it.

My husband tells me that my passion for reading and possessing books was something that attracted him to me. He is not a reader. Therefore I was some kind of exotic animal to him. If a topic comes up that is off-the-cuff I can usually contribute because I have "read a book somewhere..." He loves this. He tells me I am a "plethera of useless information..." Excellent to have as a partner for Trivial Pursuit.

As for bookmarks, I am a super-fan of "book darts." A wonderful Made-in Oregon tin full of copper darts that keep your place and don't fall out or damage the paper. Luckily, by brother lives in Oregon and keeps me fully stocked with these shiny treasures. I have seen them at Borders and Barnes and Noble but unfortunately, in smaller quantities and not in the snazzy tin.

As for reading, I am also one of those who MUST, MUST, MUST read from the first book in a series. I don't care if I must read 15 books back from the recommended copy I was given.....I MUST READ THEM IN ORDER!!! I have a cousin who started me on the Prey series of Sandford but gave me one of the later books in the series and I HAD to start at the beginning. This was also true for Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series and Diana Gabaldon's Outander series.

When choosing books I am also one who touches, listens, smells and feels the weight of it in my hand. I love used books and new books and well-repaired books as long as you can still feel the love in them.

Yep......I'm a book junkie. Love it though. When I die, just put me in my pajamas and fluffy slippers and make sure there are LOTS of books in my coffin.

CHUCKLE!!!

Oh, I was coming off the worst week/weekend EVER and stumbled across this thread and am STILL laughing. THANK you all for lifting my spirits. And I am so thankful to find I am not alone in my "weirdness' when it comes to books.

I have a "million" bookmarks, but still insist on using picture, ticket stubs, paper for marking my place. I usually hang up the bookmark so people can see how nice/pretty/quirky it is. :-)

I too, have to finish chapters. I cannot leave a story in the middle of a chapter. AND I also have to know how long it is AND I love reading the chapter names (should they have them), though that has come back to bite me in the past.

When I read the "Harry Potter" books, I know hear the actors voices in my head. And its starting with the "Narnia" books as well. I cannot help it. I will never ever be able to read a line Hagrid says without hearing Robbie Coltrane's voice.

I would LOVE the Kindle for when I travel. I hate having to pack an extra bag so I have reading material. I too take books everywhere and you just never know what might happen (like when I was stuck at a "friends" house in Florida for a MONTH with nothing to do..I read 14 books) where you will NEED a book. With a Kindle, I would have that all the time and it takes up so little room in your luggage.
But, like Logan, I buy an obscene (DON'T you just LOVE it when a guy admits that...VERY sexy in that geek sort of way) amount of paper books and that for me will NEVER change, but for travel...the downpoint it seems for us all is the cost (and that we don't have generous bosses that give GREAT gifts at holiday's) and maybe someday they will come down in price. Who knows.

I never erase the name of the previous owner when I get a used book that has that there. I love the idea that we are all really just sharing our love of something. :-)

This is so great! I'm not the only crazy one! I don't travel much, but when I went to Florida last summer for a week, I spent so much time and careful consideration to decide what books I was going to bring. Sure, we were going to Disney, and everyone I spoke to said "don't bother", "you'll never have time to read." They didn't know me. I always have to have a few books as backup. God forbid you end up BOOKLESS!!!! Now, thats a nightmare for you!

I know this is a reply on an old post but...well I am updating them:-)

Kym, you know what my doctor asked when I went to buy new lenses and check my eyes? Do you read a lot? I was so proud and said: yes, always and everywhere.....but he said that could have made my eyes become worse the last years..... I don't know if this is true (not that it would change much to me reading) but how comes that he would say that now after almost 27 years of continuesly reading a lot???!!!!!

noticed that many people wrote they do something what I seem to do also and recently asked myself why I do it: watch how many pages the book I am reading has. And I rewatch a couple of times while reading too. It gives me some kind of joy.

I am interested in a Kindle but probably because it is linked to books...then I am interested. But to have it...I think I will only try it out if someone gives me one. Even if i would like it I think I would just keep falling back to the great old way of reading: have the book in your hands!!!