books / diary

Back to Books

Claudine19 Comments

Oh how I’ve missed the bum life. Seriously. I already landed a job right after college graduation, and I never really had a real rest since then. Now, before I get back into reality once again, I am taking as much sleep as possible, since it’s what I really missed above all else.

Aside from sleep, I’ve missed reading novels. After months of not being able to read such, I have missed flipping through pages and taking every bit of the story.

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I began reading “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee again since I want to have a fresher view of the story before I get to read the sequel. I have already read it in high school but even when I have already loved it since then, I know it’s going to be different once I read it all over again. Like people say, love is sweeter the second time around. Though I already know the flow of the story, I was a different person before I’ve read the book. Now, I am reading it as another person, and not the same person who read it in high school [as part of the requirements in our English class].

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I’ve also had my Grisham novels out from the shelves. I usually buy books from Book Sale, and even though I still have a lot of unread books, I still buy more and more whenever I find them interesting. I think that’s actually a bookworm’s sickness. You just can’t stop even when you still have a lot of pending books to read. It’s just hard to. And by books, I mean books with substance and sensible thoughts, not just some random printed story.

Soon the real world’s going to call me again. Let me spend the remaining days with my favorite escapism. 🙂

19 thoughts on “Back to Books”

  1. I’d like to know how to cure that sickness of constantly buying new before fully enjoying and making good used of what one has. It’s like the old King Midas golden touch syndrome or something similar. It’s maddening. My mom collects cookbooks like that. Pretty soon, she could have one of those legendary libraries with ladders on wheels. How long before you stop yourself and say, “Whoa! Too many books!”?

    I swear some people shop like they gab about depending upon coffee. It’s sick.

    On another note, I wouldn’t mind reading “A Tale of Two Cities,” again, as you say, with a change in age and perspective. I was not a fan of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” myself.

    What is this special escape from the “real world” you have acquired?

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    • Hello writingbolt! I think many people have “that” kind of sickness. As for me, it’s like I’m becoming a book hoarder or something. When I go to bookstores and I find something interesting enough to read, I’d get them (for as long as I’ve got some cash with me, of course, haha). And yes, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. Such a nice book. 🙂 And… Work and study. I’ll be going back to work and study for board examination. That’s going to take a lot of my time again and I might just put reading novels aside the during the whole review period. 🙂

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      • I would take that as a sign and remind yourself the next time you want to bring a book home: Either I exchange/purge some books I am not reading first or I pass this one up for now/borrow it from the library.

        I have had to avoid bookstores to avoid the sickness myself. And, I am not a big reader/book consumer. But, if I go to a discount store and peruse the astrology section, I keep finding something I need to take home just to page through and see if it’s any good. So, ‘best I not look and stay home. 🙂

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      • I hope I can do that next time. It’s really just hard to take self-control when you’ve really found something so interesting to read. It’s just so hard to put something that seems so amazing down.

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      • Hoping is not good enough in this case. Hope is fine when you wish for someone to come back into your life or wish someone well when they leave after a visit. But, to stop a habit, you can’t rely on hope to stop you. YOU have to stop yourself. I had to do the same with toy collecting. I finally had to stay away from the toy aisles, and now I refuse to buy toys for anyone lest the old desire reappear.

        Again, at least, as a reader, you have alternatives…namely libraries from which you can BORROW books without spending precious funds or taking up space, only to bog yourself down when you have to relocate (because book boxes are so heavy).

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      • You can’t find a public library that homes the books you’d want to read here in Manila. That’s the problem. I borrow books as much as I could. But if I can buy them, of course I do as well, to add up to my collection. It’s nice to have your own mini-library. At least I don’t do it with really unnecessary stuff that expire when you don’t use them. Books don’t expire. And when the time comes that I could read them, it’s just nice that I could just get it from my shelf instead of taking time to find someone or some place where I can borrow a book. I can just earn the money I ought for it anyway. What’s money’s worth for something you really love?

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      • Or, maybe Manilla is perpetually tempted by the American and British witches who seduce you with what just came out, and, oh, if only you could get an advanced copy instead of waiting years for the book to get there. You’re just getting caught up in a seduction game, not being content with the grass on your side of the fence. I could be the same way about Dr Who. Oh, the new episodes are not available here, yet. And, when they get here, they’re about a year old. I can’t wait a year for what’s already being advertised in magazines and whatnot. No. I do not need to be first in line to see the “blockbuster” Star Wars thinks it is. Just put down the caffeine and appreciate what’s within your reach.

        And, breathe.

        Buying books you only need as long as you read them is like buying a toilet every time you use the bathroom. Do you really need to OWN the book, or can you borrow it from a friend/library and pass it on when you’re done?

        I guess this argument could go many ways for many hours. 🙂

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      • You don’t have a deadline in reading when the book is yours. You have no limits on how to fold the pages, highlight the lines that touched you or perhaps put notes when the books are yours. I think that’s the main reason why I buy books instead of borrowing from someone or somewhere. Because I know in time I can get to read them. All of them. I don’t care when. Sooner or later I would want to repeat some of the books I’ve read. Just like “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and Nicholas Sparks’ “A Walk to Remember” which I’ve read for more than ten times now (I could finish that book overnight). You don’t buy just because you wanna buy them; in my case, I buy books that I really find interesting, then read them when I get to have the time and my mood is set for that particular book. The contentment I find is not in the book as a thing, but as something that touched me even in the least way. And I don’t get broke or anything just to satisfy my book hoarding addiction, so I think there’s nothing wrong with that. 🙂

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      • And, someone who can read a book in a day or two has to worry about a library wanting the book back in three weeks? It takes ME longer than three weeks, usually, to read ONE book. For a bookworm, you should be able to borrow a half dozen books and have them done in half the time.

        And, why DOES a book lover dog ear or write in any book? I don’t dog ear my prized books. I use paper bookmarks. If your newly bought, top dollar books are dog-eared and highlighted, good luck reselling them.

        I am guessing you buy more than you can borrow in a month. Overload of interest in so many authors buzzing about the internet and gossip.

        Again, I could argue this with you a long time. 🙂 It’s up to you and that lil guilty feeling you’ve been getting to ultimately make a decision.

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      • We all have a way of making bookmarks or anything. Sometimes I put tabs. Whatever. It’s not the point. 🙂 And for someone who works and study at the same time, it’s not all the time that I can just sit back, relax and read books. Priorities, of course.

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      • And I can easily resell the books after I read them anyway, just in case I need to bring the number of books I have down. 🙂

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      • I already got the “return on investment” the moment I read the book. Whether the book deserves a thumbs up for the story or not, the fact that I got to read someone else’s thoughts and be at my feet going over someone’s “masterpiece,” the knowledge and wisdom I got, the people I experienced to be and the places I had been while reading are always worth the price I’ve paid for it beforehand. 🙂

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    • And you’ve got a really nice way of putting King Midas’ story. It just feels nice to know that I have something new to read each time I find time to. I’m not really into going out a lot so I think “this” kind of “addiction” is pretty much tolerable. 🙂

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