There is a strange urge to turn into that scruffy looking shop… a calling that drags at your gut until you succumb.Dust and grime covers everything; there is nothing in there that you would touch without a hazmet suit and yet… there in the corner is a rusting metal basket full of foxed and battered paper. You spot a title you have been searching for since your youth. Suddenly the world is a beautiful place.
You may have a problem…and there are other signs…
- Waiting in queues becomes quality time with your mobile phone. The Kindle app is a godsend…
- You hope the appointments are running at least two chapters late.
- Flu is welcomed as a six-book-a-day event.
- Decluttering means throwing out the TV to add another bookshelf.
- Getting an early night means a few extra hours reading and even less sleep. (Well, you only had another couple of chapters to go…)
- Handbags and pockets are chosen for their book carrying capacity.
- No-one can ever find their library card… they are all in your pocket. And full.
- You read yourself to sleep by struggling to stay awake just one more page.
- Holiday luggage contains more books than clothes. Travelling light means taking just the Kindle.
- Half your books have been with you longer than your friends.
- There is no such thing as Life Before Books in your memory.
- There is no such thing as a straight bookshelf…they all bow under the weight.
Self diagnosis is easy. You will probably have a book on it somewhere… but if not, admitting to any one of the above means you have tested positive.
Congratulations.
The why it matters? I was going to share this great infographic on the health benefits of reading from Raphael Lysander, but Nicholas Rossis beat me to it 🙂
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Haha. I have one!
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Doesn’t surprise me, Alesia 🙂
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This is hysterical and so true!
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I could probably have made the list much, much longer…. 😉
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Guilty. And not ready for a recovery program.
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Me neither… though I might have to go on a ‘diet’ …
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Yeah,so true..I love it,when I have to wait for something,because even that moment doesn’t go without reading on wattpad..For your information,I loathed waiting,but now its contrary..
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That’s one good thing to come out of the electronic reading revolution 🙂
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hahaha..electronic reading revolution,nice one..
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🙂
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I sat here nodding at pretty much all of that list Sue!!!!
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I believe it is a chronic condition 🙂
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The amount of times I’ve fallen asleep with my book/kindle in hand because I was determined to finish a chapter, but the exhaustion of teaching means an early night with a book inevitably ends up being just an early night!
I’m gutted when I wake, to realise I slept through valuable reading time 😂😂
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I read till I can’t read the words to get get to sleep…and as soon as they blur, I start fighting it 🙂
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The worst thing is rereading the same sentence ten times, and thinking should I give up now?
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I know that one… Or having to go back next morning and read what you have already read because none of it made sense by the time you gave in 🙂
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Oh yes!!!!!!
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🙂
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Hahaha! Love the cartoon! 🙂
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So do I 🙂
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Hey! I resemble that list…
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I don’t doubt it, Barb 🙂
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Ha ha, brilliant! I can tick them all off 😉 As I read number 10 I glanced at my bookshelf and nodded enthusiastically – yep, my books have been with me much longer! 🙂
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So have mine…hence the bowed shelves 🙂
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Count me in!! X
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I’d never have guessed, Sally 😉
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Great post! I’m sorry I beat you to the infographic, but I still think you should post it here as well. The more, the merrier, right? 🙂
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I can do that too 🙂
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Resonates totally!
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No surprise there, Jean 🙂
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Fantastic Sue, sums me up and I love the last cartoon.
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The cartoon is great, isn’t it? Glad you enjoyed it, Rosie. I think most of us know we have a ‘problem’ 🙂
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but we are all willing victims, aren’t we? I couldn’t imagine a world without books in it…
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When I moved to France, I took only one small book…Omar Khaayyam. Within a month, I had a shelf full…and I was out every chance I could get, so I have no idea how I managed to read so much. I couldn’t be without books.
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Oh yes, real in-your-hand paper ones!
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Always my first choice.
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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I tested positive 🙂
Love the cartoon at the end.
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I did too..on both counts 🙂
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Reblogged this on new2writing and commented:
So true! I’m not even ashamed!! Great Post By Sue over at Daily Echo…
A Good Book + Tea = A Happy Me
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So that’s my problem! It’s great to have a diagnosis at last.
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I believe the problem to be pandemic 🙂
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Reblogged this on Poetry by Pamela and commented:
This is an addiction that is okay to have.
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Thanks Pamela 🙂
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
Here is a great post. I have at least 12 of these 12 signs.
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Thanks Don 🙂
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Yep! And I will fight to the death any talk of a cure!
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Backed by most of the population of WordPress 🙂
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Ha ha ha. I could relate to all of these! LOL.
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We are doomed to remain addicted 🙂
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I have come to believe the invention of the Kindle has saved me. I can have thousands more books even though there isn’t any room for even ONE more bookcase.
How many sunrises have I seen over the top of my book … the one I’m reading that I’m going to stop at the end of this chapter … or the next … or the next …
I can quit ANY time.
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The Kindle helps enormously as far as volume is concerned (wonder if that word/concept is a coincidence?) but real books feel different …and are one addiction I would hate to quit.
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Most of those apply to me, too. There’s reading books, which includes ebooks, of course. But a subset of this affliction is acquiring physical books, which is what leads to those bowed and sagging shelves. The books sitting on them are like doors to other worlds. Even if you don’t take them all, having the potential to do so is intoxicating. Which is why we keep buying, borrowing, and otherwise acquiring books.
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That’s it exactly, Audrey. Knowing they are always waiting… with old friends through some and new adventures through others…
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Reblogged this on Everybody Means Something and commented:
I couldn’t resist reblogging this ridi-, sorry meticulous piece of research into a syndrome from which I feel I am in partial remission, given that I now fall asleep halfway through a chapter when reading in bed, and sometimes even during the day.
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🙂
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Definitely an addict!
One more sign –
“Can’t resist buying yet another book, even though I haven’t yet read the ones I already have!”
Every time I travel, I am so grateful to my son and daughter for the birthday gift of an iPad , with my iBooks – but still like the actual books!
Many thanks for your wonderful blog, even though you are to blame for some of the books I’ve bought over the last few years!
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I accept full responsibility…gratefully… for adding to anyone’s bookshelves 🙂 I have a Kindle which is useful, and the Kindle app on my phone, PC and laptop…but I also have walls lined with books and I much prefer holding them to a reading on a screen.
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Damn i have a chronic condition… and my mom wants to cure it… even though its not curable…
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Definitely not curable 🙂
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Oh yes, guilty of a few of those… 😁
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Only a few? 🙂
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Haha… ok, most.
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That’s more like it 🙂
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Haha, Sue. I’m addicted.
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on all counts.
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🙂
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I never thought otherwise, Michelle 🙂
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🙂
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Reblogged this on BOOK CHAT and commented:
Do you have a book addiction?
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Yes! I recognize myself!
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It is a widespread ‘problem’ 😉
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So many books, so little time…
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But all a delight 😉
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Ah, yes, library cards. I remember those…
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And each one equalled an armful 🙂
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13. You have returned home (on more than one occassion) with a box (or two), already earmarked to save lives / cure cancer / feed the hungry, claiming that “the charity shop has too many and are not taking book donations at the moment… it’s a pity to just throw them out so we’ll keep them till the charity’s stock goes down a bit, shall we?”
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Working with the charity shops myself, I may have rehomed one or two ( boxes) that were destined for the shredder….
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Special place in heaven for those saving the books from shredding… 😀 xx
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That’s one box ticked then 😉 xx
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After checking out the article you shared on StumbleUpon I’ve tried liking this via that route. I’d be interested to know how it worked, if it did!
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It is hard to say exactly, Pete. The articles are randomly selected to be delivered as you Stumble, from within your areas of interest. You only really notice the effect when something fits a popular category and gets Stumbled… then the stats go right up. Mine from Stumble have been up for the past few days.
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Love it! I tested positive – multiple times!
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Me too, Norah… My name is Sue and I’m an addict 🙂
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That’s one addiction I don’t mind owning up to! In fact it’s the only one I have. Except writing perhaps.
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…and coffee, for me, definitely coffee 🙂
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Laughing 🙂 I think I may have a book problem… 😀
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You’re in excellent company 🙂
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