15 things about books
Dec. 12th, 2005 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinian(As seen elsewhere.)
1. My parents (I think mainly my dad) taught me to read very early from picture books and the newspaper. When I was maybe three, my grandpa (always kind of a jerk) refused to believe I could do it, so I read a road sign as requested and shut him up.
2. As the oldest cousin, I am the one whose childhood books were largely removed by stealth and given to the younger kids. I am also the one who wants them now, dammit.
3. When I was in kindergarten, I had a special arrangement with the school library that allowed me to check out books from the older kids' section instead of the little kids' section. One day the regular librarian was sick and they wouldn't let me do it. Checking out at least one book was mandatory, so I had to take home some idiotic picture book about a cartoon moose. I was very put out.
4. There is a tiny but constant frustration in me because I don't read my textbooks cover to cover, which may be why I have a very hard time getting rid of any of them.
5. In fourth or fifth grade, we kept track of how many books we read during the school year. I won a deck of tiny playing cards for reaching 118 -- the teacher knew I could read that quickly, even if some of the other kids refused to believe it.
6. Right now I mostly get books from the library unless I know I love them. My most recent purchase consisted of Dia Calhoun books: Firegold (a gift for the good nephew) and The Phoenix Dance (new! for me!).
7. When I was I think fifteen, I shoplifted two Mercedes Lackey paperbacks (Winds of Fate? and something else) from Waldenbooks.
8. There is currently one partially-read book by my bed (Cherryh Chanur omnibus), one in the bags I haven't unpacked yet after my weekend trip (Evolution's Eye by Susan Oyama), one in the bathroom (on chindogu), and I think that's it except for textbooks and habitual references. Often there are up to five, though I feel harried if I go above that.
9. My first comic book was an X-Men collection (Genosha storyline) that I bought in a mall bookstore. I'm not at all sure why I got it. The cover was shiny, that's for sure. I wasn't all that impressed with it, but it must have done something for me, since I searched for good comics for years before finding any I loved.
10. I'm still keeping good track of my books read this year, it's just that I haven't managed to write about any of them for about six months.
11. My mom eventually stopped taking me to the used-book store because I thought it was unfair for me to have to give them old books and money to get more books, and I wanted to keep all my old books anyway. I've really progressed on that, though: I think I could bear to sell off up to 20% of the books I own.
12. I don't think I have a novel in me, or even very many short stories. There's never been any indication that I have a working plot generator. Sometimes I can get somewhere, but it involves a very long gestation period and a fair amount of sustained effort.
13. The most frequently opened book in our house is the Oxford etymology book. We often lament not having a copy in the car or at the Chinese restaurant.
14. I only had a couple of small shelves on my desk in my bedroom to keep books in. They spread to the cabinets above the shelves, then to stacks in the closet, then to stacks on the open-ended shelves, before I moved out.
15. Once when I was maybe twelve, my youngest cousins were spending the night in winter, and my mom and I were reading Fox in Socks to them. The power went out when we were a few pages from the end. We just kept reciting the book until we were done.
1. My parents (I think mainly my dad) taught me to read very early from picture books and the newspaper. When I was maybe three, my grandpa (always kind of a jerk) refused to believe I could do it, so I read a road sign as requested and shut him up.
2. As the oldest cousin, I am the one whose childhood books were largely removed by stealth and given to the younger kids. I am also the one who wants them now, dammit.
3. When I was in kindergarten, I had a special arrangement with the school library that allowed me to check out books from the older kids' section instead of the little kids' section. One day the regular librarian was sick and they wouldn't let me do it. Checking out at least one book was mandatory, so I had to take home some idiotic picture book about a cartoon moose. I was very put out.
4. There is a tiny but constant frustration in me because I don't read my textbooks cover to cover, which may be why I have a very hard time getting rid of any of them.
5. In fourth or fifth grade, we kept track of how many books we read during the school year. I won a deck of tiny playing cards for reaching 118 -- the teacher knew I could read that quickly, even if some of the other kids refused to believe it.
6. Right now I mostly get books from the library unless I know I love them. My most recent purchase consisted of Dia Calhoun books: Firegold (a gift for the good nephew) and The Phoenix Dance (new! for me!).
7. When I was I think fifteen, I shoplifted two Mercedes Lackey paperbacks (Winds of Fate? and something else) from Waldenbooks.
8. There is currently one partially-read book by my bed (Cherryh Chanur omnibus), one in the bags I haven't unpacked yet after my weekend trip (Evolution's Eye by Susan Oyama), one in the bathroom (on chindogu), and I think that's it except for textbooks and habitual references. Often there are up to five, though I feel harried if I go above that.
9. My first comic book was an X-Men collection (Genosha storyline) that I bought in a mall bookstore. I'm not at all sure why I got it. The cover was shiny, that's for sure. I wasn't all that impressed with it, but it must have done something for me, since I searched for good comics for years before finding any I loved.
10. I'm still keeping good track of my books read this year, it's just that I haven't managed to write about any of them for about six months.
11. My mom eventually stopped taking me to the used-book store because I thought it was unfair for me to have to give them old books and money to get more books, and I wanted to keep all my old books anyway. I've really progressed on that, though: I think I could bear to sell off up to 20% of the books I own.
12. I don't think I have a novel in me, or even very many short stories. There's never been any indication that I have a working plot generator. Sometimes I can get somewhere, but it involves a very long gestation period and a fair amount of sustained effort.
13. The most frequently opened book in our house is the Oxford etymology book. We often lament not having a copy in the car or at the Chinese restaurant.
14. I only had a couple of small shelves on my desk in my bedroom to keep books in. They spread to the cabinets above the shelves, then to stacks in the closet, then to stacks on the open-ended shelves, before I moved out.
15. Once when I was maybe twelve, my youngest cousins were spending the night in winter, and my mom and I were reading Fox in Socks to them. The power went out when we were a few pages from the end. We just kept reciting the book until we were done.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 02:16 am (UTC)Oh my. Geek Christmas presents he won't be expecting! Thank you!
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Date: 2005-12-13 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 04:35 am (UTC)I hated this. I wasn't quite the oldest cousin, but I still lost a lot of books (including picture books I'd like to have for Liam) to my various cousins, until I got old enough to say no and put a stop to it. I still had cousins who borrowed without asking, which may be part of why I am extra possessive about my books today and only lend them to known trustworthy borrowers.
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Date: 2005-12-13 08:20 am (UTC)