From Cracked's list of "6 Things You Didn't Know You Could Get Addicted To," here's a disorder I think I may have:
When you hear there's such a thing as book addiction, you figure, hell, it'd be rad to be addicted to the Western literary canon. You'd be so quick with quips and quotes at dinner parties you could wear a damned monocle and nobody would dare call you on it.I'm not THAT bad, I've never stolen books, and unlike Philadelphia politician Mark Cohen, I've never charged the taxpayers $28,000 over two years just in books. And I don't think my wife would enjoy it if I built a fort in my office.The horrifying reality:
The most prominent modern bibiliomaniac was Stephen Carrie Blumberg. From 1974 to 1990, this bookish chap raided the archives of about 185 North American universities. When the FBI finally raided his Ottumwa, Iowa home, the feds discovered 28,000 stolen books and manuscripts he had been compulsively hoarding.Bibliomaniacs like him don't necessarily read their books or even collect valuable ones. They just collect them out of a compulsive need to have a fuckload of books. So you could be a bibliomaniac while remaining completely illiterate, though you could build a kick-ass fort.
I've seen your bookshelf. You have ALOT of books. But I know you read them..
Posted by: A at April 30, 2008 07:15 PMI openly admit to being a bit of a Bibliomaniac. I can't go tot he local library without stopping in the used book room, and that inevitably leads to my buying at least one book that interests me. Then there are the days like this past Sunday when I wanted to take a walk, so I went down there, looked around, and came home with 5 new books. It only cost $8 though! And they're good ones that I'm definitely going to read soon. I can't say the same of a couple of other books I got there, but it will likely happen at some point. Maybe.
Posted by: Marti at May 6, 2008 09:33 AM