Thursday, July 20

Losing My Amazoginity

I reckon since being able to, I've always read more than the average Joe does. Furthermore, having to use the Tube for two hours each day for the past ten years has also given me a chance to get into a regular habit of daily reading (although lately the DS.Lite has messed that up). In other words, I like to think of myself as one who appreciates books. Be it fiction or non, fantasy or thriller, I just can't get enough of having to turn pages.

Despite this pseudo-love I have for books I don't actually own that many. The reason is due to my phobia of building any kind of collection. I mean, they take up space and resources and chances are they won't do anything other than gather dust for 90% of their time under your ownership. It's why I don't own any CDs or DVDs either, or almost always dispose of any videogame collection I may build.

University was supposed to shake me out of this habit, especially after seeing the library my brother had created during the time at his. He had studied Psychology and so had cool sounding titles like "In the Killer's Mind" and "Child Psychology - An Introduction" to boast about. However, when I realised I'd have a bookshelf full of things like "Operating Systems I", "Java in a Nutshell" and "Design Patterns for the 90s", the opposite happened and I ended up actively avoiding buying books instead, and so ended up with none. Which, considering how I did at Imperial, is pretty impressive in itself.

So, no; I don't buy books. Instead, I borrow them from friends, family and libraries (the one at SOAS being amongst my favourites), consume them, and then give them back in order to move onto the next. As a result, I had ended up being in the unique position of being the only guy on this planet[1] never to have ordered a book from Amazon. I've ordered videogames from them, and almost even a DVD player, but never anything with pages.

But that's all changed now. My first book from Amazon was delivered this morning. It's not about anything particularly exciting but it is something I was required to read and that no one else had to lend me. And now that that mental barrier has been breached, I can see myself ordering more and more. Missing out on a book I'm interested in 'cos no one I know has it will now be a thing of the past, and perhaps I'll even end up with a bookshelf to be proud of?

[1] May be an exaggeration.

3 comments:

  1. lol, I've gone the other way; I was an amazon addict, until I realised that I was spending almost £80 a month on books and that was just a nono for one with er..let's say..let's not in fact, lol. It's just a bit excessive, I realised. So then I re-discovered a glorious place, the library. But I rarely go except for say Ibsen, because working with 5000 people you always have an ample supply of books on loan,lol.

    Building a collection is cool, if you have the space for it and don't mind looking geeky..or dusting them pretty often. Since the amazon years, I've put all my books in a make-shift library in the loft, which is quite nice when you want to get away.Trouble is, I find it difficult to reread books, even the classics. Actually, I could probably read Frankenstein and Pride and Prejudice again. And I could watch Blue Planet again too... Hmm.

    Sorry, I've blabbered. Goodluck with the collection building. If you're at SOAS again, pop into the Waterstone's around the corner and go to the Languages floor and then to the REDUCED Books (I think,it's right at the back), you can get theee ooolllldeeesst copies of the classics there and books that you've never heard of but that will...change you. Maybe not,lol but you'll.. just treasure them, lol.

    Got me started. To the loft I go, lol.

    Wassalaam.

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  2. I re-sell my books :P So i just recycle the money..sell the old books, buy new ones w/ the same money..its a good deal :)

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  3. why is everyone going on about books gathering dust? haven't you people heard of a thing called cupboards? it's not a legal requirement for books to be on open shelves you know.

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