Bad Bookish Habits

 

Greetings. 

I've felt very busy lately and wanted to just talk about some fun things as opposed to doing any of the more deep posts I had planned.

So today, I'm going to tell you about eight of my bad habits relating to books. 

Pausing Books Partway Through

We'll do this one first because it's something that I know the majority of readers are guilty of. Maybe you're in a slump, on a book hangover, or just found another book more interesting, so you mark your page, set your book down (perhaps even with the full intention of continuing reading it while reading other books too), and then promptly forget to continue it. 

I currently have about seven books I've done this with, not including the book I most recently picked up (for I am still reading it). I also have three books that I DNF-ed, but left the bookmarks in in case I would like to continue with them (and in some cases they were temporary DNFs so I had every intention of coming back to them and of course never did).

("DNF" refers to books that you "Did Not Finish." If someone "DNFs" a book, it means they chose to put it down before finishing it. A "temporary DNF" is to imply pausing a book to return to it whenever you feel like finishing it.)

Leaving Dust Jackets Everywhere

When I get a hardback, I often take the dust jacket off of it for while I'm reading it so that it doesn't get damaged and whatnot. 

However, due to the bad habit listed before this one, this means I have a lot of dust jackets laying around while my bare hardbacks sit in piles. 

This actually can damage the dust jackets, as I just pile them up where ever, and often times end up accidentally putting other things on top of them. 

Using Inner Dust Jacket Flaps As Bookmarks

I often times will just randomly pick up a book and start reading it without actually planning on reading it. I'll start it knowing "I'm not actually 'starting' this book right now, I'm just curious and a bit bored so I'll read some pages" (which I suppose is a whole separate bad habit relating to the "pausing partway through" habit). 

When I do this I don't usually have a bookmark handy (because I wasn't actually intending to read at the time). So if I don't have a notebook to tear a page from, don't have a stray ribbon, and don't feel like pulling my own hair out to make a bookmark, I'll just use the inner flap of the jacket as a bookmark. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing if I'm only reading the first few pages, but I did once get really far into a reread and still used the flap as a mark and it caused the jacket to be a bit out of shape.  
 

Buying Books Without Paying Attention to the Quality of the Copy

When I buy books, I usually just take the first copy on a stack/display or just pull a random one from the shelf. I think I built this habit from buying the majority of my books second-hand at thrift stores and the like.
This is something I was partly aware of doing for a bit, but realized that it was actually a fairly bad habit on my aesthetic adventure. 

The she-elf had found a copy of Nadine Brandes' "Fawkes" and was going to buy it, but found that the only addition the shop had was damaged (the dust jacket was tearing a bit at the bottom and along some folds, and I believe the corner of the hardback was crushed). She went and asked a worker if they had any other copies of it she could buy, and they said they did not.  
And then, they gave her a discount. 

That is when I realized it was a very smart thing to ask for undamaged copies or for a discount on the damaged one, for saving money equals being able to buy more books! 

Hopefully I can remember this lesson from the she-elf and stop buying so many damaged books. 

Buying Books Without Reading Their Descriptions

I like to go into books as blind as possible. I've found that a fair amount of books that I really like, I like because I read without any expectations (usually because an indie wrote them and I bought it before really knowing the book, or because I just found a family member's book laying around the house and impulse read it). 

So I try to read next to nothing regarding a book, and often end up skimming the actual synopsis. I especially do this when a book is by a popular author or if the book itself is popular. 

Because of this, I bought the book "All The Crooked Saints," started reading it (in fashion of the "I didn't really plan on reading this but did anyways" fashion mentioned in #3), and almost immediately DNFed it. I do intend to finish it at some point, but it struck me as rather pretentious and generally dull and weird (in a not good way) so I was in no rush to continue it. 

Had I read the description better I probably (for I still haven't read the description so I do not know for sure) wouldn't have bought it at all.

Buying and Collecting Nonfiction But Never Actually Reading Them

I have a lot of nonfiction books, largely historical nonfiction because while I am a fantasy geek, I'm also a history geek (note I say "geek," not "nerd." I am not intelligent enough to say I am a history "nerd," but I do thoroughly enjoy history). 
However, fantasy is much easier for me to read than my various nonfiction books. So while I have every intention to read all of my archaeological books, all of my Allison Weir books on the Tudors, all of my books about writing, and my one self-help book about dyslexia (I find it amusingly ironic that it's a book to help people read better), I just never seem to get around to it. 

Failing to Actually Review Books

I read a lot. 
I review very little. 
The story of the majority of reviewers.

Book Piles on the Bed

I think all book collectors can relate to having various piles of books on any available surface. I unfortunately accumulate a great number of them on my bed, as I sleep on a bunkbed and it is quite inconvenient to bring things up and down it.
So over time I develop a great hoard of books on the bed which makes sleeping rather uncomfortable. 

This is not healthy for the books or for me, so it is a habit I do really need to break.

 

Do you have any bookish bad habits that I didn't mention? Can you relate to any of the ones I did?  I'd love to hear from you.

Well my friends, that's all for now. I shall see you next time. 

Ever,

- E.P.