Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s topic is 10 Bookish Things I Want to Quit.
Note: these are not my book stacks! But if I keep piling, my house might end up looking like this. Photo CC-By Nicolas Mirguet
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Piling and stacking books everywhere. It doesn’t matter how many bookshelves I have: I quickly outgrow them. And then the stacks begin. The stack of books I’m reading. The stack of books I’m going to read soonest. The stack of books that just won’t squeeze onto the shelves. The stack of books from the library. The stack of books from the other library. The stack of books I need for class this week. Etc.
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Buying more books. I have thousands of unread books. If I never bought another book and read only books that I own from now until I die, I’d still have unread books—and that’s even if I live to a ripe old age. I periodically vow to stop buying books, just for a month. And literally the next thing I do is buy a book. It’s compulsive. It’s an addiction. It’s expensive. But, all things considered, fairly harmless.
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Returning library books late. Or to the wrong library. It’s challenging to juggle due dates when you check out books from four different libraries. Sometimes it’s hard to juggle the buildings themselves and make sure books get where they belong. I’ve fielded more than one confused call from a librarian about a book I’ve returned that doesn’t belong to them. It’s pretty easy to rationalize away the late book fees, though: that money is going to buy more books, right?
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Not using bookmarks. I would never deface a book by turning down the corners, and I rarely have anything handy to use as a bookmark. So every time I pick up my book to read, I have to find my page again. I really love hardcovers, partly because the jacket flaps can be repurposed into bookmarks.
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Listening to podcasts about books instead of reading books. I’m totally obsessed with now with Books on the Nightstand, All the Books, and several other bookish podcasts. I could be listening to my audiobook on the way to work. But instead, I’m listening to book reviews, making more lists of books to read, and then caving as soon as I get to the office and buying more books.
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Ignoring my digital library. I buy digital books fairly regularly and then almost never read them. I love the convenience but I don’t really like reading books digitally. Now that I’ve realized this about myself, I’m buying fewer digital books, but I’d still like to read the ones I have.
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Loaning and losing books. I’m a bookpusher, which means I’m always placing books into other people’s hands. I love to loan books. I love for my books to be read. But I really hate the loan and lose. Especially picture books and graphic novels. So expensive!
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Holding other people’s books hostage. You should never, ever loan your book to me, because I will never return it. I don’t mean for it to languish on my shelf unread. But there it is. Three years later. I’m sorry!
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Resisting assigned reading—even when I assign it. I don’t really have a traumatic past with assigned reading, so I don’t know where my resistance comes from. Maybe I’m just a reading rebel. But I can’t stand assigned reading—even the reading I assign in my own classes.
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Physically losing books. Okay, they’re not lost. They’re just misplaced. These are books I haven’t even read yet, books I’ve purchased and somehow misplaced before I can start reading them. Goodbye Stranger, where are you? I’ve been looking for you for at least a month now!
the dirigible plum 
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