On Books

Despite the rather innocent looking title I'm actually here to talk about one of my vices (don't worry no NSFW or TMI flags are required).

Books seem to have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents and grandparents read to me often when I was small and by the time I was 11 I was a member of 3 libraries and borrowing 12 books a fortnight. This started a lifelong addiction I do not want curing of.

I love books. My home is almost overflowing with them. I struggle to throw books away (even the ones I didn't enjoy reading!).

They bring me joy, comfort and assistance on several levels, some of which I'll talk about here.

Books as Escape
This is the bit where I'm supposed to tell you about my deep love of Dickens, Bronte, Tolstoy and the like.  I fear you will be disappointed, an unfortunate run in with The Mayor of Casterbridge and The Pearl whilst at school left me wary of literary fiction.

My addiction is science fiction.

Give me aliens, technological utopias, technological distopias, alternate universes, time travel and telepathic dragons. When I read I want to be transported to the fantastical.

Of course the funny thing about this is that science fiction (at least the good stuff) is ultimately about the human psyche and human relationships just like any other novel.  I just like some blasters, spaceships, supercomputers and time machines as set dressing.

Books as Information
As I am sure some of you know I am a techie by trade and it tends to be a very fast moving one.  In theory books should be a poor source of information in such a fast moving world but they have many advantages.

Most of my reference books can sit on my desk without taking up valuable screen real estate, they don't need batteries and, since the company I work for tends to hold on to technologies long past their usual sell by dates, they can outlast what's currently trendy on the web.

Books as Fetish Objects
When I was a child my dad gave me a great gift, access to a set of "The children's encyclopaedia".   Published in the 1930's they were huge leather bound tomes with crisp, thin pages and a smell which only ever comes from old books.

I read about rubber from the East Indies, I read about prisms, I distinctly remember reading about creating a light show by boring a hole in a glass bottle then filling it with isinglass and letting a point source of light hit the bottle whilst the liquid runs out in a darkened room.

My middle school had some early, beautifully illustrated hardback copies of Frank L. Baum's Oz stories. They were gorgeous and now I would probably give a fair portion of my bank account contents to own them.

To this day I don't know what isinglass is (though I'm sure wikipedia will tell me) but I do know that sometimes the look, feel and smell of a book can be a perfectly valid reason for me to want it.

Books as Magical Totems
Some of my books have a very odd place in my collection, I call them my magical totem books.

These are books I think I should read but never quite get round to.

I have a book on Java development, one on design patterns some on coding standards and several volumes about tech management and quality assurance.  On my more optimistic days I like to think that by simply owning them I am afforded some mysterious magical protection or that their knowledge may seep into me just by my being in their vicinity.

Books as Gadgets
This one is stretching the definition but I love my gadgets as much as I love my books and these gizmos allow me to partake of both addictions at the same time.

I own a Sony e-reader and a Kindle.  Strictly speaking neither of these things are books, they are simply devices for carrying and presenting books.

The Sony is used at work and contains some reference texts and a lots of my own notes.  The Kindle is used in my leisure time and contains some works of fiction.

I had hoped that the Kindle would cut down on the books on every flat (and not so flat) surface problem but, in all honesty, I find I still prefer the shredded tree type of book for the most part.

So...
I love books, they bring me escape, knowledge, comfort and something to do with my eyes when they're not busy.

The addiction is long standing and, as far as I'm concerned, completely incurable and I wouldn't want it any other way.