Bookaholism

So I have one main addiction, obsession, vice, whatever you might want to call it, in my life. I call it “bookaholism. Yup, bookaholism. How do I know that? Well, it has to do with the CAGE questions. The CAGE questions are a basic one-minute screen for alcoholism.

1. Have you ever tried to Cut down on your drinking?
2. Do you feel Angry when someone comments about your drinking?
3. Do you feel Guilty about the amount you drink?
4. Do you need an Eye-opener in the morning?

This may be applied quite well to bookaholism:

1. Have you ever tried to *Cut down* on the amount of books you read?
2. Do feel *Angry* when someone comments about your reading habits, or interrupts a good book?
3. Do feel *Guilty* about the amount of books you read, or the time spent doing so?
4. Do you need an *Eye-opener* in the morning (i.e., do you read at the breakfast table)?

Plus some more questions that are specific to bookaholism...

1. Would you rather spend money on books than food? (Chocolate does not count)
2. Do you hide books so that you can sneak and read unseen? (Skin rags don’t count)
3. Do you always carry a book in your bag or briefcase?
4. Do you read several books at the same time? (Well, not at the same time, but you know what I mean.)
5. Are you unable to pass up a good bookstore? Have you parked illegally in order to enter such an establishment?
6. Are you incapable of leaving a bookstore without buying something?
7. Have you ever snuck-bought a book when you know you should have spent the money on something else?
8. You go into a panic when your flight is delayed on the runway. You're not afraid of flying, but you've finished the book you brought along and you've read every magazine in the seat back cover to cover. (Note – true bookaholics will read old women’s magazines, out of date TV guides and hunting magazines if desperate enough…)
9. When traveling, do you return home with more books than when you left?
10. Do you suffer from the Just-One-More-Chapter Syndrome, which interferes significantly with sleep?
11. Is your to-be-read (TBR) pile too big to fit on one bookshelf?
12. Do you start your spring cleaning by building/buying a new bookshelf?
13. If your house burned down, which would cost more to replace: all the furniture and appliances, or the books?

There are some activities that really do not combine well with reading; sex, skydiving, showering, and snorkeling come immediately to mind. Some people believe that one cannot combine reading with eating, but I disagree – just put your hands on autopilot and you'll find dinner gone. The book never suffers (except for occasional stains). Best way to spend a meal by yourself. However, a book does not make a pleasant dinner partner, if one is reading Silence of the Lambs and eating steak tartare...

It is difficult to combine reading with bicycling, unless it is a stationary bike. I certainly wouldn’t recommend reading and driving a car, although I confess that I have dipped into a book when I was stuck in an interminable traffic jam. Commuting via public transportation, however, allows for excellent reading time. However, then you might miss your stop, if you are at a particularly interesting point in your book. If you crack open a book you’ve been waiting before you leave for work, you might skip work altogether...

Reading does not combine very well with good conversation. You can, of course, hold a conversation while reading, but it's usually somewhat incoherent and not adequately interactive for the other participants. However, reading can lead to a boatload of good conversation. But you do have to stop reading first.

I definitely suffer from bookaholism. I would have to answer “yes” to all of the questions above. Books bring me great pleasure. They are the main source of escapism, if you will, in my life and also one of the main sources of expense. I am not much of a TV watcher, and I don’t go to movies as often as I used to. But I still read for pleasure every single day. The lure of the house we live in is a library – a room with built-in bookshelves on all of the walls. My husband has one shelf. The rest are all mine, along with the other bookshelves in the house. One of my goals in life is to get my daughter addicted. I still have time; she's only 6.

My name is Neuron D, and I am a bookaholic. How about you? Are you a bookaholic, too?

(Thanks to Jim for givng me the idea to make this into a blog post...)