Top Ten Bookish Problems

Posted February 16, 2015 by Cristina (Girl in the Pages) in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Features/Memes / 30 Comments

TTTcustombannerAs usual, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fantastic blog The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Book Related Problems You Have.

1) Storage: I feel like this is going to be on everyone’s list this week, but it’s a serious issue! I feel like I am pretty good about using the library (probably about 40% of the books I read I check out) but even with three tall bookcases I am overflowing. My book buying has definitely increased since starting my blog, but it’s also made me much better at avoiding buying titles that I won’t like! I also just can’t get on the e-reader bandwagon because books are like art for my house- part of the experience of reading is holding it in your hands and displaying the beautiful covers!

2) Time: As I try to challenge myself a little more each year with my reading goals, it of course takes up more and more time (not to mention the time to write reviews for almost every book I read!) I love reading and blogging but sometimes it’s hard to balance both (finding enough time to read content to blog about and then finding the time to write about it!)

3) Staying On Top of Reviews: Piggybacking on #2, it can make me a bit anxious if I end up reading faster than I’m reviewing. I’m usually very good at keeping on top of this but right now I have 4 books I’ve read in the past 2 weeks that I’ve yet to write reviews for.

4) Book Hangovers: I don’t know about you but sometimes books just put me in moods. (For instance, it’s hard not to feel melancholy right now after finishing I Was Here by Gayle Forman.) Sometimes the residual feels make it hard to be able to get on with my reading list.

5) Book to Movie Adaptations: A curse and a blessing, sometimes there is nothing worse than seeing one of your favorite books of ALL TIME be turned into a cringe-inducing movie. (I was SO disappointed in the Beautiful Creatures movie, and let’s not discuss Twilight and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix…) But sometimes they can be glorious (I loved the adaptations of If I Stay and Divergent).

6) When People Ask to Borrow Books: Unless you are my boyfriend or my aunt (both whom I know extremely well/know where they live so I can check on my pretties) it’s not happening. This has put me in SO many awkward positions before, but I’m so OCD about the condition of my books that I cannot lend them out and feel OK about it. Likewise, I never ask to borrow others’ books because I don’t want to put them in that position! There’s obviously an exception for books that I’m not planning on keeping, which I’m happy to pass along/donate.

7) Spending Hours Wandering Around the Bookstore: And being with people who don’t understand why you can’t just go in, grab something, pay for it and leave. It’s not about the purchase it’s about the whole experience. A trip to the bookstore (or library) is never a quick errand for me.

8) My Bag/Backpack Weighing 5,000 Pounds: Because I always have some sort of reading material with me. I’m THAT person who brought four HARDCOVER books to London for a 12 day trip because I was scared I was going to run out of reading material and I’m not about that e-reader life.

9) Having Others “Judge” My Reading Taste: This is so not cool, but something I faced a lot of as an English Lit major. “YA” was practically a sacrilegious term for some of my classmates, and most of them thought I was kidding when I told them my senior thesis was on Harry Potter. As long as what someone is reading isn’t derogatory/demeaning/abusive I won’t be one to judge.

10) Buying Books Feels Good: There’s nothing better than seeing books in your mailbox. Sometimes my heart screams yes but my wallet says no.

Do you share any of my bookish problems? Let me know in the comments!

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30 responses to “Top Ten Bookish Problems

  1. Ah yes, I can relate to these problems! Especially the book hangover, the buying books problem and having a bag so heavy due to the books I’m carrying! The struggle!

  2. Storage is a massive one for me at the minute because I own over 250 books and I have one teeny 4 shelf bookcase. I need new bookcases in my life so bad! I’m not usually ahead of my reading vs reviews, but I am at the minute. On the one hand it’s a nice feeling, because yay content, but on the other, I need to actually sit down and write them before I forget all my thoughts! Book hangovers definitely suck, I had one recently from How (Not) To Fall In Love, which was more nostalgic daydreaming about the male MC… oops.

    I need to wander bookstores alone really, I find it relaxing and can do it for ages, but anytime I nip in with friends they get bored after 3 minutes and don’t see the point in being there if you don’t know what you want to buy and pick it up real quick.

    My TTT: https://confessionsofabookgeek.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/top-ten-tuesday-book-geek-problems/

    • Oh no! Do you have any ideas of how you’re going to get new bookcases/ store your books? I am still managing to keep most of mine on my shelves (I have started to do the dreaded double stacking) but I have a lot of my childhood/middle grade books in boxes in storage!

      • I’ve been holding out for over a year because my dad salvaged some lovely wood and was going to build them for me, but we might be moving soon, so it’s been put on hold (though it was over a year, so the chances of them being done at all was slim!). I was going to go to Ikea and just buy what I need, but I really wanted ones with sentimental value so I kept holding out. I’m hoping it’ll be sorted in the next few months one way or the other… I don’t even know how many books I have in storage, or where exactly they are… I don’t think it’s too many. I remember culling when I was younger (HUGE mistake) so I shouldn’t have too many… R x

  3. I can’t go into a bookshop and just grab what I want either! Usually I grab want I want and a couple of other things, or I get something totally opposite to what I intended! I’m on holidays at the moment in Melbourne and people look at me like I’m crazy when I said I went specifically book shopping yesterday! I drive everyone mental when I go book shopping so I prefer to go by myself 😛

    • I like to go by myself too, because then there’s no pressure to hurry up! I totally hit up bookstores when I’m on vacation, because you never know what treasures you can find when you’re in a new place! (I also love buying books in other countries because of the different covers!)

  4. I only really lend books to my sister and that’s because I know how much care she takes over her books! Again, like you, I don’t have a problem donating books I don’t want to keep but it’s a real struggle to loan someone a copy of a favourite. I don’t think I ever have actually! Oops. My OCD about the condition of my books is so bad! 😀 Great list!

    • Thank you! We seem to have similar feelings about loaning out books (only to a few trusted family members!) It’s just such a personal thing, just like I don’t really like to lend out my clothes/makeup.

  5. Lovely list!
    I’ve gone through so many book hangovers:( After reading The Book Thief I just sat on my bed in tears for a while and didn’t start another book for a while. Or after reading the last book of a series it’s hard to move on;)
    So many books are being turned into movies! It’s definitely a curse or a blessing:P Some books are just perfect to be turned into movies but others are just done badly:(
    I love spending time in bookstores and finding books that make me excited to read so I take ages choosing books!
    It’s not nice when people judge book tastes- we all like different books and have a right to! A thesis on Harry Potter is so cool:D

    • AGH I have the book thief waiting for me on my shelf but I feel like I can’t find a good time to read it because I hear it’s going to make me SO SAD. I had so much fun writing my thesis, I was so happy to have so many wonderful professors in my department who didn’t look “down” on children/YA literature!

  6. I have a hard time staying on top of my reviews as well. Last week I had to review seven books because somehow I managed to read that many books in a week! That’s why I’ve learned to take notes because it helps. I tend to spend hours wandering around a book store too. I just can’t help it-looking at all the books makes me so happy! Great list, thanks for sharing. 🙂
    Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian

    • I try and take notes but often times I’m reading when I’m out and about/don’t want to carry around a notebook with me. I either try to jot down a list of things I want to cover in my review right after I read, or I’ll post-it certain pages and then flip back to them to refresh my memory for my review. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  7. Even though Uriah has a minimal role in Divergent, they got some catching up to do with that friendship in the next movie (yes, I’m still bitter he wasn’t included).

    I probably revisit the same shelf-area several times during my visit to stores. There’s no systematic way of shopping either. I found that if you go close enough to the expected publications, most stores already started selling them (maybe a week in advanced), but I seldom see them at the front to be advertised until after they’re ‘released’. TL;DR: visit ALL the shelves!

    Cheers,
    Joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts.

  8. Yay! you included the dont-judge-me-based-on-my-books topic! I did too, and I’m surprised that I haven’t seen it on more lists this week. It honestly bugs me so much! we don’t have to like the same books, that’s cool, but get outta here with the book shaming! My TTT

    • Exactly! If I have a problem with a book/topic (for me currently it’s what I see as abusive themes in FSoG) I will openly talk about it and my perception of it on my blog, which is my space to explore my own feelings. But I would never bring someone else down or negatively comment on one of their posts for liking something that I don’t. Plus, allowing for dissenting opinions is what good blogging discussions are all about!

      • Yep, I couldn’t agree more. Personally, I’ve always been pretty determined to try and see both sides of an argument, because a) I’m a curious person and I tend to get the most information by exploring both sides, and b) stimulating conversations/debates, where both sides are passionate, knowledgeable, and respectful, is the most intellectual and gratifying type of communication for me. Granted I usually come to one conclusion or another, but I try to at least gain some insight as to where each opinion stems from.

  9. Storage is a big problem for me, especially since I, er, don’t have bookshelves….Yeah, huge inconvenience. I also suffer with staying on top of reviews, I never am. 🙁

    I agree with book hangovers and movie adaptions. Oh wow, you liked If I Stay, I was actually really disappointed in it myself.

    Ha, I read number 8 and thought of that scene in Gilmore Girls where Rory has her bookbag and she has like four books in there too. Lol. That would’ve been the perfect gif.

    NUMBER NINE YES. Like I tell friends or whoever, “acquaintances” that I read YA (when they ask what I like) and they’re like “Oh.”.

    Like, I was in a car with someone, an acquaintance, and I was talking about how I bought books that day, two of them being books in the Pretty Little Liars series and she was like “Oh, I used to read those. I know the middle school girls like them”. Like….I just felt bad after she said that. 🙁

    Buying books does feel good. That’s why I always buy books as retail therapy. Though it’s not the same buying them for a Kindle.

    • I hate when people “look down” on YA because the “target” audience is technically 12-17. I find that I get so much MORE out of reading them in my twenties because I appreciate the deeper themes and subtleties, and I’ve found that more and more YA is dealing more, actual “young adult” rather than teen issues, without venturing into NA (I like that Gayle Forman’s books, for example, have a lot of college protagonists!)

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