I'm A Book Addict

I'd never really thought of it in those terms before, but I fit pretty much all of BuzzFeed's 25 signs you're addicted to books. And if I read it on the Internet it must be true, right? Joking aside, I love that list. It is very, very me.

I love that the first item on the list uses a GIF from Matilda to illustrate its point. I've never seen the movie, but I read the book in elementary school and I still have it. I haven't read it in years, but I think it's time to give it a re-read. I really should read it before I see Matilda on Broadway in December.

The other items on the list that really hit close to home were those that talked about books having a great impact on one's emotions and books causing the reader to make bad decisions with respect to eating and sleeping. The sleeping thing is a real issue for me right now. I keep choosing reading over sleeping even though I know it will screw up my sleep patterns; the books are just so good that I don't care. (And any book that I choose over sleep must be good because I love sleep.)

I wish I knew where the "Baby Got Back"-inspired mug came from. I must have it. If you know where I can purchase it, please let me know.

Characters Stay With You

A strange thing happens when I watch Phillies Spring Training games this year: at some point during the game I start thinking about Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's not really that surprising, though, when one considers that the Phillies have an outfielder named Ender Inciarte and I just (some might say "finally") read Ender's Game in February.

This got me thinking about other fictional characters that stayed with me in weird ways. I used to smile whenever I saw the logo on the Sirius satellite radio antenna on my car because it made me think of Sirius Black (my favorite Harry Potter character). Sadly, it doesn't happen anymore because the antenna on my new radio is in a less visible place on my car.

In a lot of ways my new career in librarianship is due to Henry DeTamble, the time traveling librarian in The Time Traveler's Wife. It's not that Henry made me want to be a librarian, but the book made me consider librarianship as a viable career option; it made me realize that librarians have more options than working in a public library or a school.

I'm sure I have others that just aren't coming to me.

A Good Book Could Lift Sagging Spirits (article)

My mom passed along this article that appeared in the Tampa Bay Times last week. It discusses a "list of 27 books to make you feel better" (Tobar, 2013) that was released by the UK's Society of Chief Librarians.

I've used books as comfort food my whole life, so I was intrigued by the list. The funny thing is that I've only heard of one of the 27 books (Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani). The next time I'm feeling down I'll have to look for one of the books on the list to see if it helps. (Big Stone Gap is a strong contender for the role because I actually started reading it once upon a time.)


Tobar, H. (2013, March 8). A good book could lift sagging spirits. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved from
http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/a-good-book-could-lift-sagging-spirits/2107403

Reading Books Can Save Your Life

I stumbled across this blog post by A.J. Jacobs, author of Drop Dead Healthy, today.  In the book, Jacobs tries "to become the healthiest person alive" (Jacobs, 2012, para. 1).  Part of his quest involved determining whether activity X was healthy.  According to Jacobs, meditating, napping, and petting dogs are all healthy activities.  Sitting, on the other hand, is "definitely not" (Jacobs, 2012, para. 2) healthy.

One activity not covered in his book is reading, so that was the focus of his blog post.

Is reading healthy?  Well, it isn't bad for your eyes, so there's that.  Jacobs also discusses Annie Murphy Paul's New York Times piece that I discussed here and points out that reading is good for your brain and makes us better human beings.  Unfortunately, there are piles of research that show that sitting is bad for you, "like a Paula Deen bacon doughnut bad" (Jacobs, 2012, para. 10).  Since most people sit while reading, that's a bad thing.  Jacobs advocates reading standing up (or even walking on a treadmill), but realizes that most people can't or won't follow that advice.  He recommends fidgeting while reading.

I have to wonder if Jacobs has spent any time with a fidgety person.  A friend and former coworker of mine is the most fidgety person I have ever met.  It's like he has daytime restless leg syndrome.  I love him to death, but his constantly moving legs are distracting and often annoying.  (Of course, he's also one of the skinniest people I know, so maybe there is something to this whole fidgeting thing.)  I can't imagine working in an office full of fidgeting people.  As for myself, it turns out that fidgeting doesn't come naturally to me.  While writing this post I've had to make a conscious effort to fidget in my chair.  I think the only hope for me is to listen to music while sitting, because I catch myself dancing in my chair all the time.  But I don't think librarianship will offer me the same sort of opportunities to spend entire workdays with earbuds in and iPod on that I had as an accountant.

The most interesting parts of the post to me, though, were the stories of reading saving lives.  Teddy Roosevelt suffered a flesh wound in 1912 after being shot in the chest at point-blank range.  How did he survive?  "The bullet was slowed by his reading glasses case and the manuscript of the speech itself" (Jacobs, 2012, para. 5).  Additionally, Ernest Shackleton took the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica on his trip to Antarctica and "ended up burning the volumes to keep from freezing" (Jacobs, 2012, para. 6).  Personally, I'd be much more interested in knowing why Shackleton took such a heavy and seemingly unnecessary thing as an entire encyclopedia to Antarctica.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jacobs comes to the conclusion that books are good for your health.  I have to say that I agree.


Jacobs, A. J. (2012, April 12). A.J. Jacobs on why reading books can save your life [blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.omnivoracious.com/2012/04/aj-jacobs-on-why-reading-books-can-save-your-life.html