House - Have One. Don't fancy anotherWhich makes him a pretty guiltless book buyer.
Car - Have One. Don't fancy another.
Woman - Have one. If I spend on any more than the one I have, I'll quickly find my Species Status upgraded from Rare to Endangered :-)
Monday, January 08, 2007
Priorities
My friend Kaykay (our one and only bookclub guy) may be a bigger bookaholic than I am. I discovered his name in the list of MPH biggest spenders in Quill magazine. How does he justify his profiigate spending? As he told our e-group:
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HaHa!As I mentioned in our e-group, wish I was the lucky sod with the apparently bottomless credit limit, but alas! Am not. Although I did walk into Borders yesterday in Browse-Only Mode and walked out with 3 books. And the purchases were certainly not guiltless. Damn girl! Any rehab centres for people like us I wonder?
i wish there were. it is a bloody addiction. i have to physically keep away from bookshops. and away therefore from shopping complexes that have bookshops in them. the only thing to try to do is to write reviews and try to get the habit to pay for itself.
Whenever I go shopping, even when I'm looking for something in particular, I end up in the bookshop. But so many books. . . which one to buy? Where to find the time?
It really is a bookish addiction. Though like you, I try to stay away from shopping centres with bookstores. But when I am online, the online bookstores beckons!
At least you write reviews to make your habit pays for itself.I have to work at other jobs to feed my habit.
Have sent 3 reviews to Gim Ean. Can only hope she finds some of them Publish-Worthy. Need to start "funding" this expensive addiction:-)
tungku halim - i'm a smash and grab book buyer - books leap to the eye because they are all old friends from reading about them! no need to browse
but that said, i really feel the best bookshops are the ones where you can get help and advice about what you're buying. and her independent bookshops win hands down.
alex - fortunately i've managed to be a bit more restrained about amazon one-click even though i have been spending hours on the british and uk sites writing book lists recently!
kaykay - gim ean isn't around at the moment. and usually, as ted found, your hear nothing nothing nothing ... and then suddenly something is in the paper! keep going. you are good. your reviews have a really nice energy and humour to them.
Where got shopping complexes without bookstores, wan?
*runs away before Sharon whacks me*
*thwack*
anyway, i completely avoid 'em now ... most of the time
ШАРOН;
I sporadically buy second-hand books whenever me pockets pooped out!
Found six of Theroux's old titles(The Family Arsenal & The Black House among them) at some secondhand books' nook (I call it "NOT-TOO-KEENokuniya") in Lucky Garden(s)!
Also found some good titles at the KLCC LRT tunnel.There's this little grubby Indian lady who sells grubby old books spread out on her equally grubby mat!A perfect playground for happy silverfish and bristletails alike!
I was walking through the tunnel with my then boyfriend one day and we found his half-gnawed book (with hundreds of silverfish happily swimming on his perfect grammar) on that very same mat going for RM3! LOL!
"anyway, i completely avoid 'em now ... most of the time"
The shopping complexes or the bookstores?
But bookstores aren't the only places that sell books these days. Mamak stalls also got, and your neighbourhood coffee shops, too. Plus I got a good book by Carol Shields from that secondhand knick-knack antique shop on the lower ground floor of AmCorp Mall. That shop had a few Michener's, too.
BTW, when are we meeting for coffee and cupcakes, ah? I wanna test your power of resistance.
anna - yes, i've seen those folks selling books in the tunnel and i was intrigued. a bargain is always a joy.
i try to avoid both, chet. meet up with you soon. can't sat but maybe sun.
Sun is the annual K9 day at the One Utama New Wing lakeside. Not sure if I'm going yet, depends on whether meeting up with Eliza.
What about Pinter? Last day is this Sunday.
You know, if he bought another house and rented it out, in a few years he could have even more money for books :)
chet - still on on sunday? if so let's go to that?
Yes!
grubby second hand books in KLCC LRT tunnel? really? i never see this... is it closer towards the avenue k or whatever it's called? MUST FIND GRUBBY BOOKS NOW! hee.
as for me, house: none. car: none. man: none. whether or not i should be announcing this to the public is something for me to decide (and regret) later. so i spend on books, lah. especially now that it's my first "official" job post-grad and i will spend money on books, damnit. so what if i have no savings? my mom looks at me and goes, "shouldn't you be buying more clothes? like other girls?" she's always been worried for me. but hey... she's the one who started off reading all those stories to me when i was young...
i should start a dating agency here, really i should ... *LOL*
yes, my priorities are much the same ... and books make me happy dammit!
SHARON, that's a great idea!"LOL"
Everyone here has something in common; The love of books!
ANNA aka TS, ooooo,someone's former boyfriend is a writer eh?Whats his name again?
I saw you being accompanied by a tall man with a scowl that never left his face at the philharmonic last year.
Is he the one?Poor girl!Didn't look like you enjoyed that evening much.Good that you got rid of him(assuming that you're the one who dumped him)
You deserve someone better looking and milder mannered.......ME! "LOL"
intellectually tall. aiyah. now i am so laughing.
okay write your ads in the style of the london review of books and post them here.
or shall organise a matchmaking tea where pairings-up will be on the basis of literary taste. ... valentines is round the corner, isn't it? ...
but shall charge commission. for every successful relationship that ends in marriage you have to give me your first-born.
Give you their first-born? To start them young at books buying?
SHARON, AYOOOO, Where can like that? This is just like the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm!I have to say your real name to render the contract null and void!
Dont you worry Anna, I'll handle this!
Is it Mary?
Is it Ruth?
So it must be RUMPELSTILTSKINokuniya!!(hehe this one inspired by Anna also) "LOL"
rumpelstilskinokuniya!
*gasp* how did you guess?
*stamps foot*
Intellectually Tall; Aiyayaiii! You very naughty laaa. Why you like to kacau me laaa :D
I will not name my ex-boyfriend as that would be unethical.
His volatility puts Vesuvius to shame(well, you did witness that at the MPO ,didnt you)
And I reached the end of my tether after three tumultuous years of tireless tenacity.
Temperamental and bipolar. These are the traits that he thinks great writers do and should possess ergo he had to acquire them.and acquire them he did.
Sharon; What's your take on this. Does one need to have one or more personality disorders(in other words, one has got to be an extremely flawed human being) in order to become a great writer?
ANNA, thats a load of bullcrap. Talent and brilliance do not come hand in hand with bipolarity.
There are many well known great writers who live in harmony with society. If youre still in talking terms with him, ask him to seek some treatment.
These disorders are easily treatable with mild medication that does not affect the functionality of the frontal lobe.
SHARON, youre an excellent writer yourself and I'm sure you have a sweet disposition.What's your opinion on this...that writers have to be afflicted with clinical character disorders to render them GREAT!
Maybe you could write something about this.
have written on the relationship between bipolarity and creativity in fact:
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2005/03/touched-with-fire.html
http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2005/05/obituary-for-egolf.html
i think in the end mood disorders and personality disorders work against creativity - they prevent the person afflicted from being able to work effectively or even at all
and it's essential that such illnesses are treated as any other physical illness and the person who is sick gets help
the biggest problem in this society is that any kind of illness that affect the mind carries such stigma and that means that people who are sick often don't get the help they need, or choose themselves to deny it
it's an issue i feel very strongly about, have read a great deal about, a corner i would fight
btw fiction editor betsy learner has a great chapter on the bipolar writer in "the wood for the trees"
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