The Books & Life Book Tag (from A Book Olive on YouTube)

On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is a normal person how much are books and reading a part of your life?

I was, naturally, tempted to say 10 or at least 9 to this question. Books are and long have been an integral part of my life, but they are not ALL of my life – just a significant lump of it. So, honestly, I’d have to say 7-8 on my best days.

Where does your personal library stand in relation to the rest of your life? Do you have more books now than you’ve ever had? Fewer? How has your library changed?

I have more books now than I have ever had. In part that’s because I have my own house and full control of it so I can have book shelves in multiple rooms rather than, in my teen years, ‘only’ three tall bookshelves along one wall of my bedroom in my parents’ house. I’ve also a lot more disposable income after 30+ years of working so no longer really think about the costs of books these days.  

What is the most likely first bookish impression a newcomer would have in your home?

I’m sure people who have never met me before would think that I’ve just moved in to this house with books in piles on the floor or in cardboard boxes under the stairs. Their second thought(s) would probably be: “My, you have a LOT of books”, followed by “Have you READ all of these?”  

How often, if ever, do you clean or reorganise your books?

I dust my books from time to time. It’s rare they get reorganised on the shelves though. Mostly they’re clumped by author or subject so don’t need reorganising very much, in fact I still have two entire shelf units containing books I purchased for my Masters degrees still pretty much as they were from years ago. I am thinking of reorganising my 'Belief' unit though to something a bit more 'current'. I do periodically reorganise the piles of books though into subject areas so I don’t need to go looking for particular books too often. The last few mini-reorganisations have, mostly, followed additional Blog labels and reflect future reading plans.

On average how many books do you acquire in any given week?

It does vary a bit. Some weeks could be as low as 2 and, very occasionally, none at all. If I’m heading into ‘town’ and hitting my favourite independent bookshop I’d anticipate around 10-15. Similarly I get books for my birthday both from friends and on my own. So, pure guesswork, I’d say that *average* weekly purchases is around 4. Which is of course a slight problem as I only read around 2 each week….

What percentage of your self-control do you retain in a well-stocked bookshop?

Erm, none! OK, there are *some* caveats – I need time to shop properly and I need some way to carry my purchases home. Money probably wouldn’t come into it and I’d figure out where to put them later….

Do you ever feel the need to take a break from books and, if so, what form does it take?

I take breaks from books all the time. I don’t like to ‘chain-read’ so if I finish a book at 3pm I wouldn’t start another one until the next day. A reading break longer than a few hours is a rare event and not actively wanting to read is a very rare occurrence. If I’m not ‘feeling it’ I either game or watch YouTube documentaries, or maybe play in the garden or even, weather permitting go for a walk.

When you meet a new person how long does it take to bring up books?

Depends on the person and depends on what we’re doing. If they’re around me for very long they’ll see me with a book in my hand and we’d be off from there.

Have you given any thought or made any provision for your personal library after you croak?

Yes, I intend to hand over the entire ‘library’ to my sister to distribute among her kids. They’re all readers of various intensity and I’m sure that the youngest especially would like access to so many books for free.

Are you known among your friends and loved ones for your weird and probably unhealthy relationship with books?

What do you think? My Mum and brother are both fairly big readers (although they do tend to concentrate on crime fiction almost exclusively) but my ‘friends’ think I’m bat-shit crazy for being so book-obsessed. The people I worked with, especially the non-readers among them, honestly thought I was from another planet. Even those who read a bit couldn’t really understand how I managed to ‘read so many books’ (around 60-70 at the time) or why I was interested in so many different subjects. I lost count of the times that people @ work said a variation of: “Jeeze, what are you reading NOW?” This amused me GREATLY and, to be honest, I did sometimes read moderately ‘odd’ books at work just to get a reaction from people. Bad me…..