Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bibliomania

      Hehe. I guess you could pretty much tell by the mere fact that I'm blogging again that I had to take the day off from work. Again. Pfeeeeeeew it stresses me out, just thinking of the backlog. Not to mention the additional stress I've caused my fellow teachers, who had to sub for me. Gaaaaaaaaa.......

      Okay, ranting over.

      I think our family may have a common psychological illness. I think... we may have... bibliomania.

     According to Wikipedia, Bibliomania is "an obsessive-compulsive disorder involving the collecting or hoarding of books to the point where social relations or health are damaged."

      (I don't think we're anti-social because of our love for reading, though it certainly makes us less fearful of being alone. Reading is the cure for any form of loneliness, I believe.)

      We don't often get visitors, but whenever someone goes to our humble abode, the first thing he/she exclaims is, "Ang dami ninyong libro!"

      We're pretty frugal with the way we live our lives, but we sure don't scrimp on our books! We only eat out on special occassions, we do not spend on branded attire nor accessories, and until now I've never set foot inside an airplane and can only boast of travelling as far as Boracay and Baguio.

       To offset my desire for travel, all I have to do is pick up a book. :) And we've got plenty of those at home, thanks to my parents who passed on their love for reading and learning to us.

       Last weekend, Papa and Mama bribed Tata and I into accompanying them on their trip to Bonifacio High Street (aka Serendra) with the words, "We'll pay for your books."

      My oh my. You should have seen the speed with which we dropped our red ballpens and test papers, and how quickly we showered and got dressed. ;) All good intentions of checking and lesson planning evaporated as we excitedly prepared for the half-hour drive that would take us to that haven for bibliophiles/bibliomaniacs in Manila... the flagship store of FULLY BOOKED.

       I was more circumspect in my choices and only got to purchase three books, while the others went wild, literally, and we ended up carting five plastic bags of tomes to our vehicle. As Tata put it, "We shopped for groceries in the bookstore."

      There. My Christmas break to-read pile is sitting by my bedside. :)

 

1. The Portable Hannah Arendt edited by Peter Baehr    

     

      2. The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy  (a book which inspired Mohandas Gandhi's principles of non-violent protest)

      3. Selected Poems by Christina Rossetti

      I believe that one can never spend too much on books, nor is it sinful to buy more than one can read in a given length of time. It is alright to have book piles, for sooner or later, you WILL read those books that you bought. It could be next week, or even next year, but eventually you WILL get to read them. :) So go ahead. Splurge on your books.

      This hedonistic viewpoint comes with a caveat, though. I believe that one should put to use all the knowledge and all the ideals that one gets from reading. Otherwise, what is reading for? :)

35 comments:

  1. Hahaha... Gabi! You have no idea how much my next blog is related to this and I'm putting off posting it because guess what? I'm finishing a book. haha =)

    Does it sound strange if I say... my family shares the "disorder" of your family? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm how intriguing!

    I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that we're distant relatives or something... seeing that we share so many things in common! :)

    This is one mania that I wish were more contagious. As A.S. Byatt put it,

    "What literature can and should do is change the people who teach the people who don’t read the books."

    ReplyDelete
  3. gabi!!! i miss you guys. i totally dig this mania. we're all "suffering" from it...and it's a fantabulous form of suffering. on my part, i "gave" myself 60 (as in six times ten) books for christmas (this is how i wallow, hahaha). i dont know how they will fit my small apartment when they arrive but i'll just find a way i guess. =) enjoy your day!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. A.S. Byatt! Do you know how much I like her?! O_O

    Gabi, if you didn't have a real twin sister, I would fancy myself about holding that position. =P

    ReplyDelete
  5. I miss you too Judie!!!! Whoa, sixTY!?! Ang saya saya! Kaya yan, I believe... you just use piles of books instead of tables and chairs, you can sit on them, dine on them, etc. hahahaha for space saving measures. God bless you my dear, til the next book session!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hahaha maybe you're our missing triplet sister!! :)

    OoooOoooOoh I luff A.S. Byatt's "Possession" so much... I fancy myself writing poetic love letters to my future husband someday, hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh, your online? im very free so you should just text. heck just text me a smiley (why are umlauts smileys now?) and il be in starbucks katipunan ( the one near shakeys) at 4pm the next afternoon upon receiving:) hahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  8. i wish i read as much as you! it must be soooooo exciting getting to read so many books. how do you find the time to read all your books?

    ReplyDelete
  9. speaking of book piles, am still wading through mine. and it. keeps. getting. bigger. faster than i can read! 0_o

    ReplyDelete
  10. Haha I think you get to read more books than I do, Mika :) Actually I have very little time to read, there's so much to do kasi, but I try to log in 15 minutes before going to bed... and also, Sunday afternoons. I'm lucky if I get to finish one book a week. But yes, there's nothing more exciting than losing one's self in a good book, or losing one's self in excellent music. :p

    ReplyDelete
  11. Haha and it's about to get bigger, Nicole dear, when we go to Booksale!!!! :p

    Okay lang yan... it's an investment for your future! You can even pass on your books to your kids! :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. i don't have much time to read either. i have piano and the internet (more of the latter, haha) to fill up my time. how i'd love to spend a few days living in fully booked, drinking coffee, reading, listening to music, then eating some krispy kreme. haha.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I only buy as much as I can read. Live within your means. Hahahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hehe I guess it's all about a matter of making time for the things that are important to you, be it reading or playing the piano. Or stuffing one's self with donuts (I prefer cello's!!! cheese donuts da bomb)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why buy when you can borrow books from friends? And what are book pals for? ;) hehehehehe basta Christian text ka lang if you feel like borrowing anything

    ReplyDelete
  16. Borrow within your means din. Hahahaha.

    This Christmas mags-splurge ako sa books. Booksale Warehouse here I come!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm not much of a reading person like you guys; most of the things I read are related to my never ending research work on cultural politics, and I'm pretty much tired of those because the world has not changed much despite the advancement of social theories. I wish I had the time to read the books you were describing. they seem to be so "warm" and full fo life; but what books are to you, music scores and CDs are to me; music (not discourse about music) is as much a discourse to me; I marvel at Webern or Beethoven in more ways than I would marvel at Baudelaire or Hermann Hesse; and my house is a chaotic abode of scores, CDs, music sketches of pieces I nver get to finish or forget about.......

    ReplyDelete
  18. cheese donuts? sounds like a daring flavor! i'll try it soon. :)

    this christmas break seems like a perfect time to catch up on my reading, lots and lots of free time! yahoo!

    ReplyDelete
  19. is it an interesting topic? i've sometimes been tempted to read on that topic, but that's more from curiosity than an actual love for the topic. i enjoy anything that gives me fresh insights on music and life. a fresh or mind-blowing insight is one of the things i love the most in life. haha, which is perhaps i became a bit of weird person.

    ReplyDelete
  20. well, I got into those only because I thought it was an effective source of insights and perspectives about out society, and those of the marginalized peoples....and yes, there are so meany fresh insights, but I am a bit tired of mere discourse for the academic sake of it...I'm into "action research".........I prefer to translate this discourse into praxis....just as my other self in his BANWA aestheticized his reading of Benedict Anderson's notion of the "imagined community"

    ReplyDelete
  21. I've always joked with Reg that, as long as I can eat the food I want and buy all the books I want, I'll already be filled with contentment. Hehehe

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hahaha! I love it, Gabi! I should introduce one of my bibliomaniacal friends to you. I think you'd get her to stop love/hating herself too much from her endless guilt cycles about buying the "oh-too-many books". :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. We have a fair share of music books and scores lying around our house as well, Sir, but nowhere near the amount that you have, I think. :) I really should file away my music pieces in a more organized manner... maybe have a computerized retrieval system? hahaha ooooh the dream

    ReplyDelete
  24. It really is. First got to know about Cello's Cheese donuts through Sir Eudy, they're his favorite. Ang sarap, grabe. Like no other donut I've ever tasted.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ditto! That's what I love about reading. :) New ideas flooding my brain. I also enjoy coming across a thought that I've "thought of" but never really expressed in terms of language. It never fails to send chills up and down my spine when I read an author who puts his finger on the spot, so to speak, and expresses in eloquent terms the vague idea that I had a mere inkling of.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hear hear!! :) As the "overplayed" saying goes, actions always speak louder than words.

    Words and ideas can't help people. Only people can help other people.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Same here, Kim :)

    Kulang na lang "kape" and "soulmate." Oh yeah I forgot. You have Reg na :p

    ReplyDelete
  28. Yes, tell her it's one vice that one should be unashamed of! ;) It's beneficial, too.

    Congratulations on your album launch!!! Will be sure to grab a copy!

    ReplyDelete
  29. you expressed just what i was thinking too!

    it's a delight to find a piece (or pieces) of yourself in a book!

    ReplyDelete
  30. i read in some magazine that perhaps someday, thanks to technology, all the books that were ever written by mankind will be made easily accessible to everyone via some wireless portable device. isn't that exciting?! and what if the same will be done for music?!!!!! O_O a whole fully booked in the palm of your hand! :P dream dream dream...

    ReplyDelete
  31. Speaking for myself, I much prefer the physical act of handling a book, caressing its pages and inhaling its scent... no Kindle can replicate that. And about reading music from a computer... wouldn't it be extremely difficult to play a score, reading from a screen? hehe

    ReplyDelete
  32. yes I mustagree; while we might marvel at the "hyper-reality" of being able gain access to ANY book in the world in this projected portal, I think nothing will ever replace the ritual of being able to hold the book physically....that tangible manifestation of the thoughts of its writer/s....;

    ReplyDelete
  33. haha, it would, and it would also hurt the eyes i think. well, i prefer physical books too. but how i'd like to have soooo many of them!

    ReplyDelete