BTT X2 and a day late

In the time it took me to sit here and post last night, all the water in my body seemed to have gone to my feet. By the time I got up, I was wondering if they might act as sponges and leave a squishy wet trail wherever I walked. I count myself lucky in that this has only been a problem recently and even then not as bad as my first pregnancy, in which I had water-logged cankles for three months and my friends called me “Flipper”… but still, it kind of sucks and I’m to the point now where I won’t miss being pregnant! Today I’m going to try posting with my feet propped on an adjacent chair… of course, the way I have to sit to do this just makes my back hurt…

Back to business: Booking Through Thursday! I didn’t post last week but had actually taken pictures for that one, so rather than let them go to waste, I’ll just do a two-fer here.

This week’s question is about Monogamy:

One book at a time? Or more than one? If more, are they different types/genres? Or similar?
(We’re talking recreational reading, here—books for work or school don’t really count since they’re not optional.)

I remember when I was caught by my mother reading two books at once as a child. Her reaction has made it difficult for me to do so ever since. She was adamant, saying that it’s bad to read more than one book at a time; how would I ever keep the characters or the plots straight? No, she insisted, it must be just one; you aren’t supposed to read two books simultaneously.

I suppose that I could read two fictional works at once – well, in fact, I have, when I’ve needed to read one for work and one for me. I did okay with it and the sky didn’t fall, but to this day, given the choice, I will only read one at a time. However, I have no problem reading a novel and something nonfiction at the same time, provided the nonfiction isn’t something with a plot, like an autobiography or anything else that might have people and events to keep straight. I know that I could keep them straight between two books since I’ve done it for work; it’s just hard for me to do so guiltlessly after growing up with the notion that it’s “wrong,” even though I don’t agree as an adult. This is why, recently, I started reading The World According to Garp, but then put it down unfinished because my book group started reading A Trip to the Stars, which in turn was put down when I didn’t finish in time so that I could read A Thousand Splendid Suns with them. I finished that one, and then everything else fell by the wayside because I had to read the last Harry Potter. After that, I went back and finished Garp, and am now drawing near the end of Stars. Backwards and crazy, I know!

Last week’s question: Multiples

Do you have multiple copies of any of your books? If so, why? Absent-mindedness? You love them that much? First Editions for the shelf, but paperbacks to read? If not, why not? Not enough space? Not enough money? Too sensible to do something so foolish?

Yes, I do have multiple copies of some books, for all the reasons listed above. I have

• Lonesome Dove, Pride and Prejudice, and A Prayer for Owen Meany in both paperback and hardcover: I read the paperbacks and liked them so much that I wanted to have the nicer copies as well
• Cold Mountain in paperback and hardcover; I read the hardcover, loved it and recommended it to a friend… who then forgot that I was the one who had recommended it to her and bought me a paperback copy for my birthday

The reason for two copies of these books is usually that I find mass market paperbacks to be of an inadequate quality for books that I really loved. I don’t like the flimsy, cheap paper or the way I end up with ink all over my fingers if I’m not careful about how I hold the book. I like trade paperbacks just fine, though, and find them more convenient than lugging around a hardcover, so I have to really, really love a book to want to buy a hardcover copy if I already have it as a trade paperback.

• Collectible / antique editions of Jane Austen books, bought on ebay: I loved the period drawings inside and wanted a few for that reason, so mostly they sit on display
• Two trade paperback copies of A Place Where the Sea Remembers; one is an autographed copy, and I wanted to keep that one clean
• Hardcover and paperback editions of all the Harry Potter books, but this is actually my husband’s fault. I already had the hardcovers, but when he decided to read them, he found the hardcovers too cumbersome to carry back and forth to work every day (he would read them during the dead hours at night while waiting for calls for X-rays from the ER), so he bought the paperbacks.

(one is missing from the paperback picture; he loaned it out)

• This last one is just my absent-mindedness, and I didn’t even realize I had done it until I was looking for multiple copies of books for this post:

I bought the one on the left from a Friends of the Library location, but someone had gone crazy with a highlighter (but no written notes) inside. I remember thinking that I would like to pick up a clean copy, which must have resulted in the second one, even though I (still) don’t remember doing it. Recently, I decided to pick up a clean copy while taking advantage of the Buy 2, Get 1 Free table at Borders, not realizing that I’d already done so. The most embarrassing part? I haven’t even read it!

This is the first and hopefully, last time I buy three copies of anything just from pure absent-mindedness, although I have caught myself out at almost buying two, again because I am forgetful. I have too many books, and sometimes I will pick one up that I’ve already bought and then have a sneaking suspicion that I have it at home… sometimes I am right.

17 Aug This entry was published on August 17, 2007 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Booking Through Thursday, Pregnancy. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.