I thought it might be fun to do a weekly “reader confession” post. So many of us have funny reading and book quirks, and we might think we’re alone in our “special book needs” but I can assure you, we’re not.
In fact, every single time I see someone confess a book-related issue of sorts, so many jump in, ecstatic that they’re not the only ones doing the same thing. Needing the same thing. Wondering the same thing.
Some don’t even realize it UNTIL another reader mentions it, and the bond strengthens! Yep. Even though we’ve found our tribe due to our love of books, we have so much more in common than we think.
In fact, some of you have already seen my confession last week, but I’m making it official, right here, as a blog post. 😀 I’m starting us off (and feel free to relate with me, or share YOUR OWN book-related confession in the comments). 😀
Okay now…
This isn’t a confession that I’m a book-hoarder. Big whoop. 
That’s a given. I mean come on. We all sort of are, right? Scratch the “sort of”. WE ALL ARE (and we can book-hoard to our hearts content now with ebooks being so easy to store).
Nope.
This is my confession as to WHY I book hoard. The thought that goes through my head, every time I stare at my bookshelves stacked in books, willy-nilly… every which way. Every time I feel the need to one-click yet another book, even though I have a TON of unread ones, and about 10 different TBR lists that I intend on completing.
And the reason I confessed, was ’cause my book-buds and I were discussing what to do with our “superfluous” books (I mean… we have hundreds, maybe even thousands of unread books in our “libraries”). Some deleted them, some were planning on going through, sorting ’em, re-shelving ’em and deleting those they knew they were never going to read… and, well. I gasped in horror!
This is the thought that goes through my head.
Maryse: Okay guys… secret confession. I’m a book hoarder (ebooks and all), and here’s why.
I don’t delete any books or discard any (and accumulate as many as I can), in case for some crazy preposterous reason one day… nobody ever writes books again.
And then at least I might have enough left over to last me a lifetime.
I know. Crazy, right? Maybe I read too much.
Maryse: You guys should just make a folder/category for them instead called “In case of an Apocalypse” 
bev: I bet that is where Maryse puts all our peanut recs. On her, “In case of an Apocalypse ” shelf.
R: OMG it’s like Children of Men, only Books of Readers. Totally making my Apocalypse shelf on GR now!
Amy: I have a collection named The Chopping Block in my Kindle app with books ready to be deleted, but now y’all have me paranoid about a bookless apocalypse so I’m afaid to delete them…I totally snorted over bev’s comment About FragrantBooks putting our peanut recs in her Apocalypse shelf…
Nay: I’m confused. When you delete your books from your kindle, they stay on your cloud (and you can still get them back from Amazon OR download them from your cloud), so why is there a concern about ‘deleting’ them?? Are you saying that if there’s an apocalypse, the internet will be down and you’ll only have what you have already on your kindle? If so, that makes sense–as long as we have electricity to charge our kindles!
Tessa: Lol I’m afraid there is a random Jewel that isn’t apparent in my books, so they are all staying
Maryse: Exactly Tessa… what IF? You know? What if 50% of them end up REALLY darn good? Or even a quarter of ‘em? What if our next all-time favorite is right there in that batch? Back when I first started reading indie, so many of the covers were just… NO. But darn it, if I didn’t find the best of the best in there.
Lee: I do the same thing.. once I contacted amazon because my new e-books wouldn’t download, they said to delete (send to the cloud) .. instead of that I got a new kindle acct :/
Jenn: I do the same. What happens if we have an zombie apocalypse or something I mean no one will be writing then.
Maryse: Right… I mean, we’ll be locked in, bored in our homes, no work to do, no responsibilities but staying alive. At least we’ll have books!!! 😀
Jenn: Exactly my thoughts!
Kayla: Same here. My sister told me to delete books on my Kindle so I just bought a newer one
Maryse: And Kindles don’t even take up much room! A pile of Kindles on a book shelf is cute too. 🙂
Angie: A Kindle for easy genre! Sounds good to me! Lol
Carleen: This isn’t normal behaviour? I still have paperbacks from 15 years ago. At least we have kindles now, it’s much easier to hoard books and still have room to walk in your house.
Maryse: Thank goodness for e-readers!!!!! Now we’ll just have to find a way to keep them charged in case of said apocalypse. 😉
Marcia: Maryse solar chargers!
Laura: Hey that sounds like a good dystopian theme for a book 😉
Andrea: we’re twins. I have 3 kindles because of this
Sherry: Ha I have two and I thought I was bad
Andrea: one is linked to a different account 🙂
Becky: You can NEVER read too much!!!
Tiffany: Lol! I do the same thing! I cant even delete and just have in my cloud because i think what if amazon crashes or something crazy and my books disappear in the cloud?! So i have them all downloaded on my kindle! Whew! Glad im not the only one lol! 🙂
Angie: That’s me! What if I am without internet for a month for some reason and I get the urge to reread something! haha
Tiffany: Yes exactly! Lol!!
Teresa: I’m the same way !
Becky: My husband thinks I am crazy because I don’t delete my kindle books from my device after reading. The only books that are removed are the kindle unlimited ones when I return them so I can get more.
Karla: Eley Hi, name is Karla and I am a book hoarder… and Proud of it!!!
Mindy: Me too!!! But not bc I think no one will write again…just that, I can’t seem to find it in me to delete them! lol
Susan: I do the same, although I have a feeling your collection is much bigger than mine lok
Suzan: Hahaha! When me and my moms e-readers are totally full with max storage…. We buy new kindles or nooks. Scared of losing them forever in the cloud! Ridic! I know! Hahahah
Maryse: Sounds perfectly logical to me!
Robyn: I plead the 5th on this one! Hehe
Eden: Nope. I buy books whenever I can!
Jenny: Me too :)))
Donna: I’ve got 600 on my IPAD
Kathy: Me too! I don’t delete any of mine.
Connie: You can never read too much ☺.I don’t delete mine either.
Teri: Me too!
Sarah: 4769 on my Nook 🙂
Amber: You are not alone…I suffer from this affliction also
Leslie: Makes perfectly good sense to me….
Deborah: Never can read too much. I read a book a day at least. Maybe two on the weekend. Ill fall over dead with my kindle in my hand im sure. Lol
KellyAnne: I feel exactly the same way…..
Kelly: between 10 and 15k books in my house plus what i have on ereaders… i need more books
Marilyn: I have over 1600 books on my kindle… but my iTunes is quickly filling my laptop and it is 12GB hard drive and 2 Terabit memory….love my books.
Michele: Me too!!
Mel: I do this too because I think it’s a crime to delete a book, each one is a precious gift x
Barbara: Everyone in my family thinks I am crazy because I own over 7000 paperback books and then there are the hardbacks that I don’t count. Most have not been read and are in storage in one place. My response to them is that one day I might not have enough money to afford to buy any but I will have plenty to read. I also have ebooks but don’t know how many
Anya: But what an awesome problem we have, Maryse!
Heidi: You just described me
:D!!! Okay now… if YOU have a funny/quirky/unusual/not-so-unusual book-related confession, feel free to email it to me here, and I will feature it, so we can giggle with you and/or relate! Let’s deepen our bond! 😀
I love it! Book confessions! We have all confessed to so much on here! This is great 🙂
YES!!!! I shall find some of the funniest ones!! 😀
What’s not at all funny is the fact that about a month ago my tablet crashed and I lost thousands of books!! If I had gotten them all from Amazon I could have redownloaded. I am absolutely a book hoarder and this is my BIGGEST nightmare!! On a positive note, at least I have no idea what I’m missing!
LOL on that last part, Melanie!! 😛
But *big hug* on the tablet crash. 🙁
Thanks for the hug!! I forgot to mention that when it crashed, it also erased my SD card! I have started over but I think the book Gods must have been horribly angry with me to allow this to happen!!
Those jerks! 😕
Ouch Melanie. I feel for your loss *hugz* Maryse that is a great photo up there. Says it all 🙂
My worst nightmare would be an apocalypse WITH NO ACCESS TO BOOKS :O
You are so brave Melanie, if that happened to me I’d be rocking in a corner somewhere! I might not come back from that.
Believe me, if I didn’t have to take care of my family I would be! But kids screaming “Mom” tend to snap you out of your self pity party!! Little bastards, it’s always about them!! Lol just kidding… Or am I???
*snort*
I mean who do they think they are acting like I’m supposed to take care of them instead of reading!!
I can’t help but think that those saving ebooks and kindles will be the first to go.
Er… the first to go where, bev?
…
😯
…
Oh. 😐
And that’s exactly why I have my reading apps on 3 different devices. Phablet, tablet, and laptop. I also make a backup copy of my GR shelves once a month. Oh, and did I mention I backup my files once a day to an external drive?
But wait! What if we were out of electrical power for an extended period of time and I ran through even my backup batteries. (yes I have those too)
Well, after some slight panic, I would reach into my shelves. Real, physical shelves that line every wall in my room and are filled with…*drumroll*…books. Filled with edge to edge books.
I have a book addiction. It terrifies me to be without one for a single day. :-o. I don’t go anywhere without a book. Whether it’s electronic or paper based, it comes everywhere with me.
My friends and family think I’m very strange. *shrug* I think they’re missing out by not reading books.
I don’t really have any bad habits. I don’t think.. except I cried when I had to give the majority of my paperbacks away, and when I lost three tablets. Three. Of course, both because of the devil child. Now I’m stuck reading on a crappy phone. All. The. Time. I’m not ashamed to admit I deleted my whole photo album so I could download some books. Bye-bye baby photos. I’m not so bad, they’re all on Facebook/in an actual photo album. But I’m never going to let the kids forget this. Ever.
Ha Melanie
Would someone please describe exactly what happens. I thought the cloud would go on forever. Opon crash do u just get another Kindle and call it a different name. Maybe on some post explain shelving. Thanks.
Silly phone didn’t save my full comment
Just because as Fabi mentioned. ….no electricity, lol.
But it will be a great 8 hours.
See Carly. Kids vs. Books…. Hard decision!!
Maybe we should just accept that we’re like batman. Normal..Ish..People by day, then when the sun sets and the kids are out with Mr Sandman, boom! Our other life takes over.
Obviously I didn’t get enough sleep last night
Probably because when the kids are sleeping, you stay awake and read! It’s hard being a superhero!!
I’m so glad I’m not alone with book hoarding in case of a zombie apocalypse!! I thought I was crazy!! I’ve even gone as far as to get a solar charger from Amazon….just in case. And I’ve started buying paperbacks of the books I know I can’t live without, in case my Kindle ever fails me! So glad there is a book hoarding support group!!
I think we’re more of an enabler group. lol
If there really were an apocalypse, most of the people I know would head to my neighbor’s with his oversized garden and arsenal of hunting gear. Not me. I’m going to Fabi’s with 3 cases of wine and some bon bons.
I’m with Nikki. I have my faves on hard drive (i.e. paperback).
Never thought I’d hope for an apocalypse. But…wine and bon bons…
Not sure where Fabi lives, but I hope you’re bringing a lot of wine!
I thought we were holding up in a B&N with attached Starbucks.
Books and coffee…no I don’t want to imagine a world with none.
I learned all I need to know from years of watching Buffy.
You know, I still haven’t been able to delete anything from my chopping block after that whole apocalypse conversation. 😛 It felt so…empowering, I guess, to make a decision to clean up my library and then y’all put that thought in my head. “What if…” Or maybe you guys are my voice of reason, LOL!
Hey! Anyone who read the Until the End of the World series (*rubs suddenly aching chest*)…remember how he rigged a little solar charger for her Phine so she could keep her pictures? *snaps fingers* There you go!! We’ll find some tech-y person to do that for us!!!!
Amy we are definitely voice of reason! And I just feverishly searched for Until the End of the World, and it’s already in my apocalypse stack!! So I will be bumping that one up!
I hoard simply because I’m afraid I’m going to miss out on something amazing. That book that’s going to rock my face clean off my skull. Now realistically, I know the books aren’t going anywhere. They will always be there even if I don’t download them or own them right this moment, or even add them to my list. But if something in a blurb or a recommendation stirs me, I MUST have it. It’s a way to remember that this was something I at one time really thought I wanted or needed. I have AMO (afraid of missing out) syndrome. It’s why I am such a night owl (afraid something incredible will happen while I’m sleeping) and everything I do I do to excess!!!! Including exclamation points 😉
Amy, if it makes you feel good do it.
I’m am curious as to what is on the block though.
Could we build real-life blankie forts?? Could we???
LOL Carly. Batman!!!! 😛
Nikki. I totally want a whole solar charging system. One whole house one… and a portable one!! 😀
That would make everything just right. 😉
Hmm.. maybe I am alone in this…
My version of hoarding is wish lists. I started with one at amazon. I would get anxious when it fell below 80 books. So I decided to break it down into lists for genres or buy vs not buy, etc. Now I have 7 lists.
You would think that would be enough, except it’s not. I also started adding wish lists to my two (yep) library accounts. Multiple holds. It’s always fun when 5 (or more) holds are available at once. Plus of course, I have a kindle unlimited subscription. Which is always maxed out. (Seriously, only 10 books? What kind of monster are you?!)
Even though I’ll have multiple check outs, multiple unread books.. (sometimes a few started books, that I can’t get into at that particular time) what do I do??? You guessed it, search for more books to add!!
Don’t worry, I have tons of books in my apartment, aka too many for my bookshelf, and tons still at my mother’s house. :p
And uh, I read 180 books last year… it keeps steadily increasing every year, which is how this list nonsense started….
But that’s the thing, bev…I don’t think I WILL make me feel good to delete them now! *snort*
YES Maryse…we CAN build real-life blankie forts!! why not??? And if you read the UTEOTW series *AHEM!* then you can see what I mean by the post-apocalyptic solar charging thingie. 😉
I’m cracking up over Jody’s list hoarding, LOL!!
I’m with Lisa. AMO.
Hi all, my name is Amy and I have book AMO.
LMAO.
I have to. I just do. I’m sorry. I am truly truly sorry. But I have to.
Amy is an hypochondriac. Otherwise she’d have AMO about Simon.
*swipes whipped cream from banana cream pie martini and smooches it on bev’s lips*
Book confessions. I love it.
My most ridiculous book habit (I have a few) would be buying the the crazy Marmy’s and death books I know damn well Im too chicken-shit to read and then filing them in my Pandora Box file on my kindle. Never to open them. Its fear of missing out. And a waste of funds.
Oh. And I sniff books.
Jody, your lists are hilarious!! Love it!!!
Lisa, I too have hoarded some Marmy’s & super dark ones I “think” I will never read….but who knows when I might muster up the guts right?? But the book sniffing thing….icky! (You know that makes me think of sniffing “other” things right??) *giggles*
Leslie that’s like when you asked me why I downloaded Bad Things if I didn’t plan to read it. lol I have to laugh at myself.
Jody… that’s like me and my multiple TBR lists (and while I have read books off of all of them, I haven’t completed ANY of them). And I can keep making more.
I could make one a week. Heck… my mini “blurb-jolt” list on each new release post is essentially another one of my TBR lists. LOL!!!!!
You all may have given me… bad? ideas. Multiple tablets never crossed my mind!
Also, I find that I really hate returning KU books in order to read more. If only I could afford to buy all the books I read…
Maryse.. I could totally get carried away with lists. I’m still ok at holding back but I’m sure that will come to an end some day. I’ve been reading *a lot* more since I found your site. Which I ran across while trying to figure out a series I had only read the first book of. The library had the nerve to rearrange the layout on me! I could have found it if they would have just left it all alone. I bet it would have been hilarious to watch.. circling back to where the section used to be.. trying to bring up the memory of what books were near it… checking that letter of the alphabet and circling back when I didn’t find it. If it wasn’t for you, I might still be there wandering in circles muttering to myself!
LOL Jody!!! It was my pleasure to keep you from going in circles trying to piece ’em together yourself. 😉 *hug*
Damm! I never thought about this and it makes perfect sense. Well, what I do think sometimes is about the possibility of being stranded on some island or something like this and being alone. But at least I’d have my kindle with lots of books to make me company. I khow it doesn’t make sense, becauce I wouldn’t have electricity to charge my kindle… but there are still a part of me that makes me think of it. lol I must be crazy…