Feeding The Habit

     I recently had to travel four times, on business, all in the space of six weeks. All four trips were to four different destinations. For any normal person, that could mean a chance to enjoy different cities, see new things, and enjoy the change of pace in one's life. For someone else it might mean the trouble of going  
through queue after queue of customs clearance, passport checks and security checks, not to mention the hassle of baggage claim and hotel check-ins and check-outs. But for a book addict, it was an opportunity to feed the habit.

     Each trip came with a preparation period of first finding out the best book-selling dens (or as regular people call them, bookshops) and then mapping out the best routes that would allow me to visit the maximum number of shops with a minimum waste of time (I was after all travelling for business and spare time was scarce).

     Since I didn't have the luxury of mobile internet, I had to print out the maps after setting the routes using Google Maps, and I also printed out my Amazon shopping cart (several pages long, and by several I mean eight) so I wouldn't forget any book I already wanted (the ones I would buy on the go are another story).

     Four trips also meant four times I get to check the duty free shop on my out of the city for any new additions, and four different duty free shops on my way back from each trip. All in all, I visited eleven book-selling outlets, bought a little over twenty books and I try hard not to think of how much money all this binge buying has cost me. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I regret it or anything, just that I don't want to have to lie when my wife asks me. Saying "I don't know, honey, I didn't keep track" is much easier than stating a number and having to live with the consequences. Although, for the record, I must state, my wife is very understanding. And I'm trying to get her hooked on books too!

     You might think all this is no problem. Many people who get the chance to travel do check out all the joints that sell whatever substance they are hooked on; clothes, electronics and in this case books. But the revealing thing is that in between these excursions, and although I told myself over and over that it was ok to do this when travelling because it was a one time opportunity, I still picked up another ten books from two bookstores and two yard sales. But don't fear for me, because the books at the yard sales were what are called a-dime-a-dozen, and they were in pretty good shape too so I couldn't just pass them by. They were calling out to me!

     Why am I telling you this? Because that's what addicts do, they share. Am I ashamed by any of this? Absolutely not. Money spent on books is always money well spent. Even if I buy books faster than I can read them (as any book addict or book hoarder would tell you), I will at least make sure that one day someone will and that means the books, and the money, were not wasted. Am I going to feed the habit again any time soon? Probably I will. Am I tired of all these rhetorical questions? YES I AM and I bet you are too, so I'll just stop.

     If you are a book addict, brother/sister, know you are not alone. And if you are not, leave your comments and tell us what you think. Also, please leave your donations (Likes) in the donations box so I can buy more books!

Oh, I forgot to say this at the beginning, My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict. 

The Bookman's Tale

 

 

     I'm an addict. We've established that much. So, don't always expect an elaborate and eloquent introduction to my posts!

 

     Right now I am on a high. Try finding a book that you've never heard of, become hooked by the title and cover art, then run between bookshops hoping that the last copy hasn't been sold yet, seize that last copy, and then head to the airport to catch your plane back home. If that is not enough, let me know how it feels when you finish reading that book and it is great!

 

 

P.S. read The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

 

My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.

 

 

To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85 



Nuff Said!

  

    My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.

 

    I love reading books, about books. Nuff said!

 

For previous posts click here.

To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85

 

 





Les Miserables

     Smelling old books. That is a big part of being a book addict, not only because of the sniffing act but also because it is something you wouldn't do in public, maybe only in the presence of other fellow addicts. In fact, you will probably be sharing the book among yourselves for a sniffing/sharing/bonding experience.

     I don't own or have access to many old books, and that's why my 1953 paperback edition of Les Miserables is a precious commodity. I came by it at a used books kiosk by the river in the City of Lights. You can imagine what kind of romanticism that adds to the whole  sniffing thing!

     After money and drug swapped hands I was excited to go online and check what kind of bargain I had landed. Turns out, a pretty darn good one, and although I can make more than a 500% profit on these babies (the book is in four volumes), the warm spicy aroma of the fragile yellow-turning-brown paper is worth a lot more. I also can't put a price on the rush I feel knowing that I own such a piece from what to me is a faraway land shrouded in romance and history. I can't put a price on it for now at least. Who knows what will happen when if I need the money? You know how it is with addicts, they always need something to feed the habit.   

My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.

To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85

 

THE BOOK THIEF

 

     This is an emotional post, written on a whim. I won't attempt to pretend otherwise and I won't attempt to groom it.

 

 

     My name is Mohammed and I am a book addict, and as an addict I am grateful to that special drug that gives me the high I have been longing for but have not experienced for a while. I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak because I heard so much about the book and when I knew it was going to be out as a movie I wanted to read it first so as not to spoil the story by watching the film first. The first thing about the loveliness of this experience for me was that although this book had been available in my local bookshop for a while, when I wanted to purchase it, it was out of stock. No where to be found in the city. I was planning a trip to Paris this summer so it seemed like a good idea to wait and buy it from there. Don't ask me why. Not only did the Paris trip turn out to be great, but also I picked up a copy of the story that will long live in my memory side by side with those nice memories of that summer vacation. And to top things off, it turned out to be a used copy. The addict in me has a sore spot for feeling that I have been moved by words on pages that passed through other hands and imaging how moved the owner of those hands had been by these same words.

 

 

     My intention is not to write a review about the story nor promote it. My intention is to record a moment and a feeling that I know book readers don't usually feel and I know I haven't felt in quite a while. I once read that you know you are a book addict when you finish a book and you know that you have been touched for ever. Or something like that. I can't be trusted to quote accurately. After all I am an addict and currently on a high. Another thing I can loosely quote is a description of that moment when you turn over the last page of a story and your life has stood still and you look around and realize that life around you is just going on. This is what I am feeling now after having finished The Book Thief.

 

     I don't know why I feel this and I won't get into the beauty and divinity of the words that washed over me as I read the book because to be honest, I didn't feel any of that. In fact, for more than 400 pages I was extremely underwhelmed. But for some reason, in the last 100, everything was different. I read through them with no interruptions, blocking out the sounds of my wife and daughter. I smiled. My eyes welled up and I decided to write down this post to capture it all because I know maybe a few days or weeks or months from now I will realize why this story affected me in such a way. But for now, I just want to revel in this feeling and I wanted to share it with you, as raw and fresh as I am experiencing it.

 

     My name is Mohammed, and I am a book addict.

How I became an addict - part 3

    

     After the rush of that first book, I was hooked. But I was still a little reluctant to take the plunge because I knew I was at the threshold of what could potentially change my life forever. At that stage of becoming an addict, an addict of anything for that matter, you usually are more entranced with the excitement and exhilaration that your new habit brings rather than the consequences and implications. I was no exception to that rule.

     The next book I bought was a thriller; a trade paperback. It was around 400 pages long at that was the longest book I would have ever read in my life at that time. I flew threw its pages. It's language was easy so that helped. It was like trying a new drug and being given the smooth, rookie stuff before going hard core. I was relocating to another country at that time and that book accompanied me on the plane and I vividly remember the first nights in the hotel I was put up in with that book drugging my mind with a world and an adventure that kept me from focusing on the pain of being thousands of miles away from my family for the first time.

     A month later my wife joined me and the pain of separation was gone but the habit had been established and I needed my daily dose of words no matter what was going on around me.

My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.

To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85

 

How I became an addict - part 2

     When I think back to the first time I shot up a book, I always wonder why I didn't start earlier. I had been frequenting this store that has a book section and I admired the neat shelves stacked with a myriad of hardcovers and paperbacks with their new-book smells and smooth texture. I hadn't worked up the nerves to actually buy one. I was fresh out of college and I didn't have enough money to support my habit. Of course that was back when I was under the impression that food and clothes came before books. Now I know better!

     After the first couple of pay checks I made up my mind and on the next visit to that store, reluctantly, I bought my first book. It wasn't the first book I read in my life, nor do I count it among the 112 books I've read in the past years, but I clearly recall the tiny part of my brain that sparked with the light of knowledge after I turned the last page on that book. More importantly, I remember the euphoria that gripped me upon realizing that I stumbled on a treasure that I will spend a life time consuming and will never even scratch its surface.

     Needless to say, with my next pay check came another book; a more expensive one, because it was bigger.


My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.


To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85
 

How I became an addict - part 1

Hi. My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict.

     I can clearly track the beginning of my habit back to four years ago. But come to think of it, I guess it was always there, just waiting for someone or something to enable it; empower it; amplify it.

     Over the past four years I've used, uh.. read, 112 books. Some of the people close to me tried to plan interventions for me over the years but they never worked. However, I did come to discover and realize many things about myself.

     Books became a full blown addiction for me four years ago. And I haven't stopped needing them ever since. I never got on the wagon to fall off. I'm not going to start now.

     Everyday I will share with you some of my thoughts on being a book addict in a world that cannot accept people with special needs.

     My name is Mohammed, and I'm a book addict. And I'm loving it!

To follow these musings you can either follow this blog via e-mail  or you can follow #DMBookaddict on twitter. You can also follow me on twitter @mrefaat85