From: hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Reading as an addiction (Was: 92 in rabreview)
Date: 31 Dec 1992 17:26:40 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: carson.u.washington.edu

In article <1992Dec31.161524.545@speedy.aero.org> nadel@attatash.aero.org (Miriam Nadel) writes:
>In article <1992Dec31.050130.24366@sophia.smith.edu> orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke) writes:
>>Seeing the astounding quantity of books some posters consumed in 1992
>>makes me wonder if reading can be a type of (benign?) addiction. 

Not so benign, at times:  Continue on for the sordid CONFESSIONS OF AN
ADDICTED READER  >>

>When you talk about genre novels specifically, I think you might want to
>ask what the purpose of reading them is.  Addiction isn't simply the regular
>ingestion of massive quantities of a substance - the desire for escape, or
>other psychological relief, is also implied in the world.  So I would 
>classify reading trashy romances when I was in grad school and just
>couldn't face working as addictive behavior, while reading a mystery a day
>for sheer entertainment (given a sufficient amount of free time that I'm
>not neglecting other pursuits) is not addictive.

Good distinction:  I have to agree.  I gave up on getting my degree in
English literature one night in 1965, not long after my pet prof
recommended my being admitted to Purdue's honors program, when,
overwhelmed by the dichotomy between my repressed girlhood and the, shall
we say, **liveliness** of the '60s, I went to cram for an exam in my
dorm's library.  Surrounded by trashy romantic novels, a candy machine and
a soda machine, the next morning at exam time, I found myself still in
bathrobe and slippers, reading (the third? the fourth?) romantic novel
and scarfing chocolate and caffeinated soda.  

As far as light reading to pass the time, I think it is addictive reading
when it's *two* mysteries...last night, _Miss Seeton Goes to Bat_ and _The
Rabbi Finally Retires_ [garbled title, but I was up awfully late last
night].... and a cartoon collection (1987 Bloom County--does anyone *else*
miss Milo and Cutter John and Steve Dallas and Bobbie?)

 > >>	Among those who are voracious readers, do you feel the
>>equivalent of withdrawal symptoms when (for whatever reason) you cannot 
>>read for an extended period? 

For whatever warped reasons relating to my upbringing as a fundamentalist
Christian farm woman, I got rid of **all** my books (nearly 1,000) in
1983.  I went through classic withdrawal symptoms--nausea, vomiting,
headaches, chills, fever, etc. for more than a week.  And no, all you
skeptics, it wasn't the flu!  One of my books (an Isaac Asimov
collection of Black Widowers stories) had escaped the purge.  All I had
to do to get relief from the symptoms for a while was read a couple of
paragraphs.  Once through the miseries, I wrote 30 songs, all 'keepers', in 2
months.  The previous 10 *years* I had managed to produce around 5 or 6
good songs.  I started reading books shortly after the clean-up, but
weightier fiction, even some non-fiction, and it was such a pleasure to
read for content and enlightenment, taking my time, going back and
re-reading a passage maybe discussing it with a friend.  I'm not sure just
why I went back to addicted reading, but I'm sure I would find out if I
stopped all reading for a couple of weeks (nonononononono!  Anything but
that!)

>I can't imagine not reading for an extended period but I suppose I would
>become intensely bored.
>
>I do find that I become uncomfortable if I don't have enough books on hand.
>When the unread stack dips to fifty or so, I will invariably find myself
>rushing off to a bookstore.  
>
>Miriam Nadel

My older sister, safe in the deep country miles from Albany NY, rides her
bicycle into town to keep her 'stash' in the garage up to a certain level.
I haven't asked her, but having grown up with her I know enough about her
to suspect that she keeps the books out of sight so that she won't forget
to eat--or even worse, renege on a word-processing contract.

I pass a bookstore on my way home from my bus stop.  Last night I picked
up a stack of 5 books and left a boxful, worth about 60 bucks in trading
credit.  I still don't have room on my shelves for all the books, but I'm
closer to breaking even.  The irony of feeding my addiction at that
particular store is that they host  "Rational Recovery" meetings for alcohol
and compulsive eating.  I have tried to get them to start a chapter for
bookaholics but for some reason they seem to *want* people to be addicted
to books.  Should I call the vice squad?  };)

Happy New Year!!!!!

Mary Loveless  hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu
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All of my opinions are self-righteously my own and **certainly** have
nothing to do with the University of Washington.

"Too much of a good thing can be *wonderful*."  Mae West

"I wonder how I'd look in *Madonna's* underwear."  Zippy the Pinhead
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