I suppose that labeling me as a 'hoarder' would not be entirely inaccurate, yet there are stipulations to what I will and will not hoard. I don't want to keep things like broken umbrellas or raggedy-ass furniture. I don't feel that they will have a use one day, or that as soon as I throw them away I'll need them. Who needs that crap?
That being said, there are things that I will hoard in abundance. Gaming equipment, movies, electronics, and most of all, books. I have books coming out of my ears. I have them in stacks around my house because I ran out of room on my bookshelves, although my Grandpa and his lovely wife just gave me a new set of gorgeous bookcases that will hopefully solve that problem, and I have tons of electronic books on my Kindle. I believe I have around 100 e-books stored on there. But e-books are not good for some collections. I don't like to have manga on the Kindle at all, and some of my favorite authors, such as Juliet Marillier, Robert Jordan, Patricia Briggs, Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Stephen King, Richard Adams, to name a few, I have to have in actual copy. So I hoard.
And my daughter is the same way. She hoards the exact same things. And we are the type of people who will read a book over and over again. If the book is good, we will read the thing until the words are practically worn right off of the page. The difference between us is the type of books that we read. While I will read anything, I love fantasy and sci-fi, with some Japanese manga thrown in. My daughter, on the other hand, loves science books and books with random facts in them. I believe her favorite series is the Weird But True books, which she has garnered information like 'the biggest blood vessels in a blue whale are large enough for a human to swim through' (interesting but kinda freaky) and 'the human stomach holds 3 lbs of bacteria' (that little tidbit gave me the urge to go drink a bottle of bleach. YUCK!). These are the things that she loves to read about, and her room is just as book-filled as the rest of my little apartment.
This is where the hoarding issues come out, because we both have a terribly hard time getting rid of books, even if they aren't that good. If we get rid of a certain book, a few months from now, we might just need to read that exact book. Do you ever get that craving for a certain food, and nothing you eat is going to satisfy you but that one thing? That is how we are with books. We get the need to read one certain book, and nothing else is going to get rid of that mental itch. Nothing is going to satisfy but that one story (or selection of facts, in the case of my daughter.)
But I don't like the term hoarders. That implies one of those crazy trash heaps that you see on those stupid reality shows. Collectors. Yeah, we are collectors. No hoarders here.
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| A stack of books awaiting shelving on the new bookcases. |
And my daughter is the same way. She hoards the exact same things. And we are the type of people who will read a book over and over again. If the book is good, we will read the thing until the words are practically worn right off of the page. The difference between us is the type of books that we read. While I will read anything, I love fantasy and sci-fi, with some Japanese manga thrown in. My daughter, on the other hand, loves science books and books with random facts in them. I believe her favorite series is the Weird But True books, which she has garnered information like 'the biggest blood vessels in a blue whale are large enough for a human to swim through' (interesting but kinda freaky) and 'the human stomach holds 3 lbs of bacteria' (that little tidbit gave me the urge to go drink a bottle of bleach. YUCK!). These are the things that she loves to read about, and her room is just as book-filled as the rest of my little apartment.
This is where the hoarding issues come out, because we both have a terribly hard time getting rid of books, even if they aren't that good. If we get rid of a certain book, a few months from now, we might just need to read that exact book. Do you ever get that craving for a certain food, and nothing you eat is going to satisfy you but that one thing? That is how we are with books. We get the need to read one certain book, and nothing else is going to get rid of that mental itch. Nothing is going to satisfy but that one story (or selection of facts, in the case of my daughter.)
But I don't like the term hoarders. That implies one of those crazy trash heaps that you see on those stupid reality shows. Collectors. Yeah, we are collectors. No hoarders here.
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