Im a Book Whore! How many books do you read cover to cover? Book habits.

DIGG This
Read a interesting article in the Guardian this week about the number of books that people simply do not finish reading.

Or if you are like me, buy and don't even start!

I was glad to read I was not the only one who would suffer at the pages of a tiresome book, lulled into buying by a great looking cover and yet another 'best seller' statement.

MOST UNREAD BOOKS
There is, as with most things nowadays, a Top 10 List of books worldwide that are doomed to not be finished. As I was feeling particularly crap this day, my recall for facts and information is low. However, I do recall David Beckams Bio being listed, also one of the Lord of the Rings books, as well as numerous political wannabe authors who have written words that are just too tiresome to read.

Apparently it is a huge insult to buy a book and not finish it. Also, apparently, it shows a lack of stamina and intelligence to not see a 'hard' or 'boring' book through to the end. I say boudlerdash to that.

BOOK WHORE
I have to say, that I do suffer from terrible guilt when I start struggling with a book. Not so much because I have the authors feelings in mind, just because I have spent good money on it and feel it is my responsibility to finish it. There have been numerous books that I have tried OH so hard to struggle on with and complete, but my sanity slipping at an alarming rate.

It gets to the point where I just start getting resentful. But I do try and and I do try to muddle on through, just in case I hit a boring patch, but usually, it gets worse.

At this point I trick myself, to 'give myself a break from it' and promise to myself that I will go back to it when I am in a better frame of mind, and so move onto the next great book in my own personal library. Then I bury it somewhere.

DEPRESSION & MENTAL HEALTH
This was really where my addiction for books took off. When i had my breakdown and diagnosed with Bipolar. During the following weeks and months I read so many books on Depression, Mental Health, Diet, Self help that I felt very empowered and this was a good feeling. I certainly overdosed on Self Help books, even to the point now where I just look at them in the book store and wonder, did they help?

Probably, maybe, certainly at the time they did. To see my shelves now littered with all sorts. Crumbs, I did a lot of reading, mind you, had a lot of time.

COMPUTER BOOKS
The most expensive type of book I buy, yet the ones I am most likely never to finish, let alone start. I don't know why I do this to myself. I am getting better, but something about these huge books, that look great, wow design and that oh so 'extortionate' price tag. Only for it to be out of date several months down the line, therefore only adding to the pressure to at least start reading it rather than looking at the cover and admiring it and myself for having made the first step to re-education myself. It's always doomed.

WHY?
Which then brings me to the next point they raised. That we spend a personal fortune on books in our life time, and in surveys, a large number of these are just never read. So why do we buy them?

Personally, I LOVE buying books. I love reading, but moreover I love wandering the aisles of Borders, Waterstones etc and seeing what catches my eye or surfing Amazon. I love that feeling of waiting for a new book to drop through the letterbox in the brown Amazon packaging. Very exciting.

MUST BUY
Often I will see a real 'must buy', and often it is one that I read very soon after buying and am pleased I did. Often I will buy books because they look interesting, a read that I am not desperate to start, but a nice one to have on hand just in case. I realise now it's these books that keep getting put back in the line. With newer, nicer looking books taking the front shelve space. But even though I have many books that I had purchased over the last several years that need to be read, with the list growing longer, I still buy more books.

I get quite guilty about this. Curse my lack of self restraint and yet another £40 on 2 books.

Recently, I have tried to keep new books to a 'must read' only category rather than a 'hmmm, this looks nice, nice cover, nice size...' type of book that is doomed to never be opened. I think Self help books are the main culprit here.

Or this... The

BEST SELLER
Is it just me or is every book a self promoted 'Best Seller' or by 'Best Selling Author'. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they do sell well, but who exactly measures what is a Best Seller, and best compared to what? The other 'Best Seller' on the shelve above or the 'Best Seller' before that one became a 'Best Seller'? Eh?

Personally, I think it just is a overused, whoreish slogan, yet I still get suckered into it when I see it. All sense of reason, financial and practical, dissipates in a flash...

BEST SELLING AUTHOR
I like this one the best. When an author releases one GREAT book after a myriad of failed titles, does the new book become eligible for the 'From the Best Selling Author of...'. SO now I assume, we will all go out and buy the previous books, even though they were crap, now they become good because...just because. Again, I have been suckered into this. Shameful.

KEEP TO WHAT I KNOW I LIKE
I try to keep to categories that I know I like, after experimenting with so many genres, I certainly have my preferences. Mainly CIA, FBI, type Hostage Rescue type fictions Books. Exciting and definite page turners. They are my escape from life. I can read these very quickly. I have tried with more alternative fiction books, but I tend to get bored. The only exception being The Time Travellers Wife, which has to be one of my all time favourite 'non bloke' book.

Where I have tried to experiment, or try something more 'rounded', this is often where I become unstuck. Several novels litter my shelves where I just knew within the first few pages or chapters that I would struggle and promptly gave up.

Does this make me thick?

RECENTLY FINISHED BOOKS
So anyway. My last book was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Fascinating. Other recent books have been The Tipping Point and Blink.

Also, Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence etc.

Now I am reading a book on Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris. Quite disturbing, but nevertheless, fascinating.

Have got Plato's Republic next to my bed. Who am I kidding.

These are my 'main' reads. I usually have several on the go at any one time. Usually a computer or web design, blog book of some description. I can't read these like novels, so they come with me with my 'main' read, just in case I fancy a bit of a 'geek' read. Plus I have other books that I just flick through... Blog Design Solutions and CSS Mastery to name but a few.

Am due for a Bloke book soon, have had my fill of non fiction.

Another trip to Border's is therefore imminent. The likely hood of me actually coming out with a fiction book is therefore slim. Probably get suckered into another book on computers or philosophy that I will never start or finish.