Comments on: What Reader Classification Are You?

By: Dear Author.Com | Tuesday: The Holy Day of Publishing and How It Forms Reader Expectations

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:01:46 +0000

[...] Times Digest, by the way, is available at $1 per day. Not bad. Then, of course, I blogged last week, and Ms. Roberts’ consulted with the head of marketing at Penguin who told her This [...]

By: Robert Mitchell

Robert Mitchell — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:57:44 +0000

I’m an AR myself, I completely understand the young lady that was asked if she was on drugs or something “Last week, I had to get my car fixed and didn’t have the dough for it, so I had to hit up my mom and she said, “what are you, on drugs?” and I said, “yeah, kind of– stupid books.” Book Crack! Still I consider it to be a *good* addiction, one I’ve had for about fifty years now.

I’m also a very *fast* reader and have been averaging 2 or 3 books a day since I was ten, which sometimes leads to problems finding new material to read and gnashing of teeth at the length of time between books by favorite authors. But it also lead me to read in a lot of different genres, SF/F, Romance, Westerns, Detective, Adventure, Biographies, History, and Military History.

Grin. Lately I finally found a new solution for my addiction, I became a volunteer slush reader, not as good as being a *paid* reader but boy do I get to read a lot!

Being an AR is also one of the reasons I got involved in the E-Book Reader project over at Baen’s Bar. The idea of being able to carry a whole library around with me in a pocket was just too appealing not to. But when I started looking around for a good reader I didn’t like what I found, too small a screen, too expensive for someone like me [I'm on disability and money gets tight], won’t read other formats, etc. The usual problems. Hopefully we’ll be able to address them in a satisfactory manner.

My TBR stack seldom reaches more than 10 books at a time since I can seldom afford more than that. But boy does my Been Read stack mount up sometimes! I have a six shelf bookcase by the bed and have to clear it out every other month or so. Thank goodness for Used bookstores and trading and public libraries.

By: Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:20:59 +0000

Re the Tuesday release policy–from Penguin’s head of sales:

This actually came from the BIG retailers (Wal-Mart,Target.etc). It started with the Music and video companies and books were added later on. They wanted one day when all of the new release big entertainment products would be on sale (it’s now called super Tuesdays)

By: DebR

DebR — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:51:06 +0000

Your AR description just sounds like a nice, normal person to me. :-)

I’ve never counted my book collection. I’m afraid to. I’m quite sure it’s somewhere in the thousands and that’s after a pretty significant book purge a couple of years ago. My TBR piles alone have to be at least something like a couple hundred books at this point - and I admit, that part is a little overwhelming sometimes. But which ones would I give up???

By: Miki

Miki — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:47:23 +0000

Avid reader? Of course! But I don’t want an intervention…I just want more room! (Being an AR in a 428-sq. ft. apartment is logistically…difficult). :)

By: romblogreader

romblogreader — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:24:36 +0000

There is a reason for the streeting on Tuesday thing, and I can’t remember the specifics, but it’s the same reason DVDs and music “streets” on Tuesday. I think it has something to do with the fact that deliveries aren’t made on Sundays (or traditionally weren’t) so the week’s new releases would come in over the course of the day on Monday, and be ready to be put on the shelves for Tuesday.

Something like that. I”m not explaining it precisely right, but there is a reason.

By: Josie

Josie — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:15:35 +0000

Thank God for all of you - I feel so much better about my buying / hoarding compulsions now. I’m also quite thankful that my addiction is to books instead of crack.

I have two TBR piles - the A pile which is about 15 - 20 books normally and the B pile which is hidden between my bedside table and the wall and consists of about 50 books. As and Bs are regularly re-organised into different reading orders. I also have books stuffed into shelves, baskets, cupboards, under the bed, in drawers and stacked in piles along walls. I do manage to read about 4 a week on average.

I have no way to justify this other than it makes me very, very happy!

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:17:24 +0000

I’m trying to understand why I should feel the least bit guilty about my AR status, or the thousands(?) of books I have (between academic work, other stuff, fiction reading, work work, and school). Seriously — it’s *reading*, it’s a good thing, a positive thing, something that actually adds to the world when people indulge in it collectively. Just think if everyone actually read more — we might even have a functioning two-party democratic political system in this country.

Now, my need to buy sweets for myself and fail to finish them before I get bored and buy more — THAT I’ll contemplate some guilt over.

By: Karen Scott

Karen Scott — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:50:19 +0000

I couldn’t tell you how many books I own, I never counted, but one of our guest rooms has been turned into a home just for my books. Hubby hates it, so I consented a bit, and let him put some of the books into our attic.

I have just over 900 ebooks. I have no idea how I endedup with that many. Instant Gratification can be very expensive.

By: Nalini Singh

Nalini Singh — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:34:37 +0000

I’m with the book gobblers. If a book hooks me, that’s it. I must finish it NOW!

Pitiful story - after 3 years in Japan, I had quite the hoard of books. Did I leave them behind? Welllllll, some of them. The rest got shipped across the ocean… Sad, very sad.