Top Ten Tuesday: Bad bookish habits

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is on the general theme of quitting so I decided to take a long, hard look at all those bad bookish habits I’d like to quit…

1. Buying more books than I can keep (and allowing them to pile up all around the house). This is particularly applicable this week, given the current state of my sofa. I firmly believe that if you don’t enjoy a book you should pass it onto someone who might like it more. Why, then, is it so hard to get rid of old books?

2. Giving up. I’m always looking ahead to the next book, even when I’m only two chapters into the current one. My impatience has probably been at the root of my failure to complete so many of the books I’ve abandoned but I’m trying really hard to do something about it. This year I finally feel like I’m finishing almost as many books as I begin.

3. Sticking to books by British authors. I’m aware that the vast majority of the books I read were originally published in English and by British authors. I don’t like to think I’m missing out (particularly when it’s my own laziness at fault) so I need to make a concerted effort to correct this.

4. Being a book snob. It’s wrong to judge people by the books they read. I KNOW. Please tell me this is something we all do and I’m not just a horrible person….

5. Ignoring what I really want. I often read books because I think I should read them, rather than because I really want to read them at that time. Sometimes it works out for the best (A Passage To India, Madame Bovary…) and sometimes it doesn’t (The Master & Margarita, Moby Dick…). I wish I was better at recognising when it’s a good time to challenge myself and when I should just indulge that need for a short, easy read.

6. Staying in my comfort zone. I reach for the same sorts of books again and again, mainly classic Victorian and Edwardian literature with a few modern literary classics thrown in for good measure. I read very little YA, I can’t stand vampires and I avoid romance like it’s the plague. I need to expand my horizons.

7. Assuming that the book will be better than the film. Sometimes it isn’t.

8. Reading at the expense of conversation. I’m the first to admit that sometimes I get too caught up in what I’m reading, so much so that I don’t even notice how unsociable I’m being. For two days I pretty much ignored my colleagues while I read the last chapters of The Count of Monte Cristo during my lunch hour. I feel bad about it now.

9. Neglecting my local library. My library caters for quite an elderly local population and I sometimes take this as an excuse not to use it. When I do use the library I almost always find something I want to read so I can only put this down to laziness. 

10. Forgetting the unread books on my shelf. The number of unread books in my home is shameful. There should be no need to buy new books when I have so many sitting at home waiting to be looked at.

I could go on but I think ten is enough, don’t you? Are there any bad bookish habits you’d like to be done with?