Today's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is a rewind, meaning I can choose any past topic I wish. Therefore, my topic for today is "Top Ten OCD Bookish Habits". If perchance this is your first experience with Top Ten Tuesday, you can find more information here.
Anyone and everyone who reads for pleasure has their own little quirks about how they read and treat their books. In some cases, these are more extreme (see Aunt Elinor, Inkheart), but they tend to be fairly harmless. I myself have my own collection of them, though none quite so... eccentric as Aunt Elinor's. At least, I don't think they are... good heavens, now I'm in doubt...
Yes... well... anyway, here is my list of Top 10 7 OCD Bookish Habits. I couldn't think of 10, but I'm happy with the list anyway.
1. Chronological Order. This one's fairly common (common enough that calling it "OCD" is a bit of a stretch), but I do indeed have to keep my books in the order they take place, with the exception of the Chronicles of Narnia, the chronological reordering of which is a travesty of print. Not quite so bad as the Adulterous Bible, certainly, but a travesty nonetheless.
2. Thematic Gradation. When organizing books that aren't part of a series or some other sort of set, I have to organize the books according to their content, in a smooth gradation from one theme to another. The actual themes at play may be arbitrary, but I've fussed over it a great deal
Here's an example: You have five DVD's (just because that's what came to mind at the moment), and you need to put them in order from Western to Sci-Fi. The DVD's are:
- Firefly
- Cowboys vs. Aliens
- 3:10 to Yuma
- Wild Wild West (Which I'd never own but it works for the example!)
- Back to the Future 3
3. Overhead Lighting. When reading, the light source cannot be overhead lighting such as inlaid florescent lighting, or whatever that's called. The sun doesn't count as overhead lighting, even if it is at noon, because there's only one of it and it doesn't give me a headache. A little arbitrary, yes, but it's my list.
4. No Reading While Cold. I don't know why, but I simply cannot read comfortably while cold. Even in the middle of summer, I tend to turn off the AC while reading.
5. Tidying Up the Book Store. I've literally spent an hour trying to hunt down the proper place for a book that was dumped in a random aisle by someone who changed their mind about it. This is especially fun at one of the Barnes & Noble stores nearby, as they have a new and used book sections. I've found a number of good books this way.
6. Music Association. While reading, I try to avoid listening to music. Because it distracts me? No, not because it distracts me. Rather, I come to associate the book with the music and then cannot read the book without that music playing. Sort of like how we come to associate certain smells or sounds or other sensory inputs with certain people or places, only with books. Similarly, I feel guilty when I watch Dr. Who without my little sister, which is problematic because she's at college.
7. Close the Book. Ok, this one I do share with Aunt Elinor - you use a bookmark to mark your page, you do not place page-side down while open, it's bad for the spine!
And there you have it! I know, not a long list, but I chose this topic because it looked fun, not because I thought it'd be easy. Self-examination is not my forte. If you have any quirks of your own about reading or wish to poke fun at me for my own, feel free to, I find it amusing.
On an unrelated note, I have just realized that this is Top Ten post #9, and thus am feeling a tremendous urge to make a Beatles reference. However, I can't think of a clever one. So...
<Beatles Reference Here>
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