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Paddington Takes the Air by Michael Bond

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Third Heaven Conspiracy by Giulio Leoni

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Amber Room by Steve Berry

Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

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Member: obsessedwithbooks

CollectionsYour library (436)

Reviews137 reviews — see reviews

Tagsfiction (333), unread (181), classic (103), literature (84), non-fiction (69), history (56), children (51), crime (48), thriller (45), fantasy (43) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Groups"I See Dead People's Books", Antiquarian Books, Bloggers, Books Compared, Books in Books, Can you recommend....., Crime, Thriller & Mystery, Early Reviewers, Historical Fiction, Librarians who LibraryThingshow all groups

Favorite authorsSteve Berry, Michael Bond, John Buchan, Eoin Colfer, John Connolly, Jeffery Deaver, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas, Jasper Fforde, Ian Fleming, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Gregorio, John Grisham, Robert Harris, George Orwell, Philip Pullman, John Sandford, Bernhard Schlink, Daniel Silva, Alexander Solzjenitsyn, Robert Louis Stevenson, Markus Zusak (Shared favorites)

About meI am a 30-something Scotsman now living the ex-pat life in Würzburg, Germany. I work as an editor at makeuseof.com, tech blogger and freelance writer.

This is my second attempt at Librarything. I started in another account about a couple of years back then lost interest (I also had to sell a lot of my books to pay off debts which was quite devastating). But now I have decided to try again as my book collection is starting to grow again (much to the chagrin of my girlfriend who is always pressuring me to sell some books on eBay to make money and space). I am also getting very interested in the idea of cataloguing my inventory at home and this seemed a good a place as any to start logging all my books.

At first I wanted to collect EVERYTHING but then I realised that was stupid. If I hate a book, why keep it? Why let it take up space on the shelf and let it collect dust? So I will only keep the books I like and sell the ones I hated. Makes sense doesn't it?

This is probably a good rule because space is the big issue with us - we live in a very small one room place. So I am always having to come up with creative ways to store books. People look at all my books and ask how I can have so many at once. The short answer is that I just can't help myself. Whenever I walk into a bookshop, I just have to buy something and I am physically unable to leave before I have something. Same with eBay - I am bidding all the time and I just can't stop. Same with Amazon - I am buying so much that I am probably one of their top VIP customers!

If you ever want to lose me, throw me into the middle of the world's largest bookstore - I guarantee I will never come out!

I try to review books that I have read on Amazon and I will try to also copy the review here onto Librarything.

I am also a proofreader at Project Gutenberg where I can help out on a worthy project and at the same time read even more books! I highly recommend you volunteer for proofreading if you have the time. Even if you can only do one page a day, it's better than nothing and it would make all the difference.

About my libraryI have a particular fondness for novels in the genres of crime, mystery and thrillers. I am also starting to read all the classics to kind of broaden my horizons a bit. But my fondest passion is childrens books. I am a firm believer in the idea that everyone should remain a child just a little bit and my greatest reading pleasures come from reading stuff like Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Chronicles of Narnia and such like.

Non-fiction wise, I am into history books a lot. History was always my best subject at school. I am also starting to read biographies.

A lot of my books are marked "unread". This could mean that I haven't actually started reading it yet or it could mean that I have started reading it but then put it down part-way through. I have a habit (an annoying habit some say) of starting and stopping books at regular intervals. It's not that the book in question is bad - I just have a very short attention span and so I am always flipping from book to book.

Tagging a book as "unread" is useful because then I can track how many books I still have to get through!

** As of January 2009, I am starting to sell off books that I have no intention of reading ever again and streamlining my collection. So you will notice my collection steadily decreasing. But this is actually good for me because I will eventually end up with a book collection that I truly love and not thousands of worthless books that I don't care about. **

Homepagehttp://www.markoneill.org

Also onAIM, eBay, Flickr, friendfeed, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Skype, StumbleUpon, Twitter, YouTube

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

Real nameMark O'Neill

LocationWürzburg, Germany

Emailmarkmarkoneill.org

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/obsessedwithbooks (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/obsessedwithbooks (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (76), Awards (181), Characters (2334), Places (452)

Member sinceNov 16, 2007

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Thank you! Um, actually, we have more than that, since I haven't catalogued my husband's books (he's a massive SF fan) and there a number of children's books in the loft which I've somehow failed to log. I suspect we probably have something like 2000 books in the house. You'll just have to start thinking of more creative places to hide yours!! :)
Hello

I finished The Boy in the Striped Pajamas last night and read your review today!
It really is an incredible book. And, the ending was truly unexpected.

I'm a member of the 75 challenge group. We are a lively, friendly, well-read book, please feel free to join us if you think it is something you would like to do.
Feel free! My roommate gets so mad at my book buying habits but I'm trying to be better. I'm trying so hard this year to not buy any books at all (or mooch any from BookMooch) and to really work on getting through the books I already own. I'm also trying to use the library more. I've worked there for a couple years now and never really got into the habit of borrowing books until recently. It's shameful...
You sound like you have the same problem with the books that I have - you can't stop buying them! I went through my collection and tagged my books as either unread or read and came out with 350ish uread and 90ish read (though I swear I've read more than 90 - I, like you, immediately get rid of books I don't love). Erg...

I hope you stick with LibraryThing. I've only been here a couple weeks or so, but it feels like a dream come true. I never even knew a place like this existed!
I love your user name- simple but effective. Wish I had thought of it first, haha!
I just thumbed up your review of Naked Prey & I gotta say that I TOTALLY agree. The whole domestication of Davenport has been a disaster and I stopped reading when he got serious about Weather (what a stupid name). Then on vacation I found Naked Prey and read it for a lark. Loved it. This is largely due to Weather's absence. I, too, wish that Sandford would kill her off. Problem is, Davenport would be wrecked as well. Remember what happened to him early on? Weather's death would probably kill him. At least Sandford can get her out of the way though. Maybe he realizes he made Lucas boring.
anyway...cheers,

Kris
Thanks for the invite. I just read your profile, and most of it sounded familiar ;-) Love Paddington Bear, and I practically forced my kids to read it. The language is way ahead of that found in many adult books these days, and the humour is wicked.

Good to hear about the Gutenberg work, and if you're a Windows user you might like my free yBook software for reading offline (when you're not proofing, that is ...)

Cheers
Simon
Hi! I love children's books and for me, it's not just the stories but also the charm of the illustrations. Try it! It could become an obsession!
Hello,
and thanks for adding me to your 'interesting libraries' list. I am always pleased when someone does this as it shows that I must be doing something right.My collection of books has taken many years to put together,but has been a labour of love I assure you.
I certainly like your profile page with it's striking picture to head it. I also see that you like the crime and mystery genre,and you might like to take a look at my 'Crime Fiction' tag. There is also a fair few under the headings - Biography,Autobiography and Classical Literature/Classic Fiction-all of which you mention as interesting to you.
Anyway thanks again,and I hope to hear from you soon.
All the best from the UK.
Hi obsessedwithbooks, I like your handle (and also your city, but that's another story). I have a feeling you haven't listed all the books you've read so far. :-) You just joined yesterday, really?
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