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Invisible Prey by John Sandford

A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett

Unholy Awakening by Michael Gregorio

Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry

Van Gogh by Josephine Cutts

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Interesting library: ablachly, AdamSmith, alaskabookworm, AllieW, AsYouKnow_Bob, Bakari, BenjaminFranklin, benjfrank, bibliomysteries, Bibliophylax, Bookmarque, C.S._Lewis, danielx, DDEisenhower, ddrager, devenish, donandpatti, ErnestHemingway, GeorgeSPatton, ginaruiz, GreyHead, Ian_Fleming, izzybee, JohnAdams, LeonardodaVinci, librariansteffen2, obsessedbybooks, purplemoonstar, RichardIII, SimonHaynes, SylviaPlathLibrary, tanstaafl, TELawrence, ThomasJefferson, WalterScottLibrary, WolfgangAMozart, xavierroy

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Member: obsessedwithbooks

CollectionsYour library (860), eBooks (65), All collections (925)

Reviews158 reviews

Tagsfiction (716), unread (353), murder (205), thriller (188), non-fiction (172), crime (152), detective (120), classic (107), history (92), USA (91) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud, tag mirror

Recommendations2 recommendations

About meI am a 30-something Scotsman now living the ex-pat life in Würzburg, Germany. I work as the managing editor at http://www.makeuseof.com as well as being a tech blogger and freelance writer. My real love though is books and if I had a books-related job, I would be in heaven :-)

My book collection is really starting to grow (much to the chagrin of my wife who has given up trying to persuade me not to buy so many books). I am getting very interested in the idea of cataloguing things like comic books, e-books and other things that libraries normally catalogue. However, as always, time is the big issue with me.

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! But now I am not sure where to store them. The bookshelves are sagging in the middle from the weight and every other conceivable space has been recruited to hold books. The only other space now is the bathroom and I am not sure if my wife will go for that :-)

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!

**UPDATE MAY 2013** Just signed up for Amazon Prime to get the free next day postage. BAD IDEA! ;-))

About my libraryI have a particular fondness for novels in the genres of crime, mystery and thrillers. I am a HUGE fan of Sherlock Holmes ("the game's afoot!"), as well as more modern crime writers such as Henning Mankell, John Sandford, Jonathan Kellerman and so on.

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 Roald Dahl.

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. I have also started a tag called "started but stopped" in an attempt to separate those which I have actually started from the ones I haven't looked at yet.

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

***Update February 2013*** At the moment, I seem to be addicted to reading on the Kindle (well, the Kindle app on my iPad). Although paper books are my first love, it seems I can't resist the lure of the immediate download, at any time of the day, 24/7. Which is bad for my wallet.***

GroupsAntiquarian Books, Bloggers, Books Compared, Books in Books, Bug Collectors, Can you recommend....., Crime, Thriller & Mystery, CueCat questions and help, Early Reviewers, Historical Fiction —show 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, Stieg Larsson, George Orwell, Philip Pullman, M. J. Rose, John Sandford, Bernhard Schlink, Daniel Silva, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Robert Louis Stevenson, Markus Zusak (Shared favorites)

VenuesFavorites

Favorite bookstoresBuchhandlung Hugendubel

Favorite librariesBritish Library, Library of Congress, National Library of Scotland, Stadtbücherei Würzburg

Homepagehttp://www.markoneill.org

Also onAIM, eBay, Facebook, Flickr, Google Talk, Skype, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

Real nameMark O'Neill

LocationWürzburg, Germany

Emailmarkmarkoneill.org

Account typepublic, lifetime

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

Member sinceNov 16, 2007

Most recent activity

obsessedwithbooks added:
Inferno by Dan Brown

obsessedwithbooks added:
Seduction: A Novel of Suspense by M. J. Rose

obsessedwithbooks added:
MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939-1945 by M. R. D. Foot

obsessedwithbooks rated, added:
The Hidden Man by Charles Cumming

obsessedwithbooks added:
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

obsessedwithbooks added:
Josiah the Great by Ben Macintyre

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!! :)

posted by AllieW at 9:35 am (EST) on Jun 23, 2009

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.

posted by Whisper1 at 12:24 am (EST) on Jun 21, 2009

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...

posted by RebeccaAnn at 1:28 pm (EST) on Feb 27, 2009

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!

posted by RebeccaAnn at 9:23 am (EST) on Feb 27, 2009

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

posted by Bookmarque at 8:12 am (EST) on Apr 17, 2008

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

posted by SimonHaynes at 7:52 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2008

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!

posted by LindaTan at 12:09 am (EST) on Dec 19, 2007

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.

posted by devenish at 1:12 pm (EST) on Nov 20, 2007

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?

posted by danielx at 11:59 pm (EST) on Nov 17, 2007