You know you are addicted to Bookmooch when....

A little game to help us through the down time :P

I'll start:

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when you search out books coming out in 2011 and add them to your wishlist.

and create manual editions for the 2012 ones that aren't on Amazon yet

Or can't go to bed until you check your Wishlist one more time.

or you check the rss feed on your potty run in the middle of the night

Pick which of the several books you are reading to read though the quickest based on wishlist counts.

Feel lost & not sure what to do when BM is down.

You list your postal clerks among your best friends.

You know the site is down but you try to go check your wishlist anyway. Oops.

You keep trying to see if the site is up instead of just going off to read a book...which I guess I'll do now since I just checked and it still is down.

you get your boss to add BM to her list of "work appropriate" websites so you don't get in trouble for checking your wishlist at work...

You tried to access BM through an alternate computer even though you know the site is down.

You send out emails to people who you have sent books to because you can't list them as "sent" yet.

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when you start looking at books tagged 'Canadian' and find at least 25 more you want to add to your wishlist.

You read that the site is down, and not two minutes later you're trying to check your wishlist. Oh wait, that's been said already. Great minds think alike!

You add books to your inventory that you never had any intention of parting with, simply because they are wishlisted and you want to make people happy.

You put BM-shipping before bills. (oooops)

You can't stand to NOT do something book-related, so you reorganize one of your book-piles (book-boxes, in my case).

Your friends are so used to your BM-babbling by now that they aren't even phased when you come in screaming "I GOT A BOOOOK!".

You have tried to tell co-workers, therapists, doctors, and even the nurse in your mother's nursing home about BM.

You "accidentally" leave Bookmooch bookmarks in the library books you return, in hopes of getting "converts" (who will add to the variety of books available) ;-)

You carry Bookmooch cards in your wallet ready to hand out to interested parties.

You add so many books to your wishlist that when one comes up you have to come back to LT to see what the book was about and why you added it to your wishlist in the first place!:)

You tell random strangers at used books stores, consignment shops and "regular" book stores about BM, how it works and give them tips including telling them about librarything.

You carry paper and a pen in your purse to give random strangers the website address to BM and LT because you've handed out all of your BM cards and bookmarks.

You carry paper and pen to record book titles and authors because why pay full price when someone else has probably listed the book on BM.

You get excited when someone sends you BM cards and bookmarks because you can introduce more people to BM!

You take a much needed vacation and along you take a list of books that a few of your LT friends are also "really needing" and off to all the thrift stores in this area you go. Then you find a store that has everything by genre and author so you get out your I-Phone & check your friends list again..you then have your husband looking for Kate Atkinson and your daughter looking for Jasper Fforde....you make it competetive so they will play along.....NOW you can say this is a "good family vacation" and you haven't hit the beach yet!!! (yes, guilty)

Message 18
Bons...You made me laugh....our poor husbands what they do for us in the name of peace.

I'm sure your LT friends were very very grateful.

Welll ...ummm...hmmmm...Must admit to being guilty of all the above but happy to know I will not be the only one in the asylum for crazy/addicted Book Moochers.

Happy Mooching all.

Your wishlist has broken 1,000 in less than 6 months.

Your friends tell you that they should give you Frequent Flyer Miles at the Post Office.

Instead of reading at the airport between planes, you cruise through the book store to see if there's anything interesting you should add to your wishlist.

You lay down at night & wonder about that asylum that this addiction will eventually lead to...

1) will they let me bring books?
2) what will become of my TBR pile?
3) will they have anything there to read?
4) oh yeah, what will the food there be like
5) can you receive packages there?

#1 BC--this has been great fun-I have so enjoyed these post!

When i check this thread.....

Your husband, who picks up the mail everyday, comes in and before you can even ask, yells, "Books!!", or "Honey, I'm sorry, no books today." Then, after that's taken care of, you ask him how his day was.

You listen for the sound of the mail van and can recognize it by sound alone, but you still check the mail box just in case...

The mail box holds your tax return check, but no books, so you are disappointed...

25: Yes, this is tons of fun!

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when fellow graduate students are cleaning out their offices and you are trying to figure out which discarded books you should claim for bookmooch, then about how much you will miss them.

29: I do the same, but at the thrift. It's probably a good thing my cell doesn't have internet - I'd bring home way too many wish listed books.

You all caught John's eye with this thread, he just blogged it :)

You snatch used envelopes and mailers out of friends and strangers hands before they hit the trash can so you can reuse them.

32: LOL! Me too :P

You often check your wishlist before your first morning cup of tea.

.... instead of donating books to the library book sale, your friends give you the books they no longer want/need!! (especially when you've gotten them books!)

.... when your friends are moving across the country, you get their extra bookcases & duplicate books!! (not posting the bookcases on BM, but they'd probably get mooched!)

... your family in other states save a box of books for you to take home when you visit!!

34: yeah, they'd definitely get mooched, but how would they be packed? ;)

#34- Yep when I go to my moms I come home with a trunk full of books from her and her friends and ones that caught her eye she thought I'd like at rummage sales!
My husband keeps telling her no more but she's mom and I'm her baby so she doesn't listen :)

You are just as excited about finding regional books when you travel as by seeing the sites.

you bring your computer into the bathroom with you because you have a feeling a good book will pop up that you don't want to miss.

@38

Hilarious!!!

Y'all are way too clever for me...

When you download a timer for your desktop and promise yourself you will leave BM when the alarm sounds, but you just reset it instead!

You decide to go (finally- it's been computer hell for months now) play the Sims 3 while BookMooch is down and the first thing the sim you base on yourself does is go to the bookstore to buy more books. I only played for a few hours last night and she's already read most of the books in her bookcase and traded in a few of those. Oh and she's even written a book of her own too! Plus, while she was sleeping or working (at the bookstore!), I got to read too. :-D

You realize you spend more time on Bookmooch and Librarything then you do reading actual books... and have an odd moment pondering that.

>41 Danneeness: Oh dear.

I think. I think you're right on that one. Could explain part of my TBR!

I realized that a long time ago. I also had a very strange "what the heck" moment not to long ago where I realized that, with a specific book, I had more fun cataloguing it (uploading the cover, tweaking the data, etc) then I did reading it. That was definitely a weird thing to realize.

... heavily wishlisted books always go to the top of your TBR pile, so you can get 'em read and back into circulation quickly, thereby making someone's day!

The first thing you do in the morning is check your wish-list...
the last thing before going to bed is check your wish-list and then don't go to bed for another hour; and repeat...
plus the same as message #4
every break at work (or at a regular interval at home) you check your wish-list and related books...
the first thing you open on your computer is your bookmarked wish-list...
all of the above, but insert 'angel requests' instead of wish-list, now including the BM forum
and in between all this, check out any book sales / fairs for books you can add to your inventory....
as well as reading all the BookMooch posts on LibraryThing and add copious more books to your wish-list so you can (begin at top)

and lastly, buy an expensive smart phone because you can do all the above, and more, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME!!!

And still do a *happy dance* every time you successfully: mooch a book; find an angel to mooch a book; receive a mooch request; angel a book for someone else; find a mooch in your letterbox; receive a successful send notification - and read all these posts, from the same obsessive compulsive moochers, with relief! :)

You can't resist looking for wishlisted books at the used bookstore to add to your inventory, even though you have plenty of points and are low on funds.

You wonder if it is odd that you enjoy swapping books just as much as reading them.

You have over 200 books in your TBR but still your first thought upon waking is to go online to see if there are any new books you can mooch.

You are having a good day because you found a supply of your favorite packaging tape at the dollar store.

You count people around the world whom you will never actually meet as your personal friends.

You wonder if you should worry that all of the things discussed in this thread are true about you.

With less than an hour transfer time you still manage to check in at the Vancouver airport (Guess where I am!)

You wonder if you have time to check the phone booth on the other side of the airport where you once found a book....

Edit: Also, one of the 'in case of delay' books you pack you chose because you had yet to register it... it would give you a 'new' book to register on bookmooch!

I now have a number of reasons to suspect that I may have a bookmooch problem......

The first time was when I was flagged down my a post office van who recognised my car and wanted to save me a trip to the sorting office to collect my parcels on saturday.

The second time was when I was poorly last year and hadn't been to collect my books for a couple of days - my postie knocked on the door to check to see if I was OK and to see if I needed anything.

48: Wow, you have awesome postal workers! Not everyone is so lucky. :)

That is so sweet! I had a postal lady once call me at home to let me know about a book :)

You know you are an addict when within an hour of touching down (not luggage pickup) in town you have already made your way to a bookstore to seek out new titles! :)

You start to worry when there are less than five books coming your way, even when your TBR is growing out of control and there is a big box waiting for you at some Angel's residence.

You just got a hit on a wishlisted book at the exact moment your sister screams "Gah! I need toilet paper over here!" from the bathroom and you finish the mooch before going to get her a roll.

And it wasn't even a book for me, it was for my little brothers. I just couldn't bear to miss it.

51: Yeah, July maybe? Or August. They're piling up again.

You just got a wishlist hit, go to mooch it, and there's this "do I *really* need FIFTEEN tbr-true-story-abuse books?" moment... but you mooch it anyways.

You go to the post office to mail a box to a friend and the clerk says "Is that ALL today? No books??" Yup happened today!
Oh and I forgot to add, you say with some guilt, "but I had a lot yesterday!!"

>55 rxtheresa: Doesn't it just seem wrong to go to the mailbox and not mail books?

I'm planning to mail 2 giant boxes of (used) bubble envelopes to someone. That should count.

You feel a small earthquake, but finish checking your wishlist before doing anything else.

> 58 AHAHAHA! Too funny! I felt it too!!

You're so intent in checking on your wishlist you didn't know there was an earthquake until someone asks you... "did you feel the earth move?"

I almost started a thread to ask Canadians and USians who live nearby (they said it was felt in several states) to check in, because the news reports said there were no major injuries but a lot of buildings were shaken up and what if someone's books were damaged.

#58: I didn't feel it, but my area had a lot of people reporting it. I was busy & concentrating on "stuff".

It made the local newspaper, too!

46: Is it odd that you enjoy swapping books just as much as reading them. ??? I do... *ponders* must be odd then. *sigh*

61: OK - now that's a worry - though I'm guessing you were also worried about the book owners???

>63 Lman: Well . . . that was actually my first thought, but I've been even more surrounded by books than usual today, so my brain is a little oriented in that direction.

You know you are addicted to Bookmooch when....

...you start a thread called "You know you are addicted to Bookmooch when..."

...you reply to a thread called "You know you are addicted to Bookmooch when..."

I have to say I'm glad I was sitting on my couch updating some stuff here on LT when I felt the earthquake and not in my library going through my shelves because I might have panicked and toppled my huge bookcase over onto myself. :-P

You know you are addicted to mooching when you get all depressed because three days have gone by with no books in your mailbox. To make matters worse, you haven't mailed anything in almost two weeks and feel bad because you have no new books to post.

Heehee!

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when despite only being out of town for one week you find books to post and mail while travelling.

I suppose the fact that I have my bookcases bolted to the wall means I'm addicted to Bookmooch in California.

My apartment was sort of shaking for about fifteen seconds, and I did have the fear that one of my tbr piles might topple over! Thankfully, all people and books in the area are safe and where they should be. Haha.

You know you are addicted to BookMooch when, upon realize you have to clear the livingroom floor enough for a wheelchair-path, your first concern is "where are my BookMooch-boxes going to go?".

After turning off the air and putting the cap on downstairs you are refreshing your wishlist during a severe thunderstorm warning.. on your unplugged laptop because the power keeps going out.

When leaving to run errands the Canadapost driver recognizes you, stops beside your car, and hands you packages from one car window to another :P

The fact that you've run out of room for new books just means you're suddenly more open to the idea of moving to a new place.

#72 & #73

= ) Love it!!!

The fact that you share your last meal or dime with your husband BUT when he gets the mail and brings your packages in before you can get to the mail box makes you feel like someone has just took your Christmas present aside and might even open it while stealing all the joy of this package and couldn't they just let you get the mail!!!!
(sick, sick sick) and he is so happy as he does because "he has a surprise for me"....(for the love of men) = ) (giggles)

When you are considering forming a second LT account for books mooched/ bought used for others so you don't mooch doubles. (Very different tastes...)

Tags, m'dear Teagirl. Tags.
.
.

edited to add:
also collections with non-recommendations from that collection.

How do you do collections with non-recommendations from that collection? That is mostly what I am worried about: It would fill up my feed with books my friends would like :P

When you add a new collection (or edit a current one) you have the opportunity to mark it active, include in recommendations, include in connections

to get to edit collections, click on the collections button in booklist view (your books) & at the end of the list of collections is "edit collections"

double click on a collection to edit it or add new collection from the button at the top. You will see the three choices then.

Awesome thank you so much! I had edited collections but didn't notice the include recommendations :)

When 10 minutes seems like 10 hours :P

omg! I am addicted!

Pats highdesertlady on the back *there there*

*Runs off with a book*

**dances the rare multi-mooch happy dance**

I'm not addicted.... nope, not addicted... don't stalk the inventories of anyone... don't compulsively refresh the screen showing my wishlist... nope... not addicted.

83: I was so compulsive about refreshing my wishlist that I deliberately made myself stop checking it so much. I deliberately ignore it for 2-3 days at a time now, just so I won't get all twitchy about it.

*dances the "long-wished-for book is on it's way to me right now!" dance* Wheee!

I have almost 300 books in my BM wishlist. I can name every single one without looking. I think that counts as addicted, lol

Today I absently hit the FOL shelves and wound up grabbing a few things just for BookMooch . . . even though I already have about thirty books waiting to be posted. That's without the ones I'm piling up for BFK, mind you.

"Oh, I'm sure someone will want that one!!" is a VERY SLIPPERY SLOPE, but I can't seem to help myself.

Ooohhh slippery slope indeed! I can *always* come up with some reason to grab a book for BM-posting. "I think I remember someone asking about this author.... Didn't so-and-so mention this genre?" etc etc.

While LT was down, I had the terrifying thought...

"What would happen if both LT & BM were down at the same time?"

**shudder**

>87 skittles:: Do not speak of the unspeakable!

>87 skittles:

I think it's called "sunshine". I hear it's awful.

addicted when you "take" bookmooch in place of Advil, Mydol, a lunch break!

and that cup of tea and mooched helped!

>87 skittles:

I don't know if it was one night ago or two, but it was like 1 in the morning and LT was down for maintenance and I couldn't get on Bookmooch either (maybe it was during a restart) and after I twitched and fretted for 10 minutes I figured it was a sign I should go to bed!

Heh. When I found LT down last night I nearly had a heart attack :P Did give me more reading time though ;)

You know you are addicted to Bookmooch when y ou are not upset to be woken up at 7am my a loud shrill noise, because that means you have a package downstairs.

You know you're addicted to BookMooch when you pull out of the driveway and then stop the car and run back to check the mailbox.

Or when you get home and open your packages before you even take off your coat :)

93: Glad to see I'm not the only one. My staff tend to look at me funny when I arrive at work with a huge pile of books in my arms after clearing out the mailbox on the way out the door. I just can't wait unitl the day is over!

.

94: Oh yeah, I know that one. After shopping all day today, I came home with 8 big bags of stuff. Stopped at the mailbox, opened the packages the second I got in the house... Some of the bags are still sitting there, while I oogle the books. lol

>96 I-_-I: Wow, you got the luck of the draw with that one!

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but....

Bills, work, transportation, meds, new therapy.... And yet my mind CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT BOOKMOOCH! Seriously, I was doing an intake yesterday for an art-therapy program, and I saw a craft book, and my FIRST thought was "oohhh wondering if anyone on BM would want that". lol

.

And that feeling of euphoria will last some time. I managed to mooch a copy of The Children's Book right after it was put on the Booker Prize shortlist and I'm still enormously pleased. That it arrived in pristine condition only made things better.

You keep thinking that you are missing great books when bookmooch is down... even though it is down for everyone :P

I've been gone for most of the weekend... I've been able to grab a couple of short peeks at both LT & BM

but it isn't enough!!!

and now??

ARRGGHH!!!

>102 Bcteagirl: Yes! And I have wishlist hit email sitting my e-mail box that REALLY makes me feel like I'm missing out. It's not even a must-have!

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when you notice this particular Sunday Afternoon has been twice as productive as usual :P

Yay, BookMooch is back.

So yesterday I got way down on points (down to 2!), so immediately thought "Ack! I'd better start listing! And since so many of the requests were int'l, I quickly built up to 20+ points. And now I'm thinking "Ack! I'd better start requesting books!"

So yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm addicted. ;-)

Startings humming *circle of life*

107: omg I totally had the same experience a few weeks ago! I got down to an uncomfortable point number, listed some books, and within two days was back up to 30+ points. Can't there be a balance between too many and not enough? lol

So. I have no freakin' money, my last two paychecks were smaller then usual... and still I automatically look for books to pad my inventory with when I go to the thrift store. *headdesk* I'm addicted, no denying.

edit: ACK! now I have that dang song stuck in my head, Bcteagirl! :P

You know you're addicted when even though you're taking a break for lack of funds, you feel a pang of guilt every time you pass a book you *could* add to your inventory. (Free ARCs at my store. Maybe they're wishlisted! Must resist!)

*huggles Danneeness!* Stay strong!

>110 Danneeness: But maybe they are books that you would be interested in reading! Or are on topics where you were thinking about branching out! Clearly if you read them first there is no problem putting them on BookMooch in a few months . . .

Although that sort of philosophy is how about 70% of my TBR came to be, so maybe it's not such a great idea.

109: Then my work here is done. Heheh.

#109 - There are worse things than having Elton John in your head! ;-)

I know I am addicted to Bookmooch when my thought process goes like this:

"Man - I have a lot of points. I should spend some."
"But if I spend some, I need to make some room."
"I know, I can list some books on BM to make room."
".... Wait a minute...."

And lo, my pending page haha

**when you hear people are getting rid of books, you want to say, "Give them to me!! I'll find good homes for them!!"

**when you hear someone mention wanting a book, you want to say, "Which book is it? Maybe I can get it for you!"

**when you read about an author or a book, you immediately look it up & then wishlist it if it isn't available.

**when you hear about a new book coming out you immediately wishlist it, you are the first to wishlist it.... and then share the wishlist designation with about 500+ BMers.

**you're ecstatically happy when you find a highly wishlisted book on the booksale cart at the library & grab it because you know that you can make someone on BM very happy!!

**when you go to the post office to pick up your book packages, one of the clerks sees you & immediately goes to the back to get your stack of books without even asking which box number is yours. And the newbie there asks "Must be Christmas" and the clerk says, "no, this is a small pickup for this one."

>110 Danneeness: RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

....when you brought home a full bag of books from the library sale just to post on BM, and there they are saying post me, post me please, but you have so many international mooches to send out that if you post them you will run out of money but they keep calling and calling and you want to see how many people want each of them cuz you know they're wishlisted but you just can't mail them right now but ...............

^116, skittles, every line of your post made me laugh.

I'm still pretty new, but the post office clerks are certainly getting to know me -- not for pick-ups, but for my weekly trip to mail books.

Hahaha! skittles, darlin', you have hit every nail smack dab on the head with me. Though I get my books at our locked mail box at home, they get the biggest grins on their faces when I arrive at the PO to send more out.

When your husband says - "We haven't had any mail in a couple of days. You better use some of your points and order some books!" LOL

.

121: I have found a solution to that last part. I live in a small apartment with no room for any more bookcases. So I've ended up making bookcases, small ones that hold 20-30 books, out of small cardboard boxes (painted them to make them prettier). They fit perfectly on top of my full bookcases, making an extension of sorts.

You have, for the second time, a nightmare that you've finally found a new place with some friends and then one of them gets a cat without telling you and you're not even upset because you're allergic and you all agreed not to get any cats, but because you'll have to change your BookMooch status.

The first time was fine, but a repeat dream is just silly.

Naturally, the friend who (in the dream) brought the cat in is on BookMooch in real life.

You find a $20 bill in your wallet that you thought you lost 8 weeks ago and you immediately do the happy mooch dance cuz you can get closer to catching up on sending books before you expected to!

Your mom promises you $50 a week to write out maps/directions for her for her new job, and you immediately think "I CAN SHIP EARLY!!!"

....when you promise to mooch books for your family (father and sister) but only if they give you money for shipping out your back requested mooches and help you stay up to date as we go along.

.

127: After the week I've had, I should prob slow down some too. Between BM, bookcloseouts and book depository shipments arriving this week, I had three boxes and over 20 packages sitting on my floor to be opened. I'm still trying to find the time to open and catalogue all of it!

128> Not to mention the big package on its way to you from me! ;)

129: YAY! Happy thoughts!

I actually did slow down - for about two weeks! I was sick and I had to pick up the slack at work while my boss was away and didn't really want to have to worry about mailing out books on top of it. So I pulled old inventory and lenghthened my shipping times, preparing for a period of hibernation...

Yeah, that didn't last, and to overcompensate I just had a record two weeks both incoming AND outgoing, and the next two weeks are looking really sweet too :)

I had another 8 packages waiting when I got home today. Of course, I also brought home my budget to work on, so I do believe that will get priority to new reading. Ick!

You all make feel so much better about the increasing pile I have to catalogue! It's only been this week but it is HUGE!; I was feeling a bit ridiculous until I read this.

I still think I need Help!

#133 Well I have a copy of The Help on my pending page for you (boom, boom!)

Sorry, it's been a long week...

Hahahaha!
Very good - but will it help? *cheesy grin*

It has been a very long week - thank goodness it is truly my weekend. In which I will spend a great deal of time cataloguing the books that I have already got, and not thinking about those in the post and those still pending. Or those probably not going to be sent...ever. *sob*

Congrats to your mom, Heather on her new job!!

136: souloftherose has two pending - for me - that are looking less and less likely.
Angel requests I make, which need so much extra time and work, upset me much more because I am causing another grief. Bad enough when it is just me, and I know what it is like when I am angel-mooching for others... and they won't answer at all - with a yea or nay!!

/end rant. I'm on the wrong thread- sorry!

#138 - So, I can't go all postal on 'em?

139: Of course you can.

highdesertlady, you can do whatever you like; be my guest!
You won't have a problem in dealing with a reply at least...possibly. Though I have noticed you get a reply to a rhetorical email and NOT to one you needed a reply to. Heee

...I'm ranting again - must go read my book. :)

*snort* Let me at 'em... let me at 'em!

Not sure I can phrase this in a clever way but after 3 weeks on BookMooch, I'm already an addict.

I have shipped 17 books, have 113 books on my wishlist, have received 4 books, and am expecting 18 more. My partner realized yesterday that we're not ACTUALLY going to clear any shelf space this way. I've mooched away all my points and am scanning my shelves for things to put in my inventory. I don't NEED any more books. I have SO much to read. So why am I itching to mooch more?

This is a sickness, people!

>143 cms519:

Welcome to the club. Bookmooch increases net books 3-fold. 3-fold! *crazy maniacal laugh*

To whoever the crazy enabler is, thanks for the smooch. You guys are too much!

Am only just starting to mooch, but had to laugh as I went through each of the "you know you're addicted when ..." comments! So many are so completely true. I'm just afraid that the rest are going to kick in shortly. Thaks everyone for the VERY big smile to kick off my weekend! (BTW Loved the comment about 'Mount TBR.' For me, it's a whole mountain range!)

I think what macs is trying to say is:

Muuuaaahhahahahahahahahahaha!

Welcome to bookmooching, cms519! ;-)

^ What she said. :P

Oh my! Did not mean to ignore your comment, michigantrumpet!

Welcome to bookmooching to you! Have you considered linking your LT profile to your bookmooch account?

Muuuuaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! (it's not like any of us would stalk it or anything, jes sayin')

.

I'm on my way to a FOL sale tomorrow - and the question is - how many will make it to BM and how many will go on my shelves?

*well actually none can go on my shelves as there is no room, but I still have room on the floor*

I cleared out some space after joining Bookmooch. Lasted for about a month. Right away I had people start giving me tons of books to go trade and I happily did so. My mooch/received record on Bookmooch does not even begin to describe the ACTUAL number of books that I have sent out, especially since 75% of them didn't come off my own shelves to begin with.

I must say, though, that I am much happier with the contents my library now than before. (I'm not weird if I say I hug my bookshelves sometimes and speak to them lovingly... right? Come on, back me up here, people!)

#152: You are not even close to being weird about your bookshelves, macsbrain!

Not even close!!

I watch the local craigslist for bookcases at good prices... found some more folding bookcases so they can move with me when I have to move (usually to get room for more books!!)

My bookcases have "HISTORY" and stories beyond just where they came from.

I enjoy my bookcases!!
I need my bookcases!!

My bookcases are much appreciated!

My bookcases are way overflowing!!

Recently, I was given a old, heavy wire bookcase similar to one my family had when I was young. I had some flat black spray paint, so I took it out on the deck & repainted it, covering the small rust spots & chipped paint. Now it looks like plain iron rods! Gorgeous.

I didn't hug it, though.

The paint was still wet.

But that's the only reason I didn't.

Just wanted to thank the second secret smoocher. You guys are loving the enabling, aren't you!

Thanks a million!

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when rather than being upset when someone snapped up books you were interested in on Bookmooch, you sent them a message to let them know you had similar books in your inventory and they mooched several :P

Today, I was driving to a friend's house in an area where I used to live... as I'm driving through the village just north of my destination, I see a sign in front of what used to be a used good store that apparently has turned into a used bookstore.

The sign said "$5 a bag" for books.....

and I thought, "I wonder how many moochable books I can find?"

but I was running late as it was & couldn't stop....

and I'm as frustrated as everyone else is that I couldn't stop!! But, while the budget can handle a bag of books for $5, it can't handle the postage for ALL those books.... and I have enough here waiting to get posted.

I really try to keep to the "only post as many books as you can afford to mail" philosophy.

It is so hard!!! **sob** I want my books to go to good homes!!!!!!!

I just got back from vacation last night. Rather than go thru my suitcases or get some sleep, I immediatly opened all my BM packages and marked them recieved. I then mooched the angel mooches that were waiting for me, and came here to pimp a book I had read on the plane. I really should have gone to sleep though, but I just couldn't help myself! I was away from the site for a whole week!

Cms519 - In the spirit of enabling, may I mention that people who serve as BM angels receive not only the enormous satisfaction of helping fellow BMers in other countries obtain books they want, but you also receive a profit of two points for every book you angel? Many people who request an angel are happy to ask you to angel more than one book to put in the package, and I've found that while international packages usually cost more per package to mail than domestic ones, the actual cost per point often works out to be comparable with the cost of media mail. There are also many other side benefits to be had, the best of which is friendships that can be formed. Another benefit I experienced just this morning was discovering several books to mooch for myself in the inventory of a person from whom I mooched a book while serving as an angel. And I had the points to mooch away because I have accrued all those points while serving as a BM angel in the past. My angel "profit" points largely account for the fact that I have far more books in my library currently than I had initially. You may as well just go buy more bookshelves now. ;-) And I can assure you that if you want a group of friends who completely understand the logic of needing to obtain more books while you have 250 that haven't been read yet still sitting on your shelves, then you have come to the right place.

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when..

You were about to quit and go read for the night. Upon finding bookmooch down you stay on to see how long it will take to come back up *facepalm*

Addendum:
'I can't check my wishlist because bookmooch is down.. what will I do?'

.....

I know! I'll post a few books while I wait..

Cr*p...

Don't worry, teagirl, I just checked the RSS feed for my wishlist...

There's a book available....

it was posted 11 hours ago & I have no way of knowing if it has been mooched already or it is waiting for me!!!!!!

Oh, Flisternicks!!!!

LOL, J! I've done that too, it's good to see I'm not the only one.

Well I can't check my wishlist on BM, so I might as well do what I told myself I would not do, and check out a certain members' "moochables" list. If only to see if she has the other books in the series she got me hooked on, lol.

Oh how I love you guys and how you enable my habits. *hugs*

RE: #161: The book was mooched by someone in the EU! :(

I'm sure it will come available eventually!!

maybe when I've had a chance to climb Mount TBR a few times.

162> Which series? ;)

164: Rosemary Laurey's Vampire Series :)

>156 skittles:

We pedants always are willing to show the proper way to write, spell and punctuate. The term in the first sentence should be 'used-book store'. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

.

#166: Oh, Jimmy!! I'm sorry that I left out a space between the words book & store, which is not what I meant to do. I occasionally make mistakes because despite evidence to the contrary, I am human.

I dare say the book store was also very 'used' - so no problem all round...

...except skittles: human!??? - be careful here, very careful. I don't think it's allowed.

(The above punctuation, spelling and grammatical improprieties are all mine and I make no apology for them.)

-Inserts tidings of good will to all-

I would like to take a moment to thank Jim for reminding me about my fantasy band, as I have sorely neglected it the last year or so. In my imagination, we have a number one hit on the indie charts called "This Song Contains Several Grammatical Errors" which is about the pleasures of breaking up with a pedantic significant other. The chorus includes such lyrical gems as "Now I can say it however I want to, yeah yeah yeah!"

"Rock star" is one of those childhood career ambitions that never quite seemed to take off for me. I still have hope for "superhero librarian" when I get a bit older, though!

#169: I am often not allowed.

and I often do things that aren't allowed.

I try to do what is right.

and that really isn't always allowed.

While my significant other was busy playing video games, I occupied myself by going through my BookMooch history and counting up all the books I've mooched for myself and still own. Final count? I have (more or less) 490 of the 831 total books I've ever mooched.

We all have our hobbies. :P

#167 - no, it shouldn't! The sentence in question ends outside the quotation marks, not inside them. Nothing sadder than a non-pedant who tries (and fails) to play with the big boys ...

>175 Sophie236: In American usage, commas and periods uniformly go inside of the quotation marks, whether or not they are part of the quotation. Any style guide would tell you the same. It is different from "British style," but it's not wrong. :)

Ah, I didn't know the American usage was different. It still looks weird to me, though! Perhaps LT should institute a country identifier after our LT handles for forum use, so we know where people are coming from, as it were ...

#177: Then we would need a planet identifier

or a universe identifier

or a dimensional identifier

or a conditional identifier.......

>175 Sophie236: Is correct, but it is easy to understand why others may have misunderstood:

Punctuation and Quotation Marks: Periods and commas when used with a quote go inside the quotation marks in APA style. Additional punctuation, such as a colon, semicolon, or question mark, may go outside the quotation marks unless they are part of the original quote.

The above is APA format. So it could go either way frankly. The way I see it, if i were marking this the . belongs OUTSIDE the quotation marks. Why? Because they were not quoting the sentence, they were quoting the word. Therefore it is ADDITIONAL punctuation, not quoted punctuation by AMERICAN standards. If the intended quote was one word and the period, the period would go within the quotes. But that would be a pretty strange quote. I would mark it wrong if the . was inside the quotes in a paper that was handed in to one of my classes.

Edit: Bonus marks if you can find the 30 trillion grammatical errors in mine. I am not claiming my grammar to be perfect. Simply stating that this could go either way, but period outside the quotes makes the most grammatical/logical sense.

Sounds like APA is at odds with Strunk & White, who state that periods and commas always belong inside quotation marks (p. 36 of the 3rd edition). So i think the take-home message here is that rules about grammar, punctuation, etc. vary quite a lot across (as well as within) cultures and time, and there's no point using BookMooch as a forum to pounce on other people's perceived lapses. Next time i feel bothered by pedantic behaviour, rather than emulate it, i'll just follow chelonian's lead and write a song. I don't have an imaginary rock band so it will have to be a song i can perform solo. ; )

I can play the imaginary drums :)

I'll sing backup! (my imaginary voice would sound like Anne Wilson)

The Chicago Manual agrees with both APA and Strunk & White in stating that:

6.8 "Periods and commas precede closing quotation marks, whether double or single. This is a traditional style, in use well before the first edition of this manual (1906). As nicely expressed in William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's Elements of Style, 'Typographical usage dictates that the comma be inside the quotation marks, although logically it often seems not to belong there ... . The same goes for the period.'"

6.9 "Unlike periods and commas, colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points all follow closing quotation marks unless a question mark or an exclamation point belongs within the quoted matter. (This rule applies the logic absent in 6.8.)"

Example 'Take, for example, the first line of "To a Skylark": "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!"'

ETA: Dang it, touchstone programing is befouling my neat bracketings.

182: Nice! :)

Imaginary bands are the best bands! This is largely because one does not need any special talent for them.

My imaginary band has such songs as "Never Mind the Giant Dragons" and "Stephen Maturin, Why Are You Fictional?" We also do a rip-roaring version of "The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All" for our encores.

Thanks, M! (glad we cleared that up)

Well, you know we all lay wide awake in our beds last night dwelling on this.

185: Can I come to your imaginary shows? I can be that embarrassing person in the front who goes "woooo!" after the first three bars of every song! Because given your repertoire, I totally would.

I had something to add to the APA comments but then my food arrived and I got distracted. Even the windows I left open on my computer cannot help me figure out what I was planning on saying, lol.

Punctuation always befuddles me. If the Jones family buys a trampoline, whose trampoline is it?

The Jones' ?
The Joneses' ?
The Joneses's ?

While I was in Uni, there was a website where you could enter all the information into a form, and it would pop out the correct citations. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but it saved me far too many times. There's something about citations that always befuddle me. (The fact that I was a master at the 3am, due at 7am paper writing could be a factor...)

And no, it did not correct grammer. As such, mine is crap.

I was taught " Joneses' " (spaces added for clarity, oh, I am a rule-breaker) because the apostrophe goes outside the close of the plural possessive noun.

That is, the book belonging to one boy is:

The boy's book

The book belonging to two boys is:

The boys' book

If only one Jones owned the trampoline, it would be " Jones's ". (period deliberately outside of closing mark for clarity)

ETA: Linky, linky.

>190 MapleWalnut: Can you just call it "The trampoline that belongs to the Jones family" and then not have to worry about apostrophes? I swear, half my writing time is spent rewording sentences so that I don't have to deal with confusing punctuation issues. Proper grammar I can take or leave, spelling I can do, but punctuation! Argh.

>188 melonbrawl: As you can tell from my inclusion of an encore song, our imaginary shows are amazing. You are more than welcome to attend!

You are addicted to Book Mooch (the LT version)...when this is the only thread you seek

After shuddering my way through various online message boards over the years I absolutely LOVE finding one where people debate the finer points of grammar and punctuation, complete with quotes from authoritative sources. You guys are my heroes.

188: We are recruiting groupies of all sorts welcome aboard!

Anybody want to volunteer to sell our t-shirts?
Also: We will need some sort of bookish yet cool name. Ideas?

196> I will so be your groupie! I will come to all of your gigs and hang out with the band and I will learn all of your lyrics by heart and stalk...err I mean generally follow you guys around!

Re: group name....you could just be a symbol instead of a name..you know, like Prince!

How about " or better yet ;

People will say..."Man, did you see semi-colon last night? They totally wailed!"

>196 Bcteagirl:

I am rooting for "Pagination" because it has the advantage of having a great fan club name built in (Page Nation, anybody?) and also sounding vaguely dirty. :D (90% of my imaginary bands over the past few years have had Doctor Who-related names, so even something shit like "Pagination" is a triumph.)

>197 Belladonna1975:

You can't actually pronounce the punctuation! People would be making air quotes or, like, doing a poke-the-air-then-make-a-semi-hook thing. Which would be pretty cool, actually.

#198 - I refer you to this YouTube clip of the wonderful Victor Borge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw&feature=related

Thanks for reminding me!

#199:

Terrific!! and oh, so funny!!

#199,

Oh, that was funny! Thanks!

I had almost forgotten about that!! Thanks :) :)

>199 Sophie236: That is awesome! And just sucked up like forty-five minutes because there are even more Victor Borge clips out there.

I had wanted to say something about using !!!! for a name, because I am pretty sure Javier Grillo-Marxuach would not mind a nerdy band using the name of one of his fictional beverages, but it's hard to describe the way you say it without video demonstration and nobody seems to have put a clip up on YouTube!

199: Very nice!

203: There's actually a crap dance-punk band called !!!! Well, they're called !!!, but i thought that sentence deserved an exclamation mark. They pronounce it "chik chik chik."

199: Sophie...that's brilliant!
Thank you.

203: I fled after watching just that one - and recovering from laughing so much!
I want to read my book!!!
I will return - I bookmarked it. *sigh*

When you get excited about an email asking you to give your books away!

When your friends get sick and you offer to look after their BookMooch accounts.

207: Heehee!

You know you are addicted to bookmooch when you are proud of your restraint in 'only' adding 35 books to your library in November.

You know you're addicted to bookswapping and LT when you have all the sites in your Quick Links Toolbar so with the click of an icon you can quickly go from one to another!

you know you are addicted when you look at the group & realize no one has posted a message for more the 14 hours!!!!!

and so you need to post one so the thread doesn't feel forgotten!!!!

210: And you give me something to read as I avoid working...

Thank you, BTW. Off to further procrastinate and check my wishlist. :)

#211: and what is really hard is that this thread is over 200 posts!!

My CDO/OCD is screaming at me to fix that & start a new addiction thread.

and that's a whole different addiction....

but maybe we can see how large this thread can get before I really start screaming!!

(just hold me down & I'll be ok)

edited because I made a mistake & the CDO/OCD made me fix it!!

Keep calm and have a cupcake :P

*Hands you a minty cupcake*

#213: ooooooo!! and with dark chocolate!!

The Bestest!!

Thanks so much!!!

*Big puppy dog eyes at teagirl* Where's my cupcake?

hey ... pass those cupcakes around... my nemesis (any flavor will do)

Pistachio cupcakes for everyone!!!

217: Oooo, much better than minty.

Mint fans, keep in mind that you get my share of mint foods instead.

Me, me, me!!! I want the mint foods!

Reading these 219 posts (as of this moment) oddly makes me feel so normal.

You know you are addicted to bookmooch and librarything when you angst over which you'd rather be doing, reading or checking/adding to these sites. If only there was a way to do all three at once!

212:
A shiny new thread would be just the thing - feed our addiction...go on. :)

add: 221: BALE - could not have said it better myself. When you have it figured out, could you tell me please? *grin*

...when you feel guilty for picking the books from your TBR pile that you think you will enjoy and will therefore keep instead of reading those that you think you might not like and would therefore give away. What a strange world.

Adding to that... When you feel guilty because there are two highly-wishlisted books sitting there in your TBR pile and you just haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

I thought of you guys when I read this today on The Book Smugglers blog....

http://thebooksmugglers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Confessions-of-a-Book-Fie...

>224 Belladonna1975: LOL I particularly like and can relate to the "Reshelving Accident"

#224:

My name is skittles & I am a book addict.

>224 Belladonna1975: hahahahaha! Rival book fiend! LOVE IT!

224: Love it!!

>220 BALE: normal! ROFL!

...when you're offered a freebie book in a bookshop, and your first thought as you take it is "I wonder whether this is wishlisted on BookMooch".

... when you are offered freebie books from anywhere or anyone and you wonder if you should just take them & post them on BookMooch!!

When you find some great books for you in a used book shop, and you are just as excited because you think they will probably go fast on bookmooch after as well :)

.

LOL! ;-)

and the addiction continues: You know you are addicted... , volume 2

Thank you for your time & patience.

Good Night, Gracie!