My family will happily attest to the fact that occasionally, my craziness reaches bizarre heights. Usually about needing round numbers or alphabetizing stuff. Recently, they all mocked me because I couldn't handle the fact that my mom set her alarm for 4:57. Why not just do 5:00? Seriously? I can't be alone in this
Anyways, I got sidetracked. I'm here to talk about how my OCD relates to books. Series, mostly.
Here's how it plays out: I start reading a series, fall in love with it and devour every available title. Then I hit the end of the series and have to wait, like normal people, for the next book. By the time that book arrives, months later, I buy it eagerly. And then I have to decide. Read it on its own? Or read the rest of the series again. I do this with movies too.
For example, my husband and I recently went to see Iron Man 3. What I really wanted to do was sit down, watch Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in quick succession, then head to the theater. It didn't happen, partially due to being busy, and partially due the mocking I get whenever I suggest things like that :)
This problem mostly relates to 2 things, I've decided. One, I'm SUPER sequential (part of my OCD charm). I hate watching TV shows out off order, reading books out of order. I'm not sure why, other than a vague suspicion that I read something out of order as a kid, either got a nasty spoiler or had no idea what was going on, and it scarred me for life. So I like things to be sequential.
The other contributing factor is that I'm a really fast reader. Which is great, but it means that justifying spending time re-reading a series just to read the latest book doesn't take me all that long. Or least, it didn't, when I had more free time. But now, when I'm super busy and can usually only squeeze in a couple chapters before bed, I'm spending an awful lot of time re-reading books I've read before.
Mind you, I'm not totally crazy. If I've read the books in the last couple months, I don't usually re-read the whole series. And some series are long enough that I've read the first few books enough times that I can start my re-reading in the middle somewhere.
But yeah, that's my confession. What about you guys? Anyone crazy enough to admit that they re-read so they remember what's going on too?
I'm so glad I'm not the only one. At least with tv shows and movies. I used to remember every book I read to the point I couldn't re-read it. But age has cured me of that problem. Now I can't remember anything I've read, except vaguely. "I think there was a rabbit in it somewhere..."
ReplyDeleteWow, it isn't just me? :) I must read in order and I usually need the refresher as well. Thanks for sharing.
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