Book Obsessed - A Collector With Over 35,000 Books

it's hard to know where my love of reading began I can't remember what time when I did love my books my mother says when I was little I was going with my favorite things they read to me reading it and I always had more books I never had bookshelf my name is Jo Perlman so my neighbors think I'm a bit book obsessed and maybe after today they won't have any doubt what does reading mean to me I guess it's a special experience when it's a really good book it's like brings you to a different place and it really does cause me to look at the world in a different way what you see in this room is what I call the pantheon these are my favorite books this is the basement overflow I got quite a bit of stuff hidden global air too when I ran out of room in the basement I started putting shoving up in the garage so there is a system it's just that it's a system that only I know this is was my son's room when he lived here these are mostly books that I'm planning on this is my daughter's room I haven't quite taken over this room yet but you did have a few extra inches on the shelves like I'm starting to put some books fortunately it's a big house this is the attic where I put the books that I'm not sure what you want to do with once this area is completely full that's the end I can't buy anymore there's a density to be collecting and amassing it's hard to describe it's really things in your DNA my love of books is really for the object it's the feeling that you really have to have the text around in something so that if you need it it's there I started collecting seriously around 1975 I started reading about first issues that were collectible then when I joined this collective group that's actually when I first read Ulysses and I want remedial issues you really have to get background you have to read you have to have you know dictionaries of the illusion I must have bought 20 bucks Ulysses then I got interested in Jack Kerouac when I was a member of a reading group and it was such a controversial book the reading group actually broke up of it I collect them Alice Monroe who I think is one of the greatest underappreciated history runners building today and I caught Richard Ford and he writes really serious wonderfully light novels about the American scene I really like fallen literature in translation that's probably my all-time favorite Marquez 100 Years of Solitude there was a fire I was running out that's probably the one that I would grab what shocked me when I first read it was that all these books that I read before that these people were borrowed from it the book is is good and you're really into it you also lose track of time and space we actually go into that well I was like so NASA's computer program is going into your own mind this is the book that I just finished about a week or two ago it's by Junot Diaz called the brief wondrous life of Oscar well it's his first novel one things I love to read our first novels it was generally what people do is they put credit for everything they know about life into one book because I think this may be their one shot it's all about something doesn't really fit in he's overweight it's not really a Dominican isn't really an American it's all about his search for love the other book that I recommend is called the peeling the onion this is Gunter crosses new memoir it's very controversial he writes in depth about his experience being a member of Nazi youth corps he uses the same allusions that he used if anybody who's read the tin drum basically sees memories is layers like an onion you keep peeling the layers out getting deeper and deeper as you get deeper and deeper it really you really sort of more you see more and more of emotion what you were like at the time and I recommend the book is absolutely brilliant I wish in general people would read more valuable books that most people read where actually expand their mind and take them to a different world or look at the world in a different way well now you've seen all the books in the house and all the nooks and crannies where I keep them my book obsessed friends think I'm not book obsessed anybody else can make their own judgment thanks for coming [Music]

Channel: BNStudio

Views: 63,225

Rating: 4.9742489 out of 5

Keywords: BN, B&N, BN.com, Barnes, Noble, Book, Obsessed, books, book, news, reviews, collectors, recommendations, reading

Id: r8cPwUsm5eg

Length: 4min 15sec (255 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 04 2008