Sunday, June 13, 2010

Control Issues

Obessions. I'm sure that most have them. Heaven knows I do. My reading habits are complete indications of my obsessions. Same with my photography habits, my cleaning habits...so on and so forth. I'm not one to do a little at a time. It's an all or nothing world spinning around me. When I do something, I DO something.

Take my photos. When I shoot a wedding solo, I end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to 1200 photos. Now that's not how many the bride gets. Many are duplicate shots, fuzzy shots, throw away shots. People blinked, its slightly out of focus because someone moved. I weed through them, clean up the keepers, do some photoshop work where needed, pay special attention to the portraits...when all is said and done, the bride ends up with somewhere around 400 to 500 photos for an eight hour wedding. A sane individual would work it down from the 1200 to the 400 over a period of time. Not me. I end up doing all that in like two days.

Another example is my reading. When I find an author that I like, I read everything I can get my hands on by that author. When I find a story that I like, I read it. And then read it again. And then read it again. When a new release that I've been waiting for comes out, I will read the book in one sitting. I can blow through a 400 page book in about seven hours. If that release is in a series, I will read all of the books prior to that one coming out, and then the new release. Just so everything is fresh in my mind. I let a friend of mine borrow one of my favorite paperback books the other day. She commented on how beat up the binding was. I told her I coudln't help it, I've read it like twelve times.

Yes, twelve times.

Prior to my new kick, the last 17 books I had read were by Richelle Mead. Yes, I know she only has 12 books out. I read the succubus series twice in a row. I will read all the VA books again at the end of November, preparing for The Last Sacrifice release in December.

I get tad obsessed with things. It's all or nothing over here. And it's happening again. I've heard many people say good things about Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, but I've been putting off reading it. I'm not sure exactly why. But whatever had kept me from them, it was a stupid reason because I can't put them down. I'm desperately trying to stretch them out because you can only read a book for the first time once, and these are great. The reluctant hero is witty, sarcastic, interesting, and gets himself involved in more problems than any crime-fighting wizard should feel compelled to. In two weeks, I've read six of the twelve books that are out. I'm pretty proud of myself for making them last this long. I won't make it out of this month though. They're way too tempting.

I have control issues, what can I say?

On a side note, congrats to Erin and Adam on their engagement. I love you guys!

And if you haven't listened to the interview on Silver Moon, Bloody Bullets, check it out in the sidebar. Book still not available on Amazon, but you'll hear me yell when it is.

5 comments:

Ken said...

I don't think you have a control issue so much as you're little OCD. The 'C' is for 'compulsive', not 'control.'

Anonymous said...

I'd have to agree with Ken. I think you're more compulsive than anything. I used to be that way with my books, too, but now there just isn't the time. However, whatever I'm doing, be it reading, writing, cleaning, learning, whatever, I tend to become a little obsessed with it and maybe just a tad compulsive, too. You're not alone. :)

Anonymous said...

As one OCD'er to another ... welcome to the club. I'm also a bit (ha!) of a control freak, but that's because I don't trust anyone else to do things right! Which is fed by my OCD. Things must be done right!

LOL

Kelly Metz said...

Compulsive. I like that. Sounds better at least. I definately have trust issues with delegating work...probably why I end up pulling fifty and sixty hour work weeks.

SusanKMann said...

I'm a bit like you, I need to have read things in order, do things the right way. A control freak. x