About a week ago I was speaking with my uncle, and we were talking about his enormous record collection. Often people will ask him if he listens to every album, and the obvious answer is no. That wouldn't be the point. The point is that he has amassed a library. Just like books or movies or anything else, the music is there when he needs it. That doesn't mean that we should all go out and buy albums just to fill up a library, but that we shouldn't feel horrible if we buy an album and only listen to it a few times before it gets put on the shelf. Maybe the week you bought it wasn't the right time for it. Often I'll rediscover an album in my collection months or years later and I'm glad I held onto it.
It's interesting how people exerience media. Some will buy an album and play it to death, but buy books and read them just once. Others do just the opposite. I guess it just depends how much you value each form of media. Personally, I would rather experience a number of different types of music instead of finding one style and latching onto it. This is how I like to consume music. I've only read a few books more than once, but I watch movies over and over if I really like them.
So now I throw this back to you. How do you enjoy your media? Do you like to buy or rent movies? Do you buy one or many albums at a time? Come on, it's sharing time.
11/18/02 4:17 PM
films: netflix.com -- watch them once. i do like to review old favorites occasionally, usually classic black and white noir films, cheesy science fiction or blow-em-up action films...
books: re-read the ones i like until the covers fall off. sometimes i like to read several translations of the same book, such as the illiad, beowulf, etc. (seamus heaney's is brilliant). science fiction, fantasy and horror novels i might re-read the most. i usually stick to a short list of favorite authors. then there's the amazing works of more mainstream fiction that i can only read once, like "smilla's sense of snow", "a simple plan" etc.
music: i also have far too many recordings to ever revisit everything. i probably have at least 3-400 CDs, about a dozen of which i listen to over and over. i usually am constrained to actually carrying with me about 4-5 at a time, of which i actually listen to 1-2 over and over again--i keep the other ones handy just because it's good to know they're there. currently i have listened to peter gabriel's new CD "Up" about twice a day since it came out.
11/20/02 3:09 AM
Funny you should bring this topic up, granted I'm just now getting around to reading it, but I was talking about the same thing on my blog a little while ago. For the most part, I think people keep stuff around (i.e. big libraries of books, magazines and music included) to look smart, cultured, wordly or whatever. Now, this ins't always the case. I happen to have an impressive collection of music. It's something that I'd rather not part with. I could o without the DVDs and the books. For the most part, I don't touch either one more than once or twice, they're just nice-to-have-arounds. Music is something to which I constantly go back. Not everything gets listened to once a year, but I listen to a hell of a lot of music and I do it often. I buy it often and I spend a lot of money [I don't really have] on it. Anyway, that's my story.