Though Bette Pesetsky's characters live fairly recognizable middle-class lives, they tend to have odd, obsessive habits.

Monk manages to overcome his obsessive habits - sometimes even using them to his advantage - and catch criminals.

Out of obsessive habit she checked the combination lock on her special oblong leather case.

This tendency was reinforced by Nkrumah's almost obsessive working habits.

Math, along with an obsessive habit of knocking on wood, provides Mona with a shaky hold on her sanity in the face of her father's decline.

Like his parents, Truman is not a fan of his Aunt Buffy's obsessive habits in the kitchen and questioned her for alphabetizing the pantry.

Mr. Sinrod, who runs Sinrod Marketing in Hicksville, handled the survey details of the book, which focuses on "people's obsessive, compulsive, quirky habits."

This first novel conjures a world of oddities: its narrator reacts to her father's slow death by denying herself all pleasure, taking refuge in mathematics and developing an obsessive habit of knocking on wood.

It was an obsessive habit.

The care of the interior demands an obsessive habit of mind.