The other night, being bored, I re-arranged all my fiction and history books (10 and 4 shelves worth respectively). The former are now all in order of author, from Adams to Wyndham, and the latter in (roughly) chronological order, from Warrior Pharoahs to the Kennedys. (I'm not happy about the positioning of the Irish history section, though, squeezed uneasily between the British Empire and the Boer War).

Having done it, I spent some time contemplating them, thinking about the stories behind the spines, and reflecting upon the patterns I could make out of them.

Pratchett and Tolkien take up more than one shelf each. Stalin takes up half a shelf. There is only one Austen (P&P). There are some still unread (Middlemarch is being saved for the flight to NZ), and in others forlorn little bookmarks mark the point at which the advance petered out. I have no books about China, Japan, or Latin America; Africa is only covered by the Boer War and the British Empire. In fact, take out the British Isles, Russia and Germany and I would have very few history books at all. My Flashman paperbacks are in deplorable condition. Fforde is taking over the second shelf by stealth (five books already); he is the only author with multiple copies of the same work.

My only conclusion is, I have not got enough books.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Sounds somehow familiar to me. Due to lack of shelves I meanwhile have real problems to arrange my books in a reasonable system. When I moved in my current flat (and probably I'll have to move again at latest in 2 years, because I don't have room enough for any more books) I divided them into Fiction and Nonfiction. The Nonfiction Part into Encyclopaedias, Linguistics, Literary Reference Works (German section and English Section), Linguistics, Dictionaries, etc., History (arranged in various national histories: sources, reference works, essay-stuff). The nonfiction shelves are full by now and I have to put nonfiction books into the fiction parts. Fiction is divided into classical literature by author, nationality and epoch, when published, fantasy and other modern fiction (again by author, nationality, language, main topic).
At the moment I'm making a bibliography of my late grandpa's books who didn't want his books to get lost (most of his heirs are not bibliophil at all) and as I took over this job I have first pick. That means, soon I'll have to stuff about 2 meters or more of books into my flat.
As I have most of my English classical literature compiled in different anthologies (and I prefer single volumes, they're more comfortable to read) and most of my history stuff is very specialised on only few very narrow periods I really don't have enough books.



Post Edited (07-27-03 18:33)

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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

We have books in every room in the house. Okay, so the kitchen bookshelf only contains cookery books. But everywhere else you'll find a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Except the bedroom - that contains only history ((I'm sure that Freud would say something about that!)

In the living room the alcove shelving contains mainly Penguins - the blue-spined Modern Classics, the black spined Classics and the orange-spined ordinaries. That's 3 and a bit shelves. Above them sit a row of Pelicans which I've just discovered are also an imprint of Penguin (although I don't think they still exist). Above them are odds and ends including Nicholas Monsarrat, a few Arthur Bryants, and a couple of Don Marquis (archy's life of mehitabel - wonderously funny).

The bathroom has bathtime books - these are titles that I've read so many times that I can open them anywhere and start reading - includes 84 Charing Cross Road, The Diary of A Nobody, Katherine (Anya Seton), TEA/LIAGB/WOLP, His Dark Materials trilogy and the Mists of Avalon.

The back bedroom contains my signed copies collection (including of course, WOLP & LIAGB, Carter Beats the Devil (very good book), 2 Antonia Frasers and 2 Alison Weirs), my collection of Virago Classic and Persephone titles, my Jennings hardbacks and some other odds and ends. This is my bookcase - the Dodo isn't allowed a look-in! But then as this room is also my sewing room/my silver workshop/my office, why should he?

The problem is that once I have a book signed, it goes on the signed shelf and I have to buy a replacement to read. So once I had my 1974 copy of Mary Queen of Scots (complete with slipcase and falling to pieces which I've had since new) signed by Antonia Fraser, I had to purchase another one.

We really need to have another book cull - I hate doing it but sometimes there is no choice. Sat here I can see four of my books that I shall never read again .................

Beware the Stalin books - turn your back on the buggers for a moment and 35 million undesirable works of literature will have been shipped off to the coldest reaches of your library...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

My book filing system consists of two big bookshelves half empty, a few boxes of leftover childrens books which I refuse to get rid of, and the half ton of books under my bed, because I tend to fall asleep while reading and they always seem to end up under there. It works out well if I need to find a book because all I have to do is lift up the mattress and look.

oh gosh!

And my friends still tell me I have many books :/

I have three classifications: fiction, classic fiction, and non-fiction. Granted, that can be a bit arbitrary, as I have ended up filing The Lord of the Rings on the classic shelf but The Silmarillion with the rest of the fiction, but if I do that it means that I can (for the moment) get all the other fiction into one bookcase. I mostly read non-fiction, and as I have rather a lot of it, it has ended up being filed strictly in order of size. This means that Stephen Hawking is quite probably rubbing shoulders with a book of cross stitch cat designs, though I haven't actually checked.

The actor Russell Hunter once said that he used to have about 7000 books, but his wife wanted to move to a smaller house so he had to get rid of about half of them. Now there's a man who really loves his wife!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

...this is not a man who really loves his wife, but a man who should have left her.



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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

(N. Chomsky 1957)

Slightcap, would work for me, with added bonus that they'll prop bed up if you ever break it.

Jon - how many books do you have about Australia? This is vitally important, you know.

I wen't to visit friends yesterday who have changed theire formal dining room into a library because they had no where else to put their 7 bookshelves. The four bookshelves for the kids had taken over the upstair room. I pionted it out to hubby but he just rolled his eye and walked away. How on earth did I ever marry a man who doesn't read?

On an up note, he's getting rather interested in Jasper's books. He likes the name 'Jack Schitt'. In time I may convince him to read them.

Actually, the bed did break at one point , and I did have to use the books to prop it up, but I was worried that doing so would hurt the poor books, so I slept on the floor for two months until I managed to fix the bed :)

I don't really have a system. If books fit on the shelf, on the shelf they go. I have all my medical journals in unsightly heaps around the house.

What I really need is a housekeeper!

Last time I moved my dad paid my sister and her boyfriend to help so he wouldn't have to. Said I had too many books :)

well, I still have quite a few in Portugal in my old room (and bea you do NOT have many books).

Here after the move and a cull I have a tall narrow bookcase with my proofs and valuable stuff in my bedroom, a tall wide extra deep bookcase in my room which i love being extra deep because I can have 2 rows of books on each shelf (this one also in my bedroom) and in the living room a tall wide bookcase with more books and some horizontally on top of the others... then a few bigger coffeetably type books in Lizzy's bookcase and the cookbooks in the kitchen.

And quite a few still at work that I will have to bring home if I ever leave...

When we last moved, we went from a 2 bedroom place to a 4 bedroom house. We still only have 1 bedroom but we do have a "library" completely full of Billy bookcases from Ikea. (The cats also have their own double bedroom; no bed, just lots of cat toys and a huge, hairy sofa)

Books about Australia ... erm, two ... a Lonely Planet Guide and a book about trams.

Books about NZ ... also two ... a Rough Guide and, aha, a book about trams ...

Books about Portugal ... one ... it's about .... trams (do you sense a pattern here?)

And I have three books about Sheffield. Go on, guess the subject matter ...



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

I've been streamlining my books down to prepare for moving to Bristol. Most of them are now in my old bedroom in the parents' house, or "Alexandria" as I like to call it. Panning round from left to right, that room contains:

- 1 small shelf of random paperbacks in the corner.
- No bookcase, 'cos I've had that away for Bristol.
- 3 boxes with books in them, recently shunted down from Exeter. Mostly science fiction, some SF lit-crit, and a stack of Chaosium Lovecraftian fiction books.
- 3 long shelves over an old chest of drawers. Bottom shelf almost entirely occupied by French language books, mostly Ionesco and Queneau. Middle shelf Russian language books and assorted academic texts. Top shelf anything large, hardbacked, large and hardbacked, and a few "wacko" books.
- A sort of wooden partitioned arrangement on top of a currently in-use chest of drawers, intended for CDs, videos, etc, but currently housing a lot of Agatha Christie (ripe for the culling...), PG Wodehouse, 'Far Side' collections, general literature and assorted SF books.
- A cupboard, used for general storage, that includes a double-stacked shelf of books I'll probably never read again, mostly kids/teen.
- A bookcase, 8 shelves, mostly filled up with 'Doctor Who' books - TV novelisations and spin-off novels. Only about a dozen or so of those novels are likely to last out the next few years. Remaining novels to be shifted on for trade some day. I'd hand on the novelisations to a good home, but in my youth I wrote my name in the front cover of each one. Spot the public school survivor. Some general literature on the bottom 2 shelves.
All told, well in excess of 1000 books (last count in 1998 put my entire stash of books at around 1200; I've bought more since then). In fairness, a few hundred of these could reasonably be sold on.

This leaves me with about 150 books in the Westcountry, being the books I looked at, thought about, and decided I was likely to reread more than once in the near future. My room looks strangely bare.



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"Whisky-wa-wa," I breathed - she was dressed as Biffo the Bear.

I've got two cupboards full of books, filed in the classic "piled up randomly" system. Plus one small but deep bookcase, and two small and shallow ones - one of these has Discworld (but not other Pratchett), Diana Wynne Jones and Buffy stuff, the other has sort of favourite/ impressive looking stuff.

I think I've got about 1300 books now, I though that was too many, but lately I've decided it's not enough.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

I don't know how many I have, I didn't really count. they filled up around 20 boxes when I moved... So I say about 600 to 800... might count them one day...


Oh and if I get the job one of the perks is 2 free books per day...



Post Edited (07-28-03 13:37)

hmm. Got a lot of books. In the lounge we have 3 bookshelves, nearly floor-ceiling, full, bar the odd gap for dvds/photos. bookshelf in the study, double-full (2 rows of books on each shelf). 4 large archive boxes of books in the loft until we buy some more shelves. Another bookshelf on the landing, about 3 ft high, full. 4 large bread crates full of books up in newcastle, waiting until I get a house of my own to put them in (don't tell my mother I've got one, or she'll want them shifted). Various windowsills/shelves/bedside tables covered.

hmm. gotta lotta books.