What does your Bookcase/shelf say about you?

[JimS600]

Came home from work and my wife was having a few with some friends.

One of the guests was new and had never meet me before,it caused a few laugh's

when she did a rundown on my personality and got very close,from examing my bookcase.

Not just the books on there but the way they were stacked,what was gathering dust, what was just read etc.

That a certain series of books began in Paperback then went to Hardback stuff like that.

So all those dating threads need look no further,check out the shelves guys

[MinDonner]

Bookshelves are a good place to start looking. Though I avoided reading ASoIaF for the longest time because the guy who kept recommending it to me, had a shelf full of little else but Salvatore and Brooks... :wideeyed:

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Meh. Pretty much all my shelf says about me is that I'm a huge nerd who is well-organized.

My books, carefully arranged by author, then genre (since some authors, like Bakker, cross genres I prefer to group by authors first), then by personal preference. My shelves are full of SFF (natch), history books, German books (both reference books and actual books in German, though I don't really read them as they're a struggle for me), and then a few random other novels, mostly historical fiction.

[Larry.]

Anyone that tries to psychoanalyze me based on my bookshelves will find their brains hurting. I don't strictly organize by author (although I often will place a few works by a particular author together), genre (I read much more than speculative fiction), or hardback/softcover (more of a wave-like pattern in the sizes, colors, and hardness of covers). I do keep my nearly 500 book non-English books mostly together by language, but that's the closest thing to a discernible pattern that I follow. For example, Ian Cameron Esslemont's The Return of the Crimson Guard is beside Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife and Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is next to Brian Evenson's Last Days, not to mention a collection of J.G. Ballard's short fiction is beside a collection of Proust.

If I had to give a main reason (I have several) for not organizing things in such a pattern, it is to force others to notice that I don't segregate works according to pre-conceived notions of "genre" or "literature." Fiction and non-fiction alike are intermingled and seeing the purposely inchoate "organization" actually reminds me to read (and re-read) certain books in order not to fall into reading ruts.

It's also an organizational anti-scheme that might intimidate a few ;)

[Procrastimancer]

The entirety of my collection rests on one of those short, narrow two-cubby shelves that you can get cheap from Wal-mart. It is stuffed full with a few MMPB stacked on top. Almost half of the first cubby is taken up with thin volumes of translated fiction, some of which is fantasy, though not recognizably so. The rest of the cubby is given over to a smattering of genres--authors include Robert E. Howard, Warren Ellis, Michael Cisco, and Thomas Ligotti. The second cubby is home to larger volumes, again a smattering of genres, with science fiction nestled next to Lit and Ekaterina Sedia snuggling up with manga. I honestly have no idea what this would say about me... although my fiancée has a friend that would say my taste is shit, as evidenced by her proclaiming "Eww!" when I took to examining the Lit section of our local Half Price Books... as she stood there, a trashy Erotica novel in her hands.

Now, I recently moved, which is why I have such a small collection. The rest of my books are down where I used to live, sitting at my parents house and waiting for me to pick them up on my return visit. Walking into that room, seeing three full shelves and a nightstand covered with four two-foot stacks of books, one would quickly come to four conclusions: 1) I have too many books. 2) I have too little room. 3) I am a cheap bastard that buys more books instead of investing in more shelving. 4) I have something against MMPB. They'd be right on all accounts. And that collection was just as random as my current one.

[Kosciuszko]

My entire collection is pretty much history, classics, or fantasy of one form or another. The occasional guide on grammar and style as well.

I'm not sure what that says, honestly.

Oh, and its not organized. I have it all scattered about the home in one level of read through or another.

[SkynJay]

My wife and I have a "library" of a spare bedroom. On one wall, nice wooden bookshelfs, though none match because all are secondhand. Those are filled with our history books (both history nerds) and her sheet music.

On the opposite side of the room are the 3 shelf fold up book cases you can buy cheep. Those are filled with a mix of her and my stuff. She has books like Janet Evonvitch (not even going to look up spelling), Emily Griffith, and other "fluffy trash," her words not mine.

I have mostly Fantasy and Scifi, with Pratchett being the most prominently seen. We also have a few of our favorite classics, including my favorite Tom Sawyer copy, given to my Grandpa as a boy originally.

[Stego]

You tell me. Please.

[Kosciuszko]

You tell me. Please.

That you're awesome.

[Stego]

That you're awesome.

:D ty

My library is awesome, anyway. :D

This is my recently culled library. I donated about 2000 books to the local library and sent some others to friends and folks on here so that my move would be easier. This does not include my non-fiction or my GRRM collections.

[Xray the Enforcer]

LOVE the new library, Stego. Can't wait to see it in person. :thumbsup:

[Liadin]

That you're awesome.

And willing to put in the extra money for hardcover.

[valacirca]

It says I own a Kindle. ;)

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

You tell me. Please.

1. That I'm jealous.

2. I'm slightly dismayed by what I can only assume is an inborn hatred of paperbacks.

3. Finally, a bit impressed by what appears to be a complete collection of the Wheel of Time in hardback, which must have cost at least $40,000.

[Ser Nevarc]

My shelf of classic literature is organized by date of publication :shocked: What's wrong with me?

[Larry.]

You tell me. Please.

Well, I can't tell for certain, but it seems it says you read almost exclusively SF/F and that you collect editions (and hate paperbacks).

[mashiara]

You tell me. Please.

Love this! Would your wife mind a heavily pregnant woman moving in with you for a couple of months? I won't take up much room, I promise!

What do our bookcases say about dalThor and me? That we love books, all books, of all kinds and all shapes. That we don't have much room despite having 4 tall bookcases so we're still forced to double-and-triple-stack our books -and even store several hundreds of them. That we keep on buying more, even thought we don't have any place to put them. That we made a valiant effort when we first moved in to at least put all works by the same author in the same stack but we've been fighting a losing battle ever since and we've sort of given up.

[Stego]

Well, I can't tell for certain, but it seems it says you read almost exclusively SF/F and that you collect editions (and hate paperbacks).

Is 75% 'almost exclusively?' I'll let it go. It's fair, I suppose. I read genre quite a lot. I don't hate paperbacks. I have hundreds and hundreds. I just don't have room on my shelves for them. :D

Mash,

We have a spare room you can crash in, but dal'Thor might have something to say about it.

[Leofric]

I don't hate paperbacks. I have hundreds and hundreds. I just don't have room on my shelves for them. :D

I have same issue, my hardbacks are all up on shelves, but the majority of my paperbacks are boxed up.

[drawkcabi]

I have same issue, my hardbacks are all up on shelves, but the majority of my paperbacks are boxed up.

Me too most of my paperbacks in boxes along with all my Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County/Outland, Farside, and other cartoon collections.

The shelves in the living room say I love books and care about presenting them, the sheleve in my room say I've gotten overwhelmed and just given up...and I never dust. :blushing: