Photos Of Your Book Collections?

[beniowa]

Geddon, its simply not possible for a Mich to hurt herself while book wanking

Stego, you really should show yours *REALLY wants to see that collection*

We just had Global Orgasm Day, but it sounds like you're well on your way to solving world peace all by yourself Mich.

Important questions coming up :

Do you guys cull your book collection occasionaly, or do you just hoard? Do you dump books that are bad, distasteful, and you would be ashamed to have on your book shelf? (the De-Vinci code anyone?) or do you just amass them one and all? And is there such a thing as too bad a shape for a book? Are you afraid smelly rotting books might infect the others? Do you quarentine?

And why so many hardbacks? They take up SO much space? And how do you decide which books have to go? Do you regret those decisions later?

I don't really have any books I don't want since I'm pretty particular about what I read. If I don't like a book, I usually stop reading it and put it aside to give away. However, from time I do cull books. My tastes change, I realize the book was not as good as I remember, etc. I'd rather save space for the books I really like.

Hardbacks are more expensive, but they also last longer. I usually buy hardbacks for books that I really want immediately. If the desire isn't real strong, I'll just save money and wait for the paperback.

[RaceBannon42]

Important questions coming up :

Do you guys cull your book collection occasionaly, or do you just hoard? Do you dump books that are bad, distasteful, and you would be ashamed to have on your book shelf? (the De-Vinci code anyone?) or do you just amass them one and all? And is there such a thing as too bad a shape for a book? Are you afraid smelly rotting books might infect the others? Do you quarentine?

And why so many hardbacks? They take up SO much space? And how do you decide which books have to go? Do you regret those decisions later?

Cull???

Never! In fact I've become the book humane society. I took in a whole bunch of Glen Cook and Terry Pratchet books that needed a new home.

I've got Pillars of Creation on my shelf. I'm shameless, although yeah, I've got a lot of stinkers especially in paperback. Dozens and dozens of tie in books. Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Magic the Gathering, Star Wars... Eddings, Brooks,Goodkind... I've got them all!!!! bwahahahah.

umm. continuing. I've got some books that are in pretty bad shape, but as long as its readable I'll hang on to it. If its actually rotting? yeah I would need to go, can't have the mildew moving to other books.

Hardcovers. I used to only get Hardcovers on New Releases that I didnt want to wait for the mmpb.

Now, I've got the collectors bug. mmpb are not collectible by and large... Hard Backs can be. I always get a HC if I can these days. unless its for something that I have very low expectations of and that I pick up just to try.

[Geddon]

Geddon..... you show me yours and I'll show you mine.

I might take some shots of the visible ones. The problem is I ran out of places to put shelf units a long time ago so the books are all doubled up - only the ones at the front of each shelf can be seen (yeah, I know I shouldn't do that but it's the only way I can feasibly store them). Even with them doubled I have about half as many again in boxes. And no, I'm not unshelving them or unboxing them just so I can take photos.

Don't get me wrong, I do have a large collection but I can easily imagine other book fans having more titles. The problem I have is that almost all of my books are hardbacks (often thick fantasy epics), with the softcovers often being proofs or ARCs of the same, and which aren't much smaller or thinner than the HBs. If I just had mass market paperbacks I could probably fit my whole collection into the shelf space I have.

I read a quote somewhere that went something like "Before another book enters my house one must first leave". I can sympathise with that position, I'm not far off reaching that point.

[Stego]

I'll take pictures and post them this weekend. I must reiterate that this is no minor project. (Especially considering my library is awash with Christmas crap and overflow as we speak.) I'm not going to say I have more books than anyone else, as I could not care less. And I simply don't have time to go through my softcovers. It would be a year long project.

But I do have some neat gems I would not mind showing off, and I have a better collection than the vast majority of dealers tables out there.

P.S.

I tried to get pictures (and an interview) from Neil of Clarkesworld a few months ago. He rejected me and made me cry.

[Samalander]

what do you do when the shelf space runs out?

a) Use drawrs.

Get rid of some books.

c) Put up some portabale shelves.

d) Stack 'em up one on top of the other.

e) All of the above.

[Stego]

Uggh, no.

You buy a bigger house.

[Samalander]

Uggh, no.

You buy a bigger house.

[Vegas]

I fear that if I allowed myself to begin purchasing selected volumes, there would be no end. I fear to contemplate it, lest the ecstatic images it conjures override my feeble will-power. Away with you tempters and seductresses, away with you demons and devils. I will not succumb to your whorish wares.

(A roommate of mine once sold an old Pre-Calculus college textbook of mine, mistaking it for his own. Whatever hell awaits his soul must be fearsome indeed.)

[j-lantern]

Important questions coming up :

Do you guys cull your book collection occasionaly, or do you just hoard? Do you dump books that are bad, distasteful, and you would be ashamed to have on your book shelf? (the De-Vinci code anyone?) or do you just amass them one and all? And is there such a thing as too bad a shape for a book? Are you afraid smelly rotting books might infect the others? Do you quarentine?

And why so many hardbacks? They take up SO much space? And how do you decide which books have to go? Do you regret those decisions later?

I'm a hoarder. If it is readable, or my only copy, it stays, regardless of condition. I keep almost everything, though I know people who dump 85% of their books as soon as they finish them and only keep their classics. As for display, my favorites and pride of my collection (or what Stego or Geddon would probably call that bottom shelf over there) are displayed on a case in the library/office; secondary stuff is shelved in the closet, and old paperbacks and their ilk are boxed. More space, more books get displayed-less space, more closeted/boxed. I'll try to post up some pics of "the good shelf" when I can.

[Mich]

Important questions coming up :

Do you guys cull your book collection occasionaly, or do you just hoard? Do you dump books that are bad, distasteful, and you would be ashamed to have on your book shelf? (the De-Vinci code anyone?) or do you just amass them one and all? And is there such a thing as too bad a shape for a book? Are you afraid smelly rotting books might infect the others? Do you quarentine?

And why so many hardbacks? They take up SO much space? And how do you decide which books have to go? Do you regret those decisions later?

I cull my collection every now and then. If I won't read it again then it gets passed on to friends. I'm obsessive compulsive for books and have serious yard sale issues. For anything that I will read again...I hoard. There is no such thing as being ashamed of owning a book.

Smelly rotting books...where the hell have you been keeping them? Mine stay dry and rot-free on the bookshelves forever. A few tend to become well-loved but until i actually lose pages from them, I keep them.

As for hardcovers, see the hardcover thread

[Werthead]

[extreme nerdism]

Yeah, I was bored enough to do this.

Picture One. The book in the middle with the weird blue cover is Altered Carbon. For some reason its glossy silver refective cover caused lots of weirdness with the light from my camera bouncing off it. On the shelf below is my Peter F. Hamilton collection, who at five hardbacks ties with Robert Jordan for most hardbacks purchased. Hamilton and JV Jones (on the shelf above) have the honour of being the only authors whose every published work I possess (not very impressive, I know). I also have my severely under-strength Vance collection (just Lyonesse and Dying Earth on display there).

Picture Two. The other end of my main shelf area. Note the complete Wheel of Time collection along the top. Careful zooming reveals how well-thumbed Books 1-7 are, yet the barely-cracked conditions of Books 8-11 Looming beyond them like the iceberg that sank the Titanic is the Big White Book (previously referred to as the BwB but now de-acronymed in favour of another group with the same initials ). To the left of the WoT is my more literary selection: Christopher Priest, Susanna Clarke, Neal Stephenson and, erm, the Robotech RPG ( ).

Next shelf down is my main enjoyable-authors section: Tad Williams, Kim Stanley Robinson, David Brin, Paul Kearney, Steven Erikson, Charles Sheffield, Joe Abercrombie (unread, as yet), Alan Moore and Scott Lynch. Below that are Robin Hobb, Scott Bakker and Naomi Novik (won courtesy of Jay Tomio). Lurking in the bottom of the frame is Jack McDevitt's Moonfall, still the holder of the best novel blurb in history ("A Comet is Coming. It's Going to Hit the Moon. And the Moon is Going to Fall. ON US")

Picture Three. The GRRM Collection. Somewhat under-strength, it has to be said (no Windhaven, which is freely available, although my lack of an Armageddon Rag, Tuf Voyaging or Wild Cards is due to them not being in print in the UK at the moment and my dislike of American-sized paperbacks). Dreamsongs I only picked up a couple of weeks back at the London meet-up, and is also unread as yet.

Picture Four. Moving to the bottom shelf, we have the Flashman collection (lacking only Flashman and the Tiger, chronologically the last volume, which I am reading at the moment), and some of my more mediocre books: KJ Parker in the back and Ian Irvine at the front (which underwhelmed me to a tremendous degree). The books that are nearly invisible are the Alastair Reynolds collection (again, sparkly shiny covers) and then we have masterful Guy Gavriel Kay. One of my old Asimovs is in the background, along with HM Hoover's great SF kids' book, This Time of Darkness. Erm, my trousers are obscuring The Book of the New Sun, which is probably not a commonly-encountered sentence. The Game of Thrones board game is holding station at the bottom of the shot. Someone had the genius (?) idea of taking his copy of the board game to GRRM's signing for AFFC to get it signed, but I didn't go that far. Last year's Hugo-winner, Spin, is also in-shot.

Picture Five. The graphic novel selection, mainly Sandman but also The Dark Knight Returns and some other Batman ones, plus the Neil Gaiman and JRR Tolkien selection. WA Harbinson's awful Phoenix, Patrick Tilley's excellent Fade-Out and Rob Grant's amusing Incompetence and Fat (review forthcoming) are also in-shot.

Picture Six. The Raymond E. Feist selection, mainly. Relax, I didn't buy Into a Dark Realm in hardcover (after Shards of a Broken Crown, Feist will never get me shelling out for a hardcover of his again), I won it in a competition with SFX Magazine. Ringworld is lurking in the rear of shot and some B5 books (most from the RPG) on stage-right. The Rowling and Pullman YA section is just in shot at the top.

Picture Seven. My Bakker and GRRM signatures (some of them, anyway). Rather poor, franky, compared to Stego's vast assortment of signatures.

Picture Eight. Do you feel lucky, Objectivist punk?

Sadly, as my room is only slightly larger than a shoebox, this is only about 30% at best of my total book collection (which I last counted about two years ago as weighing in at just under 1200 books). The rest is in the attic or various family members' houses scattered across three countries.

[/extreme nerdism]

[Samalander]

Do you feel lucky, Objectivist punk?

[Calibandar]

Bumping this thread, eager to see Stego's collection.

[beniowa]

Bumping this thread, eager to see Stego's collection.

Yes.

[Balefont]

Hmmm.

I need some batteries for the digital cam.

sorry

i was horny

[Larry.]

My Spanish-Language Books - Sorry for the crappy resolution (taken using my cell phone camera), but this is just 1/12 or so of my total collection. Although the grainy resolution and the smallness of it makes it almost impossible to read most of the titles, I'll just say that half of the top shelf contain Alfaguara editions of books. Most of those are Alfaguara Award winners from 1998-2003, with other titles including Carlos Ruiz Zafón's La sombra del viento, Borges' El libro de los seres imaginarios, and at the end, Don Quijote. Second shelf has quite a few selections from Borges and Gabriel García Márquez, as well as some poetry and plays by Federico Lorica, Rubén Darío, and Calderón de la Barca. Third shelf is where I have most of my Saramago works in smaller paperback form, as well as Alejo Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos and a collection of short stories by Julio Cortázar.

Most of these have been translated into English, so I would highly, highly recommend each of these to you. Oh, and the mass-market sized paperbacks on the whole tend to be made out of much sturdier material than are UK/US MMPBs, in case you're curious.

[kcf]

I took a couple pictures a while back for my blog post: The Stack. I'll have to update that sometime, as the The Stack has evolved a bit since then - in the last week alone it's grown by 12 as I've cashed in the holiday/b-day gift cards.

[Rob B]

I took a couple pictures a while back for my blog post: The Stack. I'll have to update that sometime, as the The Stack has evolved a bit since then - in the last week alone it's grown by 12 as I've cashed in the holiday/b-day gift cards.

I clicked on the pictures and got the old "Page cannot be found" message.

[kcf]

I clicked on the pictures and got the old "Page cannot be found" message.

I think I need to reload them - thanks.

[Lawrence]

I think I need to reload them - thanks.

Too bad it's such a small image, can't seem to read the names properly. Still, nice collection!