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What are your biggest library mistakes EVER
When I loan out a book I tell the person if I want it back or not. Otherwise, it's not a book I really, really wanted to keep on my shelf. Now, if my boss would only hurry up and read Kavalier & Clay and bring it back like I requested ...I'm not a person that keeps every book that I've read. The only ones I keep on my shelf are the ones that I know I'd like to read again, or have read several times! I don't loan the ones I know are "keepers" so I don't mind if I don't get the others back and love to share something I've really enjoyed with someone I think will enjoy it as well. Except for Kavalier & Clay (not to beat a dead horse or anything). Wish my boss was a member here ;)
i accidentally stole a book in the library. :)
I have a book that was due back to the library on the day I was born. My mom never returned it.
When I was a kid most of my allowence used to go to library fees. :-(
I never lived anywhere I could get to a public library till I was 13. Before that I was limited to my school library. Of course I quickly tried to make up for lot time. :)
I haven't been to a library since I was a small child. Surprising given my love of books
Hmmm well on second thought I've been to the Library of Congress but I don't think that should really count. What a cocktease that place is....all those books and can't touch a dang thing without an appointment. *sigh*
I have 7 library books out now and at least 3 waiting (including a very involved book by Thomas Torrance I had to send through inter-library loan for). I can't get the public library stuff finished so I can read my own....I made a run to one of the 2 used book stores I go to regularly today and found 5 books that have been on my "pick up when you find them list".
I have no will power.
Grant, don't you own an ereader? If you own an ereader that supports EPUB you can still borrow library books. Oh, by the way, the Philly Free Library is luscious. http://www.freelibrary.org/I haven't been to the library to check out anything in about 10 years. I do have a library card and I check out ebooks occasionally...but the DC library system is horrible.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I have 7 library books out now and at least 3 waiting (including a very involved book by Thomas Torrance I had to send through inter-library loan for). I can't get the public library stuff finished..."Thta's why we like you, Mike. :-) You fit in here quite fine. ;-)
I just rechecked...I bought 7 used books, not 5. (blushes).
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I just rechecked...I bought 7 used books, not 5. (blushes)."lol!
Boneshaker. I was at the library picking up the next Mistborn trilogy book and saw the cover of Boneshaker. Great cover, great title. I even liked the author's name.
By the way, I am usually great at judging a book by it's cover.
Overall, it was a chore to read, and I wanted so badly to like it. At every page I was waiting for it to redeem itself.
Well, perhaps the author just needs to work the kinks out, I think this was her first book.
Huh, I'd heard good things about that book. I guess it depends on whether its flaws personally bug you, like anything else.
In Boneshaker's defense, I loved it! Plus the other works from the same world Dreadnought and Clementine!
#1 mistake was lending HB books with covers. Now I'm sure to remove the cover during lending so as not to receive a ripped cover back afterwards. #2 mistake (previously mentioned in another discussion) is buying all the books in a series before reading one and then discovering that I hate the first book.
I have a male greyhound. Normally, when I go to bed I keep him in the bedroom with me. Except for one night where I thought I'd try to allow him free reign of the house. I woke up the next morning and he had chosen my bookshelves for his early morning bladder relief. I lost three shelves of books some completely saturated in urine. Needless to say, he's never been allowed such latitude again.I love him. But Yikes!
Leslie wrote: "I have a male greyhound. Normally, when I go to bed I keep him in the bedroom with me. Except for one night where I thought I'd try to allow him free reign of the house. I woke up the next morni..."OMG! I would have cried.
Jea0126 wrote: "#1 mistake was lending HB books with covers. Now I'm sure to remove the cover during lending so as not to receive a ripped cover back afterwards. "I learned this lesson shortly after college from a baby. My god-daughter was about 1 and my apt was completely not baby proof. She toddled right up to my lowest bookshelf, grabbed a book and ripped the dust cover right off. O_o
Leslie wrote: "I have a male greyhound. Normally, when I go to bed I keep him in the bedroom with me. Except for one night where I thought I'd try to allow him free reign of the house. I woke up the next morni..."I have a chiahuahua mix that just loves to chew on the corners of my books which just ruins them. I have to make sure he doesn't get into the room with my bookshelves without supervision. I also have to be sure that none of my books are left on the floor or are in easy reach. Why can't he just chew on the chew toys we buy?? Who knew a book looks just like a rawhide? lol.
That's the blessing of our dog; he has his infuriating aspects, but he's not a chewer.
MrsJoseph wrote: "OMG! I would have cried. ..."
Oh Yes. I even lost some signed editions of books. and a good many Trade paperbacks. There was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. I held on to the wherewithall to remember that it was not his fault. It was utterly and solidly my fault.
Jea0126 wrote: "Leslie wrote: "I have a male greyhound. Normally, when I go to bed I keep him in the bedroom with me. Except for one night where I thought I'd try to allow him free reign of the house. I woke up..."I also have a cat that sharpens his claws on a set of stamp collection albums. The stamps themselves are fine, but all the page edges are confetti. We're not stamp collectors, so I guess I'm just glad that he doesn't use our books.
I have a new puppy who would love to eat my books...but we bought an 8 panel puppy pen and completely sheilded my books. I'm getting nervous as to what will happen when we start having to take it down...
MrsJoseph, I have two little cocker spaniels at my house. I've slowly given them free reign of the entire house EXCEPT for my sunroom (bookshelves) and bedroom. I have discovered that baby gates are fabulous!
Baby gates do work really well! Even for my Boxer!
Luckily, I have 2 of my bookshelves in an upstairs closet. I also have some of my books in boxes in the attic because I don't have enough room to show them all, lol.
All my bookshelves are in plain view. Apartment living is really hard on library building. :-( I really need a room for my books.
3. Buying everything in a used book store by an author (in case I loved the first one and the rest weren't there when I went back), and hating the first book with a burning passion (T.A. Pratt - Blood Engines. Such a pretty cover, such an ugly book). Or, on a couple of occasions, the opposite.2. Not keeping good enough track of my books and winding up with duplicates - or not checking Librarything or Goodreads before buying and winding up with duplicates.
3. Loaning. Every time I loan books, I not only don't get the book back, but something happens that means I never see the borrower again. Seriously. When I finally noticed the pattern, I stopped letting people (at least people I cared about, and books I cared about) borrow from me.
MrsJoseph wrote: "I really need a room for my books."I almost fell in love with a friend of a friend just because he had a small room entirely devoted to his books - floor-to-ceiling shelves on all four walls. The only other things in that room were a comfy chair, a lamp, and a stereo with his music collection. And, for not-long-enough, me. I've been planning my version of that library ever since.
Tracey wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "I really need a room for my books."I almost fell in love with a friend of a friend just because he had a small room entirely devoted to his books - floor-to-ceiling shelves on..."
That sounds like heaven. :-)
I can totally understand falling in love...my first crush in college was this guy who was the first guy I'd ever met who had also read the Eddings series. We traded books back and forth for a while (he went to a different school). Eventually he joined a cult and we lost contact...hope he's well.
My god, MrsJoseph. A cult?Tracey, that room does indeed sound like heaven! The comfy chair would have to be a recliner, though!
My sunroom has two walls covered with books. The other two are filled with windows. I have a comfy recliner, a warm afghan to wrap up in, and a mosaic table for my beverage of choice. It is hands down my favorite place to be! Now I just need to find a guy who thinks that sort of thing is appealing ;)
Lol...there's like a million of us who find that stunningly appealing. The problem being that most of us are either too far away or married! Probably my biggest complaint about my wife is that she has never read a single book for pleasure in her life. Sad to say, it caused some strife once upon a time in our marriage but fortunately she quit complaining about my reading and I quit being exasperated that she didn't. Totally jealous of Clay. He's married to a librarian!
I'll tell you the depressing thing is that I have nearly 3000 books in my attic in storage that I'm unable to shelve properly. Depressing...
Too far away, too married....or too old, sigh. I agree Laurel, it sounds like one of the worlds best places. Enjoy.
My husband very very very rarely reads.. And when he does read, it's really boring crap. Financial/business mumbo jumbo. Books written by Trump. Ew. I got him to read Game of Thrones, he liked it, but has been saying he'll read the next for years to no avail. It saddens me :(
Jason wrote: "My god, MrsJoseph. A cult?Tracey, that room does indeed sound like heaven! The comfy chair would have to be a recliner, though!"
Yeah, sad to say a cult. Not really sure which one cause I'm not into that stuff...but a real cult. One of his friends finally told me. He'd joined some local cult and dropped out of school to move in with them.
Laurel wrote: "My sunroom has two walls covered with books. The other two are filled with windows. I have a comfy recliner, a warm afghan to wrap up in, and a mosaic table for my beverage of choice. It is hand..."Oh man, "wouldn't that be loverly"
*yeah, I did read Pygmalion aka My Fair Lady*
Grant wrote: "I'll tell you the depressing thing is that I have nearly 3000 books in my attic in storage that I'm unable to shelve properly. Depressing..."That is depressing...
Grant wrote: "Lol...there's like a million of us who find that stunningly appealing. The problem being that most of us are either too far away or married! Probably my biggest complaint about my wife is that she..."My wife reads sometimes. I've tried several times to read series she was reading so that we'd have something to talk about. I usually finish the series or end up way ahead or her and then she decides to read something else. I read a bunch of her Shopaholic books but they don't have any substance. Then we tried reading Agatha Christie. I buzzed through the first couple books and she never finished the first one. Currently she's reading Nicolas Sparks stuff and she's decided that I'm not allowed to read any of them until she's done with all that he's wrote. lol. Plus she thinks that the stuff I normally enjoy is crazy. Glad to see that I'm among other crazies here. ; )
Distance and marriage are near insurmountable odds. However, I choose to take your posts as compliments :)All my empathy to those who have non-readers in their lives. My mom is one of those women who goes to used book sales and buys Harlequin type romances by the box full - shudders! A little romance is okay, but I'm sure those books must poisin the brain..
Fortunately for me, my wife reads more than I do if anything. She refuses to read unfinished series, though!
Laurel wrote: "Distance and marriage are near insurmountable odds. However, I choose to take your posts as compliments :)All my empathy to those who have non-readers in their lives. My mom is one of those wom..."
My mom has to read some much technical stuff for work that she's burned out on reading for leisure. We always joke that she'll read for leisure as long as they are picture books. lol.
I can't do it...I force my husband to read stuff. Though he'd rather read an old school gum-shoe type novel with a primary male character (reading primary females makes him feel weird) I've forced Druss the Legend on him. He started Eddings but hated how wordy he was, and I think I'm going to force the issue again with either Monster Hunter International or The man with the Golden Torc. To get me back he made me read The Lion's Game. Ummm....let's just say 900+ pages of not my cup of tea.
MrsJoseph, there are a quite a few Gemmell books out there and if your husband likes Druss he'll probably like most of them. Gemmell is one of my all time favorites.My late wife read quite a bit, but there wasn't a lot of cross over, at least at first. She's how I got started reading Koontz (so we could share) but she liked them better than I did. I never did get to where I "liked" King, though a few (as in The Stand) stay on my list. She never get real into fantasy, but when she was pregnant with our first she read through my entire book shelf because she had to rest more than usual. Every now and then we found a book we both really liked. She was an artiest (mostly oils but also waters and some acrylic) and often would have an audio book going as she painted. Later when her health was failing but before she was bed fast or her side had become paralyzed I'd sit with her. I painted pewter figures as she'd work on a painting. For a while she took up painting figures also. Then we'd often share an audio book... It wouldn't always be one I'd have chosen, but I usually enjoyed (most) of them. It introduced me to books I'd never have chosen on my own.
Once she was bed fast (she had a series of strokes and it paralyzed her on one side and caused her great pain in even moving, especially her legs) she kept an audio book going almost all the time. I ransacked the library for them. Those I often either heard or listened to later also. So...one person or the other (or both) will often has to "bend" on their taste, but it's usually worth it.
He did enjou Druss a lot. He refuses to read Legend because he knows that Druss dies in the end and he hates knowing the ending. You're right, we both have had to do some adjusting regarding reading...I just don't have or know any old gumshoe books...and 99% of the books in the house are mine.
(don't get me wrong, when I say force what I mean is that I go out and buy the audio book for him and then load it myself so all he has to do is push play. Even with that he hasn't started the Gunslinger yet...)
I think he'll enjoy MHI and The Man with the Golden Torc since he's a big Supernatural fan (I'm not though).
I don't know him, but tell him that the point in Legend is the story itself. It ties into a lot of the great "last stands" in history. The point of the story is that these people knew they were all that stood between their people and the invading horde. They knew up front that they weren't coming out alive, so knowing going into the book that this is Druss' last stand isn't really a problem. I guess you can tell I like the book.
I heard an interview with Gemmell once and he told a story. he got a letter from someone who read the book and wrote to Gemmell that he (the writer)just couldn't understand why they'd go to die or stay once it became clear they couldn't survive. Gemmell said he knew he couldn't explain it so he wrote the guy, "just don't read any more of my books".
Fantasy Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
A Is for Alibi (other topics)The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (other topics)
Shadow Moon (other topics)
The Omen (other topics)
The Hero and the Crown (other topics)
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I'm still concerned that we may be returning to a time when writers won't be able to make a living writing as it was years ago when it was easy to just "take a book" and copyrights were nonexistent and then just easy to ignore or get around. Ask song writers and recording artists if they are sanguine with downloaded music even though it's been around a while now and ALL the problems are "supposed" to be ironed out.