Fantasy Aficionados discussion
Discussions about books
>
What are your biggest library mistakes EVER
In my case there are four.1. About ten years ago I had a bedroom in the basement of my mom's house. Haha if you guessed i lost books or had them damaged due to flooding you are indeed right. I lost about 20-30 books and kept several others in the hope they'd look less bedraggled. For some this worked and for others it just meant an extended goodbye :(
2. I also used to leave my books lying around and as a teen I had some of my books gnawed on by puppies. I kept a few of those though oddly enough. I also had to buy a library paperback because my son was a teething, crawling drool monster at the time,however since it was only minor damage to one corner I earned myself a copy of The Lake of Dead Languages which remains one of my favorite books :)
3. Getting rid of books just because I was ashamed that I liked them. Last winter I bought several books that fall under romance because as a teen I had gotten rid of them ashamed that I enjoyed them. As an adult I still cringe at the idea but realize, sometimes you want to go back and read what you loved other people's views on those books be damned.
4. Buying books just because I'm supposed to consider them classics. For a long time I bought books that were classic literary reads just to own them and maybe eventually read them. Several years later I got rid of many of those books knowing I just didn't have the interest to read them at all.
Oh, man! Basements and books... I’m so sorry to hear that! I know it was rather painful. :(I know how you feel about buying books "just because." I was buying every Wheel of Time book I could find on sale for quite a while. As a fantasy reader I knew that WoT was considered "classic" fantasy - and even though I stopped reading the series in HS - I still bought book after book after book. Of course, since I was only buying hardbacks and only buying on sale (you would be amazed at how cheap you can get them), all of the books were out of order.
I finally gave up the pretense that I was going to read this series one day. I gave all the books to my mom, lol.
MrsJoseph wrote: "Oh, man! Basements and books... I’m so sorry to hear that! I know it was rather painful. :(I know how you feel about buying books "just because." I was buying every Wheel of Time book I coul..."
I actually read the 3rd book twice because I lost track of where I was in the series! I liked them but I also felt Jordan could have slimmed them down a bit and still had some great fantasy books.
I actually owned both trilogies of Thomas Covenant which I found at a Goodwill for a grand total of 5 dollars. I kept them forever but never read them. They were part of my get rid of list and as I've read about this rape issue in the books I'm kind of glad I did. I also got rid of the two omnibus editions of the Elric saga and now I wonder if I should have hung onto those :(
I did a similar thing regarding classics. I went through a phase in highschool/college where I thought I was an intellectual and bought every classic and even read several. Boring. I can't stand them and only recently admitted that to myself and traded them all on PBS. That worked out nicely since I got about 30 books through the trade. I also allowed my mom to give/throw away a lot of my childhood books. I had mass amounts of The Babysitter's Club, Goosebumps and Fear Street. I loved those books. I should have kept them for laughs or to give to my kids. Epic fail.
Felina wrote: "I did a similar thing regarding classics. I went through a phase in highschool/college where I thought I was an intellectual and bought every classic and even read several. Boring. I can't stand th..."I actually debated going back and reading some of those series, lol. I only got around to reading a few Babysitters Club and I can't imagine they'd take too long to read compared to when I was a kid.Heck I still collect Christopher Pike books.
I got some great deals on eBay for BSC and GB. I got 20 GB for $20 including shipping. I haven't read any yet though a few seem familiar like I may have read them when I was little. I'm scared I'll realize how dumb they are and ruin my childhood mystic.
I got some great deals on eBay for BSC and GB. I got 20 GB for $20 including shipping. I haven't read any yet though a few seem familiar like I may have read them when I was little. I'm scared I'll realize how dumb they are and ruin my childhood mystic.
I have one big one. A year ago, I left my new boxer puppy alone with my TBR bookshelf.
Enough said. LOL
Oh man, boxers will eat anything. Everything.I confess: once I had a pet red squirrel named Mallory that ran loose in the studio. She would tear stuff to BITS. This ran to paperbacks, an insatiable urge. To save the good ones, I gave her ONE about every six months: picked THE title I'd not give to my worst enemy and let her give it a 'shredding review' - honestly, when she was done, there was not ONE WORD left intact. Every page was confetti, to the front and back covers. All that would be left was the spine: she hated the glue. If I 'squirreled' a book - you're in on the joke...meant it was, literally, trashed....
Lol...squirreling a book. I'm so using that phrase from now on in homage :)
That's too funny, Janny! I'll be using that phrase from now on, too!
Felina wrote: "I did a similar thing regarding classics. I went through a phase in highschool/college where I thought I was an intellectual and bought every classic and even read several. Boring. I can't stand th..."Babysitter's Club! I used to read them all the time! And Sweet Valley High. Wow! I just had a moment. :)
Janny wrote: "Oh man, boxers will eat anything. Everything.I confess: once I had a pet red squirrel named Mallory that ran loose in the studio. She would tear stuff to BITS. This ran to paperbacks, an insatiab..."
ROTFLMAO!! There are tears running down my face. I'm going to have to use that one.
Jason wrote: "I have one big one. A year ago, I left my new boxer puppy alone with my TBR bookshelf.
Enough said. LOL"
Bet you'll never do that again. :)
But thanks for letting me know, I'll have to make sure keep lower level bookshelves clear when getting a new puppy.
1. Buying every book by an author when I had only read a few. I have tons of Stephanie Laurens books that it will take me forever to read b/c her books are not quick, back to back reads.2. My cat hangs out in the library, and he tends to vomit, a lot. Sometimes he vomits on my bookcase. Enough said. No quick solution to this because he does need his own room to escape from the females who are bossy and tend to pick on him. He also scratched up the dustcover to my Tanith Lee Red as Blood book that I bought off Amazon.com. I was not happy with him!
3. Getting rid of books because I was trying to slim down my library. Now I don't get rid of a book unless I am 100% sure I don't want to reread it or keep it.
4. Loaning books to people who don't follow the Readers Golden Rules: 1. Take care of books. 2. Give a book back that was loaned to you. I had to replace books because of that.
5. Not keeping track of what books I own. I am very bad about buying copies of books I already own.
Hmm...I dont have any stories about big mistakes I made with my books but I did have a huge stroke of terrible luck once. When I was 18 I joined the military and went off to basic training. 3 weeks after I left my father had a relapse of a serious illness and died. I was allowed home for three days for the funeral but two days after I returned to the my training my mother sold her and my father's home and moved back to Honduras. My half sis (who I'm not on good terms with) told her she'd keep my belongings for me. Instead she sold all my possessions, including over 2000 books. I lost my Entire book collection. Yeah, that sucked. Heh...I'm sure there's some big mistake in there somewhere
Grant, I think that's grounds for murder! LOL Lady Danielle, I also hate lending out books, because when I get them back they're always bent up and the spine is usually ruined. I've lent out books where when I get them back the spine is so ruined that the pages are falling out.
Jason wrote: "I have one big one. A year ago, I left my new boxer puppy alone with my TBR bookshelf.
Enough said. LOL"
Mine is similar, except it was a crazy Black Lab / German Shepard mix. I came home and my living room looked like a war zone... I lost many a book that day :(
Like Danielle, I buy copies of books I already have on my shelf. I need to alphabetize ASAP. Nobody I know would read the kinds of books I do, so I never loan them.
Years ago a Siamese kitten I had clawed up my big, illustrated copy of Beowulf. Well, actually the case it was in, thank God.
Grant wrote: "Hmm...I dont have any stories about big mistakes I made with my books but I did have a huge stroke of terrible luck once. When I was 18 I joined the military and went off to basic training. 3 week..."Oh. My. God.
I totally agree with Jason, that's grounds for murder!
When my brother went off to basic, he left behind his huge collection of video games, video game players, and those collectable thing-a-ma-jigs that video game players collect. If I had have tossed them, I would have had to keep a look out for a crazy man with an M-16, lol. In fact, I had to keep my mom from tossing them (he appreciated that:).
Tressa wrote: "Like Danielle, I buy copies of books I already have on my shelf. I need to alphabetize ASAP. Nobody I know would read the kinds of books I do, so I never loan them.
Years ago a Siamese kitten I..."
For those of you who tend to buy multiple copies of books, if you have a smart phone there are tons of great apps you can use to database your books. I have one called iBookshelf that allows you to scan the barcode and it brings in all the information. You can sort by author, title, genre ect and it's easy to use so when you go to buy some books you can bust out your phone and look up the title real quick to see if you already own it. It works very well for me since I'm a second hand store hopper.
I've been good about not buying multiple copies - I've only found one so far. :)
Unfortunately, I don't have a smart phone, but my friends in my bookclub will use their to check their collection when we meet at the bookstore. When I have my vacation at the end of next month, I intend to catalog my whole collection, or try at least.Grant, that is awful what your sister did! (Hugs)
I just got my Amazon delivery!!!!! *happy dance*
I got:
Wizard and Glass - Finishes off the collection (only bad thing is the collection is a mix of pb & hb. Only good thing is that all of them are illustrated.
The Iron Duke - Now I can see what everyone's been talking about!
The Blue Sword - One of my favorite books OF ALL TIME! It's a YA fantasy but I love this book. I have no clue how many times I've read this and the sequel but I've replaced both twice. :)
I hope you enjoy The Iron Duke, MrsJoseph. I'm looking forward to reading The Blue Sword. It's so fun getting Amazon boxes in the mail! I hope I can do some Amazon ordering soon!
I think you'll love The Blue Sword! I'm excited about The Iron Duke. Almost everybody I know and every GR group I'm in has read and loved this book. :)
The only thing putting a damper on my day is that my newsed copy of The Playboy Interview came in with total binding catastrophe. The binding glue is old, dried and cracked - not good.
I do have book binding glue at home but I've only used it once. (Yeah, I'm a little out there, I do own binding glue :)
I went to the library yesterday and what was sitting on the "new book" shelf, The Iron Duke. I checked it out and will be reading it soon. I'm a little embarrassed by the cover. I may have to put a brown paper bag over it if I read it out in public. LOL
That cover is horrible. Ha ha. I hope they have it available on Kindle.
Yep. It helps me get away with reading some questionable books in public. ; ).
Yeah, the cover is a bit much. I refused to buy an e-version, it cost more that the print! Screw you, publishers! Next time I won't buy either.
Thank god for Kindle indeed! That book sounds interesting to me, as well. Lady Danielle suggested it in another thread. I can't imagine reading that one in public, or bringing it in to work, for that matter. Here's a thread for further discussion on bad vs good cover art I recently created:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
What a great idea for discussion, book covers! Thanks Jason.
No problem, Christine. I thought the conversation on book covers was fun, too. :)
I've learned, if I loan a book I just assume I may be giving it away.... I think I finally got all my books back, from my minister???? I remember driving a "troubled acquaintance" who'd fallen on hard times to a used book store to sell some of "his" books and having him "sell at least 4 of my books. I actually bought one back from him I wanted to keep...Grant, i dd the same thing you did only on not quite that large a scale, maybe two or three hundred books I left when I went to the army. They ended up stored in an out-building used for storage and shop work... lost them all.
sigh.
Mike, I finally got that attitude about books I loan out. I always have a backup plan to replace them.
I don't understand what it is about people and not returning books. I return everything I borrow from people and usually in better condition then it was given to me. I never loan anything to anybody I wouldn't feel comfortable hounding. I loan only to my sister-in-law, my mother and my aunt. They always give them back and in good order. And I wouldn't be afraid to yell at them if they didn't. I've loaned to friends who trashed the book or never gave it back. But once I loaned a book to a friend that was going on some kind of academic trip to Egypt with a group and while she was there 4 other people read the book. When I got it back it looked like 5 people had read it. Not bad but not good. I am forced to keep it cause that thing went to Egypt. Thats cool.
I own 2 or 3 trade papers of The Deed of Paksenarrion (plus a nice hard bound), 3 copies of Faerie Tale by Fiest, 2 or 3 sets of The Lord of the Rings... I still lose books, but I don't loan them much anymore.But I must confess there were 2 books that I failed to return (both more than 20 years ago) but I needed to confess. Both were cases where I lost touch with the owner...still, 2 failures.
I get the same thing. I hate to loan out books and I've learned my lesson: I only loan books to my husband. Myy mom is even out of the running (I'll give her books) cause she "forgets" which ones are hers and which are mine. I'm more than a little anal about the condition of my books: if I bought it used, it better not get in worse condition. If I bought it new, it better stay that way. LOL! My husband is reading Starship Troopers right now and he carries it around in a ziplock freezer bag!
There are maybe 3 or 4 people I will loan to...my minister, my daughter, my son (though I've lost a few to him LOL), and a couple of young men who are my sons friends and almost grew up in our house.I still "rib" my minister about the book on string theory I loaned him and that he forgot to return (for like 6 years)until it was outdated and M theory had supplanted most of what it said....
I have the odd problem of having a book left with me by the owner. I keep reminding her I have it and she can come pick it up but so far no dice :( It wigs me not to get a book back to its owner. I take very good care of other people's books.
:DI had a friend that I loaned The Perricone Prescription : A Physician's 28-Day Program For Total Body & Face Rejuvenation prior to reading it myself. That was a *facepalm* moment. Not only did I never get the book back, she denied ever having it.
Mike, I can barely understand strting theory. What the heck is M theory? :\
Short for Membrane theory. I don't have the math for more than a basic grasp but think of it as the outcome of gravity theory and string theory. The basic disagreement on dimensional existence meets and fits "better".Eleven spacial dimensions, membranes separating separate universes... And now all the physicists among us are cringing at my imprecise definition. (I read the basic understanding books.) I'm interested but probably know just enough to be dangerous. (LOL)
Lol...M theory is the bane of people who actually like to test theoretical contructs. *rolls eyes* We go from atom to quarks and murons to sub sub sub sub particles that act mathematically like an energy unit that has a resonating quality that can perpetually be halved into the infinite that long story short we Still have no way to measure. It takes a helluva broad mind to be able to wrap around M theory. I've tried and I swear I nearly got a nosebleed. You get down with your bad self, Mike ;)
No wonder the preverbial "mad scientist" has white, messy hair. At the age of 30, at that. LOL
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)
More...
Actually touching and holding all the books I own (even the ones that aren’t my favorites) has allowed me to see the mistakes I’ve made with my library. I’m at least 1/3-1/2 of the way through cataloging my physical library, so here is a list of the top 3 biggest mistakes I’ve made with my library:
3. I used to leave books everywhere, just assuming that they would be safe. One of my favorite books, Magic's Price, was often left in the bathroom on the sink counter. One of my annoying older cousins (who thought I was a nerd) decided I needed to be taught a lesson – so he put my book in the sink and turned the water on (just a light drip). By the time I found out, my book was saturated! I was still in HS at the time, so I couldn’t afford to replace it – it had to dry out on its own. I still have that book (it’s on the to be replaced list), mold and all.
2. I used to be a part of a book club at my last job. BIG MISTAKE! I had the biggest library in the office so the book club members always wanted to borrow books (I do own more than fantasy, lol, just not a lot). Let me tell you, I have lost more books to people who decided there was no reason to return them to me. :( Here’s the short list:
HB of The Alchemist - gone
Belgarath the Sorcerer - replaced twice
HB of The Lady and the Unicorn – replaced once
Kushiel's Dart – gone
Pawn of prop – replaced with The Belgariad, Vol. 1: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit
Queen of Sorcery – replaced with The Belgariad, Vol. 1: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit
Magician's Gambit – replaced with The Belgariad, Vol. 1: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit
The Belgariad, Vol. 1: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit – gone
AND the #1 mistake I’ve made with my library
1. I removed the dust jackets from 60% of my HB books! I was working on a 2nd undergrad degree (until that whole economy thing went bust) in Interior Design. Well, the rules of Interior Design say that Fantasy (well any popular fiction) book cover is TACKY and should be removed or altered in some way. Paperback books are to be moved to a place of concealment and hardback books should have the dust covers removed. *cries* What is my MALFUNCTION??! Dust covers have a very important function and I just tossed the covers away! *kicks self in butt* I’ve learned my lessons (so far).
What lessons have you learned? What are the top mistakes you’ve made while building your library.