Constant Reader discussion
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THE UNBEARBLE HEAVINESS OF TOO MANY BOOKS
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I'm imagining your library with the dark wood shelving and leather natural duck down filled chairs?One of my favourite set ups for my books was this older building apartment I had with two bedrooms..it was really well laid out with a long winding hallway...that connected one of the bedroroms, a living room (with two entrance) and my daughters room. The ceilings were very tall...about 9 feet high...and I got a carpenter to install a running set of shelves all along the ceiling of the entire hallway. It not only made the hallway cozy and a bit lie a Tlkein movie sett...but it was such a massively good use of space! I did however have to stand on a milk crate to get a book dwon...
Atishay, I'd like the huge dark wood, dark wallpapered [not that you could see much of the wallpaper!:] library with ladders to reach the highest shelves. /sigh/
But the reality is a little different. A smallish rectangular room with bookshelves spilling out into the hallway and a converted [to shelves:] front hall closet house some of my books. What shelves that are not scattered over the house.
Oh to get them all into one room!
Someday.
And yes Candy, second hand most everything is just great, love bargains. :)
But the reality is a little different. A smallish rectangular room with bookshelves spilling out into the hallway and a converted [to shelves:] front hall closet house some of my books. What shelves that are not scattered over the house.
Oh to get them all into one room!
Someday.
And yes Candy, second hand most everything is just great, love bargains. :)
What an interesting thread this is! My tbr pile sits on my nightstand and I love seeing a stack of books waiting for me; I think it represents a promise to myself that I'll take time out from the busy-ness of living to relax; if I can glance over and see a pile of books waiting just for me, it's like having a group of friends beckoning to me to go on vacation with them.I, too, will read more than one book at a time, but will limit myself to one novel; I can read multiple histories or biographies or any other non-fiction, but I like that feeling of getting lost in a work of fiction that seems, for me, to diminish a little if I try to read more than one at a time.
Although I buy mostly paperbacks because of cost factors, I too dream of that ideal home library; mine would have a filtered natural light source, floor to ceiling shelves, an over-stuffed chair with ottoman as well as a couch and maybe even a window-seat, with side tables for holding a snack and a cold drink, possibly a fireplace and no telephones or interruptions allowed!
Well, for now I'll settle for my tbr pile waiting for a snuggle-up in bed!
I love a bargain also, but if I buy a book second hand that I plan to read more than once or if it's a book that I think I'll really love, I try not to go lower than "like new" on Amazon and other online stores. My big addiction is bookcloseouts.com, where I have gotten amazing buys on new (but usually remaindered) books. You can usually find a coupon that covers shipping costs if you spend $35.00 or more. Between books for me and books for my family, I can usually get a nice box of books for that price. And, because they have so many out-of-print books, I have been able to catch some books that I missed when they were first published. Nothing more fun than discovering a new favorite!
I think the public library is the best deal ever! I can take home as many books as I want, including ones that I might want to read, but probably won't once I have a chance to really consider them, and when I'm done with them -- or that pile has not appealed to me enough to be read -- they all go back and a new bunch comes home to choose from. And, if I really have too many piling up it is very liberating (like crossing things off a to do list) to put them all in the return box and have nothing in my TBR pile until I want to pile up a new one. Maybe the trick is thinking of my town library as being filled with "my" books just waiting for me to bring them to the top of the TBR pile. (And someone else has to dust them all!)
Candy, that was a nice arrangement you described. I bet it would've looked warm and cozy to be surrounded by shelves full of books. I love that sight. And yeah, you're right about the dark wood shelves in my library. There'll be just a few leather couches littered around(its a private library remember :)). I also hope of making a movie library on similar lines (maybe not so extravagant). Well, these are my dreams.Pontalba, hmm...(sigh) someday... I hope it comes. But still, what could be better than a bookshelf spilling all over the hallway? :)
Mary Jo, I'm like you. Fiction, I believe can be read only one book at a time. No telephones was a good idea for a library.
Atishay-Don't forget a banker's lamp or two.
I've been moving around a lot lately. Thirteen apartments in the last ten years (I just counted, I may be forgetting some). Does anybody see anything wrong with this picture? In the last couple years I got rid of a carefully cultivated library of 14 boxes. I kept only a few boxes of absolute must-haves. I'm disappointed with some of my selections. But I will not buy more books at this time. I have to work very hard at this. Because, unfortunately, I believe this moving trend may continue. Sigh.
Sure won't Andy. Pity that you had to move around so much. Its pretty hard to restrict yourself from buying a book that is sitting innocently on a shelf and you know its a great one. Perhaps you should switch to e-books which you can buy online. The selections will be less but something is better than nothing. Otherwise, you may wanna move to a place with a library nearby.
Having too many unread books at once would ruin the spontaneity of reading for me. I'd feel obligated to read all the unread books first before I could go back to the bookstore or library for more books. Because of this I always try to read fast, there's always another book waiting for me. Sometimes this can ruin the experience of reading, because the next book obviously looks much more interesting than what I'm reading now, but I hardly ever leave books unfinished.
As for the private library, I've always wanted one and even tried to create one in my parent's house with their books. Now my mother has turned it into a hallway closet and there's no way you'll be able to reach the books unless you take out all the junk that sits in front of it. If I ever have a private library, it won't be very big, because I don't want to own books I haven't read. A bookcase or a library is like a display of your personality and I don't want to give a wrong impression with books I haven't even read yet sitting there. It's also that I feel bad for unread books. What is the purpose of a book if no one ever reads it? I'd rather not buy it.
Luckily where I live we have a very good public library and if they don't have what I need there's always the university's library and a wide range of new and used book stores.
As for the private library, I've always wanted one and even tried to create one in my parent's house with their books. Now my mother has turned it into a hallway closet and there's no way you'll be able to reach the books unless you take out all the junk that sits in front of it. If I ever have a private library, it won't be very big, because I don't want to own books I haven't read. A bookcase or a library is like a display of your personality and I don't want to give a wrong impression with books I haven't even read yet sitting there. It's also that I feel bad for unread books. What is the purpose of a book if no one ever reads it? I'd rather not buy it.
Luckily where I live we have a very good public library and if they don't have what I need there's always the university's library and a wide range of new and used book stores.
Candy. wow. don't know what exactly i could say about your past, but I'm glad it didn't stop you from delving into books.i also used to have loads and loads of books, and I moved around a lot, then finally one day my cousin who was helping me move was like' you need to give some stuff away because you're breaking my back ' :) so I picked those dearest to my heart ( took me a long time because they're all my friends) and gave the rest to the library. I had an entire Michael Crichton collection too- all paperback though :) but I saved Timeline.
I have a fantasy about a sort of book/art gallery cafe. Books, art and food- what more could you want!
but Candy- you take the cake! categorizing by colour!- but then you're an artist, so I understand :)
For cool books try Daedaleus - i know i probably spelt it wrong- but check it up online. They have some awesome books!
Well, no one can read all the novels in a library. Its just that I love books so much that I'd love to collect them and put them in a personalized library. Besides, the experience of reading a book within a room full of shelves lined with books is amazing. Kim, that was sad that you had to part with so many of your books. But it was a noble thing you did by giving them to a library. And your idea of the cafe is cool. I missed out on food.
Whoa, Candy, what an idea...books sorted by cover design/color. I like it! When we moved up here we had a sort of entertainment center built in...actually a space for the t.v. and lots and lots of shelves, drawers, etc. Well, hubby likes to fill the shelves about half-full with books and use the rest of the space for ephemera (just stuff we've had, photos, whatever). So the builder came in for something and said, "Wow! Decorating with books! Man, I wish my wife would let me do that!" But the thing was...we weren't decorating...we were just putting our stuff away.And I can relate to the pronunciation issue...apparently when my husband went to school waaaaay up in Maine phonics was nonexistent. So he will correctly use a word, but butcher its pronunciation so much that I have to work at not laughing.
I like to buy the large trade paperbacks but have a weakness for Modern Library h.c.'s. And now that I've found our local, excellent used book store, I love a bargain...just like Pontalba.
I separate into categories too. It always falls apart in use though. It's the theory of chaos and emergence all acted out in the book organiztion.An exception to resisting a pile of tbr read books is if I go to the library and am looking for reference and research. I've been known to have a pile of books on science or anthropology in a pile and going through, taking notes and comparing.
I think something that kind of relates to this thread is how good it feels...at least for me it's like a little "high" is when I take a pile of books back to the library that I've completed. I love going and putting them through the slot in the middle of the night. I also love putting a book I've bought...onto the book shelf after I've read it. It is some kind of Gaston Bachelard style metaphor of "the mind/brain". This is sort of what Sibyl was saying about the personal books we have in our homes reflecting what we've read and our beliefs/thoughts.
I love the comment you got Gail for "wow decorating with books" and we see this all the time in Ikea and Crate and Barrell catalogue or store displays.
I LOVE Modern Library or Everyman publications. They are beautiful but I only own a couple of them.
Atishay...I also see in your fantasy libray those books that have the unified covers...but see, that is close to sorting by jacket cover colours. I think thsose hand presed leather publishers would suit that kind of "den for men" style library...
I also like the trend in decorating where shelves have personal items mixed with books. Like little framed photos...some choice books, art books, tsotchke...
Oh no...I just thought of another item related to this topic...
How many of you collect or buy dvds?
(I am a complete freak for buying my favourite movies etc)
Count me in. I've a huge collection of my favs loaded onto an external hard disk.
Gail, you'd love our local Library, every 3rd Friday and Saturday they have a sale. Yes! Every month, and August is half price month, half of practically nothing to begin with. Soooo verra satisfying! I don't get to go every month but at least make it every August when I'll come away with a box, or...well lets be honest, two cartons of books. Mostly hardback. Last August for a grand total of 35 dollars. How can anyone possibly go wrong with that? :D
You could actually go on the Friday and Saturday as they put new books out every day, and actually have box loads just lying around waiting for nuts, er customers to go through.
I try to sort my books by genres, and within those genres a feeble attempt at, for example...all history books together, sub-divided into English, French, Roman, Greek history.
For mysteries, I at least keep the authors together because I am addicted to series, adventure books together, my Nabokov take up one whole bookcase practically, although Banville has sorta wormed his way into that bookcase.
Ahhh DVD's. /sigh/ Well, yes, but I only buy ones I know without a shadow of a doubt I'll love. I have a lot of old VHS tapes and have only replaced a few of them with DVDs. I've bought a few of them on Amazon Marketplace and they've been fine, but I'm pretty careful, the rating of the vendor has to be high.
You could actually go on the Friday and Saturday as they put new books out every day, and actually have box loads just lying around waiting for nuts, er customers to go through.
I try to sort my books by genres, and within those genres a feeble attempt at, for example...all history books together, sub-divided into English, French, Roman, Greek history.
For mysteries, I at least keep the authors together because I am addicted to series, adventure books together, my Nabokov take up one whole bookcase practically, although Banville has sorta wormed his way into that bookcase.
Ahhh DVD's. /sigh/ Well, yes, but I only buy ones I know without a shadow of a doubt I'll love. I have a lot of old VHS tapes and have only replaced a few of them with DVDs. I've bought a few of them on Amazon Marketplace and they've been fine, but I'm pretty careful, the rating of the vendor has to be high.
Atishay, don't the movies take up a lot of memory though? I didn't think it was practical to keep them on the computer.
Oh! Duh! Just noticed you said external.
Oh! Duh! Just noticed you said external.
:) I have more than 250 GB movies with me. And I'll have to buy a new disk now.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I do not do e-books. I spend enough time with the computer as it is. I like books. I even used to work in a book bindery. We cut off the spines of medical journals and bound them into volumes. We even hand stamped some of the stripes and the doctor's names on the spine, if they wanted it, for a few extra dollars, of course. I was not great at the job, when it came time to go through all the journals and remove the ad pages (collating), I would linger over the disgusting medical photos and read whole articles out of the Lancet (my favorite journal).Gaston Bachelard, eh Candy? I don't know where you come up with these doozies, but definitely somebody I want to look into. I like reading Foucault (every once in a while, and slowly), and the history of science and thought are always fun topics :)
Well I've recently been considering going into Library Science. Let's face it, I love libraries. I always have. I love the idea that they are repositories of all the words and ideas and passions that have been squeezed out of people throughout time.
Oh, do you ever wish you could get a print out of all the books you've taken out of all the libraries you've held cards at? I worked at a video store once, we used to have great fun looking at a customer's history after they rented a movie and left. I wonder if people at the library ever do something similar? I like to think my list would be unique and varied. That's not the reason I want to be a librarian, just an unrelated thought. Really.
DVD's... I like to buy and own them but there's nothing like a shelve of books. DVD's on a shelve are not very interesting, they don't differ in shapes and sizes, just in colour.
I was just wondering .... We all know that innumerable movies are made every year, based on books. Has it occurred the other way round ? Ever, that a book was written based on the movie ?
I have seen it done although for the life of me the only real example I can come up with at the moment is the plethora of Star Trek books that have been based on the original TV series, and the following series of course.
I suppose Star Wars would be the same difference.
I suppose Star Wars would be the same difference.
I've seen a book based on Mr and Mrs Smith, terribly written.
I miss having dates stamped in the back of library books. I used to like to look and see how many times a book was taken home, and how often.
Ohk.. Yeah Star Wars is definitely one of them. Does X-files count too ? Sybil, Which Mr. and Mrs. Smith? The Brangelina one or the Alfred Hitchcock one ? If its the Brangelina one, I can imagine what the book would've been like..
We still have dates stamped in our books, Sherry. You know the old cliche is that over here we like to see changes proved rather than leaping forward onto a bandwagon - so maybe in 20 years we won't have any more dates in our books either. Also maybe we'll be able to download audiobooks.
Yes! X-files would, and I've noticed CSI knock offs too. I suppose any popular TV series is fair game now. But Star Trek was first that I know of.
Ohk.. The only series that I've watched are the old ones- Different Strokes, I dream of Jeanie, Bewitched and Full House. I tried to watch X-files but could never get the continuity.
DVD's....my second love. Movies overall are a passion with me, right from "Birth of a Nation" on down to that new "Changeling". Just adore movies. I've collected quite a few; just ordered a few more "modern classics"--Sleepy Hollow, Usual Suspects, L.A.Confidential, etc.--from Amazon Marketplace, as I see the manufacturers are apparently phasing out dvd and going to bluray, which I'm not, I don't think. One good thing about collecting dvd's is that the boxes/covers are so nondescript that I keep most of them in those sleeve-like things that one can keep cd's in as well. You know, it's like a gigantic wallet thingy, only with a hard shell.Oh yeah, I love being able to watch movies that I especially like when I feel like it, or to watch a comedy (Vicar of Dibley or Keeping Up Appearances or Fawlty Towers or some such) while ironing--how luddite is that?--or doing some other mundane task. Whew! Didn't realize I was so passionate about, er, *films*.
Gail, don't feel badly about it, I still have loads of VHS tapes, only a few of which I've replaced with DVDs. Fawlty Towers is one of that number...I will have to replace that one!
Ironing. /shiver/ :)
I believe you mentioned something up the thread about keeping knick knacks on the shelves. Well I used to and slowly the books crowded them out. I do have a few things in front of the books as some of the shelving is deep enough, but on the other hand, I'm more likely to double stack books.
I do read multiple books at the time, but yes they are different genre, as was mentioned, two or three mysteries are not easy to keep up with are they.
Ironing. /shiver/ :)
I believe you mentioned something up the thread about keeping knick knacks on the shelves. Well I used to and slowly the books crowded them out. I do have a few things in front of the books as some of the shelving is deep enough, but on the other hand, I'm more likely to double stack books.
I do read multiple books at the time, but yes they are different genre, as was mentioned, two or three mysteries are not easy to keep up with are they.
I am as bad as any of you about books and DVDs -- but why is this conversation in the Reading List Folder? Calling housekeeping. Can you pick up a whole topic and put it in the proper place, Sherry, or does this work differently here on Goodreads? Too funny!
Yeah, I guess we went a little out of thread.. :) Its pretty common on Goodreads, as I've learnt :)
Not out of thread -- off topic is not the problem I brought up and we are always apt to roam off topic. And it is not only around Goodreads but around any discussion on the web, you are correct.My comment was not about Goodreads or the wandering topic of this thread but about the Constant Reader group organization. The thread from first topic to last is in the wrong folder, and I just noticed it and was teasingly suggesting to Sherry that we need some housekeeping here.
Actually, that's right, Dottie. It should be over under Constant Reader. I'll see if I can do it.Sherry, I'm old enough to remember when there used to be a card in the pocket with not only the date stamped onto it, but the names of the people who had checked it out.
I loved looking to see who had checked it out before me.
Thanks, Ruth! And oh my goodness, yes, dates and names marching down the little spaces on those cards in the sleeve and the little flappy papers opposite them! It most definitely was fun to see who read a book and when they read it -- especially books I loved.
And, by the way, I forgot to say welcome to Constant Reader group here, Atishay. (Hmmm -- one of those accisental rhymes that happen there :).)
Thanks for moving the thread, Ruth. I didn't even notice where it was, because I just always go to the "unread" link.
Well, Pontalba, if I weren't at least attempting not to let my obsession overcome my marriage, I'd double stack books too. What I do now is put them in cupboards...in the laundry room, in the den, wherever, so that if one opens a cupboard door, there will be The Beans of Egypt Maine cheek-by-jowl with Saturday, both next to a biography of Cicero...all on the ever-useful tbr list.Sigh. My husband does actually understand this, though, and is contemplating having some more cabinets/shelves built in the laundry room. Our laundry room is huge, really. The movies are so much easier to store as the discs take up so little space. I had quite a few (not compared to the discs, but still...) VHS and finally gave them up not long ago...just saved one with an interview of my late dad and another with an interview of the husband. No, they weren't big deals, just interesting guys locally. But...I think I can go to Walgreens and they'll copy the tapes to dvd for about $20 per. Would be worth it for these two particular ones, I think.
It sounds like fun, Gail, to open your cabinets and discover gems! An understanding husband is a wonderful thing!
We oldtimer CRs remember gail (with a small g) who used to keep books in her oven!
OMG, Ruth, I'd lost track of that but now that you mention it -- sure miss our gail with a small g and her tizzie lizzies in bloom and the San Francisco weather reports and her hi-hi-hi to intro the latest life interrupter!
Gail, those two VHS tapes sound like gems themselves and surely to be kept! Neat.
New shelving is always a good thing, funny though how books tend to multiply to fill those shelves. Ain't it grand. :)
New shelving is always a good thing, funny though how books tend to multiply to fill those shelves. Ain't it grand. :)
Just found this thread. God bless Mark for saying all the things I feel about being overwhelmed by all the books I'm attempting to read. Sometimes it's just too much. There must be an easier hobby. (g)
Speaking of "Housekeeping", this is a wonderful movie starring Christine Lahti of Marilynne Robinson's book. It has never been released to DVD and considering the interest in her new books "Gilead" and "Home", I should wish that studios would rectify this!!!!
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Aha ! Regarding the dream library. Well, I would prefer a more classic touch, mind you as little computerization as possible and no high shelves that I've to use a ladder to reach to. And no arranging of colors. I love the beautiful mosaic created by different books with different covers.