What's on your bookshelf?

[dwndrgn]

I'm just asking out of curiosity. This question can be answered literally - as in a list of those books you physically have in your collection or figuratively with a list of those books you would like to have in your collection or a combination of the two. I currently have a very small collection consisting of three books as in the past I needed to keep the collection of books down due to space issues. However, now that we are in a house and we have bookshelves I'd like to fill them and I've got a list (actually I use the 'wishlist' at Amazon.com to keep a list of those books I will eventually buy once I get the chance. Most of those I've read but would like to own anyway and others are those that I haven't read but would like to and would like to keep).

So, on my bookshelf currently is:
The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser (I just got a great deal on it for ~$5 from another Amazon user)
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Element by Terry Pratchett (both were given to me by another Pratchett fan once she was done reading them).
The only other book besides the dictionaries and thesauruses (how do you pluralize that??) that I wouldn't get rid of is 'The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy' which is a wonderful compilation of knowledge that according to the authors/editors every person should know. It includes little snippets of info all all manner of things from history to mythology, the origins of popular sayings and 'cultural icons'. I'd like to get one or two of the updated volumes just to see what was added and to learn the new stuff.

So, what have you guys got?

 

[Foxbat]

Interesting question. My own bookshelves are stacked with a reasonably large collection of SciFi novels and short story anthologies (most from the 50s & 60s). Also some history books covering Rome to Napoleon and many on WWII. A few books on Russia. My Fantasy collection is small - LOTR and Stephen Donaldson's Covenant Chronicles. Some books by Scottish writers and Scottish history.

My prize posession though (purely because it was a gift and carries much sentimental value) is a 112 year old copy of Edgar Allen Poe's 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' (I'm too scared to read it now in case I damage it). I don't know how many books I actually own - probably four or five hundred.

 

[dwndrgn]

Oooh! I'm envious! As for the Edgar Allen Poe - what type of treasure is it that you cannot enjoy it? Speak with a conservationist on how to treat and keep the work in its current condition so that you can enjoy it much more than just looking at it. It was meant to be read. Even if you just read it once, or get a current copy and read that and keep it alongside so that the actual work of the author can be enjoyed while the artistry of the bookbinding and publishing can be enjoyed separately. I'm silly. Just ignore me. I'm just so jealous! Can I come visit?

On another subject entirely - I can see why you'd keep works by Scottish authors. Can you tell us who they are and what type of books they are? I'm quite fond of things Scottish as well, plus I'm just plain curious!

 

[littlemissattitude]

I couldn't even begin to list my books - I've got way, way too many. In fact, I'm about to go through the collection and weed out what I won't read again or need for research purposes and have a yard sale. I always hate parting with books, but due to space restrictions, I really need to do it.

Most of my books are either textbooks or books picked up at yard sales, used book sales, and at used bookstores. Can't often afford a new new book, which drives me crazy. Whenever I fantasize about winning the lottery (except I'd have to play first to win), I know that my first indulgence would be a trip to Barnes and Noble.

But, in the spirit of the thread, I'll quickly list the books I can see from where I'm sitting right now:

1. "The Settlement of the Americas" - anthropology/archaeology
2. "Glimpse of Nothingness" - text from a sociology of religion class, about Buddhism
3. "Introduction to Christian Theology" - text from a theology class
4. "Salvation on Sand Mountain" - another soc of religion text; this one is about a snake-handling group
5. "Enormous Prayers" - soc of religion text, about Catholicism
6. "Miriam's Kitchen" - soc of religion text, about Judaism
7. "Gift of Power" - soc of religion text, about Native American spirituality (this one is really good)
8. "At the Corner of East and Now" - theology text, about Orthodox Christianity
9. "Fingerprints of the Gods" - speculative history
10. "Dying in the Sun" - a "Dr. Who" novel
11. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"
12. "Bridget Jones's Diary" - the novel the film was based on
13. & 14. two commentaries on the New Testament Book of Acts - texts from a Biblical literature class
15. "Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes"
16. "All Too Human" - an autobiography by George Stephanopolous
17. "Samba in the Night" - about Spiritism in Brazil; text from a world religions class
18. "Wheelock's Latin" - Latin textbook
19. "The New Oxford Annotated Bible"
20. "The Brazil Reader" - text from a world religions class
21. "The Taste of Blood" - about Candomble, an Afro-Brazilian religion; text from a world religions class
22. "Blessed Anastacia" - about popular (as opposed to institutional) Catholocism in Brazil; text from a world religions class
23. "Born Again in Brazil" - about pentacostalism in Brazil; text from a world religions class
24. "Stranger in a Strange Land" - the Heinlein novel, most recently read for a class in intercultural communication
25. "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" - Orson Scott Card novel; definitely recommended
26. "Daughter of God" - novel about a female messiah by Lewis Perdue
27. "The Sociology of Religion"
28. "To Ride A Silver Broomstick" - an introductory book on Wicca
29 & 30. "Human Geography" - textbook and study guide from world geography class
31. "The Poisonwood Bible" - novel by Barbara Kingsolver; recommended despite the fact that it was an Oprah selection
32. "Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman" - cultural anthropology textbook
33. "Looking for God in Brazil" - world religions text
34. "Chariots of the Gods" - yeah, that book
35. "Higher Authority" - a mystery novel by Stephen White; very good

This is not representative of my full collection. I've got lots of science fiction and fantasy, of course, a lesser amount of mystery novels, and lots of nonfiction of all kinds but especially history, politics, anthropology, and archaeology.

Sorry if this was more than you wanted to know.

 

[dwndrgn]

I wish I could go to your yardsale! A visitor to your place would never be bored, unless they didn't like to read - you've got quite a few different subjects there. I may have to see if some of those are carried by our local library. You've gotten me interested.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Well, one of my problems (other people keep telling me) is that I'm interested in too many things. That's why being a writer has always appealed to me so much. Gives me license to get into all kinds of different subjects. And I'll read almost anything, or at least give it a chance. Thank goodness for libraries - you can sample books without having to shell out the money for them. I don't know how many books I've bought after reading them out of the library.

 

[mzarynn]

Oh, this is fun! I'll try to generalize my collection somewhat. I am a packrat with everything anyway, and I love books... I just can't imagine getting rid of any of them.

I have a lot of text books from college still. You're supposed to be able to sell them after the semester, but my higher level classes had some really great books I didn't want to part with. I have some great books from my Children's Lit and Women's Studies Class. Too many to list. And of course many music texts. But I'll stick with my "leisure" books.

I realize I may have to go by author here.

1. Tolkien- LOTR Trilogy, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales
2. J.K. Rowling- I admit I have the entire Harry Potter series and am looking forward to reading book six whenever it comes out.
3. Brian Froud- Good Faeries Bad Faeries, Lady Cottington's Pressed Faery Book, Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells, Are All the Giants Dead?(written by Wendy Froud)
4. Shel Silverstein- Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, Lafcadio, The Giving Tree (Big Shel Silverstein fan! I have some of his CD's too.)
5. Michael Crichton- Airframe and Timeline (The latter may be my favorite book.)
6. Dean Koontz- Watchers (great book), Lighting, Several other books with one word titles
7. Brian Jaques- My husband owns a ton of Redwall books.
8. Tom Clancy- Clear and Present Danger, Without Remorse (loved that book too)
9. Juliet Marillier- Daughter of the Forest, (Son of the Shadows and The Child of Prophesy? are on their way from Amazon)
10. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman- The Sovereign Stone Trilogy, One of the Dragon Lance Series Books, Mistress of Dragons
11. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins- The entire Left Behind Series
12. Francesca Block- The Witzie Bat books
13. Shakespeare- The Complete Works

There are a couple of authors that I have circulating my shelves because I trade with my parents and my in-laws. They are Wilbur Smith, Robert Ludlum, and John Grishom.

My favorite collection would have to be my piano books. I have Gershwin, West Side Story, Sunset Boulevard, Tori Amos, Jazz Standards, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ragtime, and more that are too far away to read the titles.

I have many other random books in my house, but I thought I would cut it down. Some of these books I have had for years. Many are gifts. My parents, husband, and in-laws love to give me the first book of a series as Christmas and Birthday gifts.

Eventually I plan to have a whole room for books. Right now it's only two book shelves, but we're working on it.

 

[littlemissattitude]

6. Dean Koontz- Watchers (great book), Lighting, Several other books with one word titles

Isn't "Watchers" the UFO book Koontz wrote? The one where the guy is tying himself to the bed at the beginning of the story so that he won't sleepwalk or whatever? If so, that's the first Koontz I ever read. It is a good book.

 

[Foxbat]

I can see why you'd keep works by Scottish authors. Can you tell us who they are and what type of books they are? I'm quite fond of things Scottish as well, plus I'm just plain

One of my favourites is Alan Spence's book of short stories called 'it's colours they are fine' - most tales based in Glasgow in the 60s. Another is an anthology of Scottish writers called 'Children of Albion Rovers' which contains (in my opinion) Irvine Welsh's best work - a hilarious short story about aliens who become Scottish football (soccer) casuals. I also have various books on the likes of William Wallace, a history of my home town (Dunbar), books of some old photographs of various parts of Scotland and a Scots Thesaurus.

On the subject of Poe: I keep the book in a plastic sleeve and I have another copy which I read from time to time. I agree that a book should be read but I'd hate to damage it with my clumsy fingers after it has survived this long

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Hmmm...no, I can't answer this one. My shelves are over flowing and my room is piled high with books. 100s of 'em.

Foxbat, your Poe book reminded me of something I wold love to have:

HP Lovecraft: The Shadow over Innsmouth (1936), published by Visionary press, Everrett Pennsylvania, and illustrated by one Frank A Utpatel.

It was a very crude publication, but notable to HPL fans as it was the only prose work of his to be published outside the pulps in his lifetime. Copies go for as high as $3,500 which definitely means it is out of reach, but I can dream...

 

[Pathless]

Good God Almighty. You don't want me to list all the books on my bookshelf. Like Knivesout, I have hundreds. I can run down the general subject matter, and then give you a list of the books that are on my coffee table, currently being perused.

First up, I have a collection of spiritual books, mostly in the vein of eastern spirituality, but also spilling into western "magick" and Christianity. Then I have political and philosophical books; things by Noam Chomsky, Alvin Toffler, Terence McKenna, and Fredrich Nietzsche. After that comes a smattering of sci-fi/fantasy--Star Wars books, Tolkien, Douglas Adams, and Dragonlance stuff. Then some books on nutrition, a job interview book (why did I ever buy that thing??), dictionaries and thesauri (I believe that is the plural, dwndrgn). Finally I have a slew of fiction and poetry, mostly contemporary American and British authors. Oh, I have several books on how to write, and a bunch of magazines.

What I am currently flipping through:
Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
No Death, No Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh
Stages of Meditation by the Dalai Lama/Kamalashila
The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice by Georg Feurestein, PhD.

 

[mzarynn]

Isn't "Watchers" the UFO book Koontz wrote? The one where the guy is tying himself to the bed at the beginning of the story so that he won't sleepwalk or whatever? If so, that's the first Koontz I ever read. It is a good book.

I know the book you're thinking of and it is also good. I'm pretty sure the title is "Strangers." Many of Koontz's books have one word titles and I often get them confused.

"Watchers" is about an intelligent Golden Retriever, and a disfigured, killing creation that both escape from a labratory. The dog saves a man from this creature and they spend the entire book running from it and other peope who are trying to recapture both experimental creatures.

It never sounds as good when I try to explain it, but I love it every time I pick it up.

 

[littlemissattitude]

You're correct, of course, mzarynn, about "Watchers". I knew I'd read it, just forgot which one it was. I've read several of Kootz's books, and really enjoyed some of them. Others, I've just had to put back down. I think I like his earlier stuff better than the more recent books. I especially liked "Twilight Eyes", which took place in a traveling carnival.

 

[nemogbr]

Very dangerous question..
Places to have books
Bedroom, Living room, spare room, Shed, Attic.

Currently getting rid of the books in the Shed due to limited space.

Also Read "Clear up your clutter with Feng Shui" . Not sure if it helps but I haven't seen the books in the shed for about a year so will probably not miss them.
Must not look in the boxes
must not look in the boxes
must not look in the boxes
must not look in the boxes
must not look in the boxes

Will donate to Oxfam.

Then will try to reduce the number to about a hundred or thereabouts. Will probably take a year, but worth it.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Poor nemogbr. Been there, done that. When I moved from my other house to where I live now, I had to get rid of a lot of books. A lot of other stuff, too. So, we had a yard sale. It wasn't so hard to see the books go one or two or three at a time. But one gentleman bought something like fifty or sixty books. I cried as he put them in his car to take them away. Literally cried.

 

[vox]

I cried as he put them in his car to take them away. Literally cried.

I can definitely relate. I don't think I could part with my books. I have way too many books to list - a small bedroom dedicated to storing my books.

Currently, I am reading a lot of history related books due to my school work, but during the summer I do read a lot of fiction, science and otherwise. Some of my favorites include Herbert, Anderson, Gaiman, Clarke, Crichton, Clancy, etc.

 

[Marianne]

Good Golly Miss Molly! I have two homes, both of which are packed to the gills with books. I have been saving my books since high school and I will be 53 next week. I have even thrown away tons of old books that were damaged in storage. I have one whole wall of books at one house that are all SF?Fantasy. Maybe 300 books...then I have two smaller wall units that have many books on spirituality and scriptures, picture books and contempory fiction. That's one room....in the den I have another book shelf for the ones that don't fit in the study. At this house I have a small bookshelf next to my desk filled with reference books that I use in writing, some of Pratchett's books, a whole bunch of books waiting to be read. I have about four stacks of books next to this shelf that won't fit....and a box behind it filled with books I bought since Christmas. Then up in the loft I have about four big boxes filled with books that relate to reasearch I have done for a couple of novels I have written, along with manuscripts of the novels(notes and stuff).

I just ordered three books from Amazon...but honestly, one is for a friend.

It's a sickness

 

[Ahdkaw]

Yikes Marianne that's a lot of books.

Damn shame about having to throw away books, tis always a dark day when that happens.

My own bookshelf is somewhat smaller, and I have lost, as well as had stolen, many, many books. Some of them I bought again like Hitchhikers and Dirk Gently (of course. Who wouldn't? I've actually bought Hitchhikers more times than any other book in my lifetime - interesting little tidbit of info there (gawd I make these bracketed thoughts too long)), but many new books have I (Uh-oh, here's comes Yoda).

Absolute faves then before I head off to bed, The War Against The Chtorr series by David Gerrold I'm particularily proud of as it took me around ten years of searching to get hold of them all, very, very good science fiction, as yet unfinished, about an alien ecosystem infestation that the human race has little chance of understanding let alone defeating. Some have said his characters are a little wooden, but I disagree.

There's loads more books on my bookshelf but I honestly do not have the time to list them all.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I removed most of my fiction from my bookshelves a while ago, though have since added to it.

My books shelves are in four main sections:

Bottom section is my most treasured ancient history: Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt.

The Roman history section is the largest comprising of around 44 books in itself, with about 80 books in that section (to give an idea of length). Mostly read, though I still haven't read a few of my Egyptian works.

Second section: oversized Ancient History books (all topics and periods - latest edition was a massive hardback on the Maya). Then there's some Celtic, Neolithic, and then a niche selection of books on Byzantine history, and then my Mediaeval History section.

Third section: Religion and culture - lots of miscellaneous books on religion and belief, including supernatural, magic, and Judaeo-Christian-Mulsim related works.

Fourth: Natural World - space and physics, natural history - and a string of works to do with slavery and India, which I have yet to read (including bios of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Almost all of these works were intended as "research" works, a good three-quarters of which were bought sometime over the past 6-7 years. I once figured I wanted to write relaism, which meant thoroughly researching ancient history.


Most of my fiction and comics are consigned to the loft, because of the tight limitations of space in this house, though I do have some fiction - read and unread - on my shelves downstair. About a dozen books. Hm, I should go read the titles.

Also brought down my collection of "most-prized" graphic novels fairly recently - I can't wait to read Watchmen again.

Hm...there's my self-indulgent post.

 

[dwndrgn]

Good Golly Miss Molly! I have two homes, both of which are packed to the gills with books. I have been saving my books since high school and I will be 53 next week. I have even thrown away tons of old books that were damaged in storage. I have one whole wall of books at one house that are all SF?Fantasy. Maybe 300 books...then I have two smaller wall units that have many books on spirituality and scriptures, picture books and contempory fiction. That's one room....in the den I have another book shelf for the ones that don't fit in the study. At this house I have a small bookshelf next to my desk filled with reference books that I use in writing, some of Pratchett's books, a whole bunch of books waiting to be read. I have about four stacks of books next to this shelf that won't fit....and a box behind it filled with books I bought since Christmas. Then up in the loft I have about four big boxes filled with books that relate to reasearch I have done for a couple of novels I have written, along with manuscripts of the novels(notes and stuff).

I just ordered three books from Amazon...but honestly, one is for a friend.

It's a sickness

That's my kind of sickness! Despite having a bunch of stuff to read at the house, including a library book that needs to go back in a week, I bought two new (used) books today because I wanted them and they were cheap. Can I come stay at your house for a while? I don't think I'd get bored If you have to get rid of any more books, I've got some very lonely, empty shelves here that I'd be happy to fill up...

Brian, don't worry about the self-indulgent post. Just thinking about the books on the shelves and checking out what you've got there forces you to appreciate them. Definitely not a bad thing. At least in my book