Saying printed on a bookmark I had as a child:
We don't just read books. We love books.
We buy them, collect them, greedily surround ourselves with them. We keep them on shelves and in bins and in big piles on the floor. We have organized shelves and randomly-ordered shelves and to-read shelves. We have books in bed, books in the kitchen, books on the couch, books in our backpacks. Our books distract us when we're bored, lift us when we're sad, and whirl us away to elsewheres of the imagination for hours on end. We share them with friends, eagerly: "Have you read...?" We talk about them, argue about them, write about them.
These are our books.
------------------------------------------------------
Why bookshelf pictures?
Over the last month or so folks have been talking in the constantly-mutating Steamypunk comment thread about their bookshelves, and in a couple of cases putting up pictures of them for everyone to admire their quantity and assorted disorganizational schemes. I promised that I'd make a post to share these pictures and the ones people sent me. I think I've found all of them that have been linked to or sent, but if I've missed yours or if you want to be included, please (re)send.
Click the images above for larger versions if you want to try to read the titles.
Hooray! Books!
We love books.
Just so.
Posted by: Neil Willcox | January 27, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Okay, I'll play. Sadly, almost all of my books are currently in bins and boxes, either in my office and garage, and some are probably still in Baltimore. Those in the pictures actually had been set up in bookshelves in the spare room/library, but they were removed so the room could be painted. That still hasn't happened.
One piles of books.
Another pile of books.
Posted by: Carol Witt | January 27, 2009 at 12:11 PM
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx.
Thanks for posting the photos, Susan. I must say that your bookshelves do not look as nightmarish as you had described them. Of course, that photo probably shows a mere portion of what's in your house.
Posted by: Serge | January 27, 2009 at 12:14 PM
Serge,
Well it's half of two bookshelves. That means it's about 15% of what's in my bedroom alone. The shelves are starting to reach the limits of how many rows of books I can fit on them and are starting to bend slightly in the middle.
I suppose I should take a picture of the to-read pile, but it's quite embarrassing.
Carol, I'll get your pics in the post when I get home tonight.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 27, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Carol: Most of my books are still in banker's boxes, too. Once we finally finish the game room renovations, we'll buy a bunch of bookcases and unpack them at last. What a happy day that will be!
Posted by: AJ | January 27, 2009 at 01:22 PM
A comment to Marilee... A couple of weeks ago, you asked about the contraption I had devised to keep my laptop above the level of the desk. I responded that it was made of braces that I bolted together. The picture above shows the final results.
Posted by: Serge | January 27, 2009 at 03:13 PM
Carol's book pictures are now up in the main post.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 27, 2009 at 06:14 PM
Hey, that's only one of my pictures!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 27, 2009 at 07:40 PM
Marilee:
Sorry! Fixed now.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 27, 2009 at 08:25 PM
Click the images above for larger versions if you want to try to read the titles.
Well I do like challenges, but man. This is hard.
Serge: Originally thought that was a copy of George Carlin's Napalm and Silly Putty on the second shelf up. Now unsure, mostly because it looks like a set with the other two on their sides, and Carlin's other books aren't spined like that. Some Temeraire books on the bottom right. Star Trek! A few other things look familiar, but not in a way I've read.
Marilee: I got nothing from the first picture except *maybe* a copy of Lackey's The Silver Gryphon on the second shelf up at the very left. Zomgar, jealous though. As for the second...yeah, I dunno. I got nothing.
AJ: Well, I can actually read most of the titles so I'm not going to copy all of the...is that Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy book?! Ohman, I LOVE that book. Also, for no real reason I am amused by the phrase "DOGS SEWING" that appears.
MaryAileen: Harry Potter! Also, what I think is a lot of John Ringo? And more book jealousy.
Paul: COMICS! Also, jesus, I so didn't know that that many collections of PS238 were out. I think I only read the first one. Alsoalso, another one where I can read a lot of the titles, but just want to say ee, Life of Pi. Good book. In your second picture, is the spine labeled "Time Lord" about Doctor Who? Oh please, oh please.
Susan: I am so happy I am not the only one who uses milk crates. Loads of Mcaffery, at least a couple Lackey, Temeraire...just gobs of stuff I feel I should read.
Carol: I...It's so sad! They need to be free again, so I can try and identify them!
Me: Well, now, that would be telling. :D
Man, I like books.
~Sor/Kat
Posted by: Sorcyress | January 28, 2009 at 01:07 AM
Well, I can actually read most of the titles so I'm not going to copy all of the...is that Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy book?!
Yes, it is :D And Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Album. I love Froud's books.
Is that a whole stack of the plush microbe petrie dishes on your shelf? I gave my hubby some of those for the holidays.
Posted by: AJ | January 28, 2009 at 01:20 AM
Is that a whole stack of the plush microbe petrie dishes on your shelf?
Not quite. They are petri dishes containing pipe cleaner things that Keira made me. My favourites are probably Death, Pirate, Lemons, (wolf in) Sheep ('s clothing), and Canada. (The last of which is comprised of rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and water)
I didn't know she had a pressed fairy album! How did I not know this?!
~Sor
Posted by: Sorcyress | January 28, 2009 at 01:44 AM
Sor... All of the books on that unit are books I haven't read yet, and the shelves have become much more crowded since that photo was taken. The Téméraire novels are my wife's and I'm planning to read them. Those books on the 2nd shelf indeed are part of a set - the Amelia Peabody mysteries. It's been some time since I've been able to resume reading.
Posted by: Serge | January 28, 2009 at 02:26 AM
Sor:
I so didn't know that that many collections of PS238 were out.
There's exactly that many collections of PS238 out; the latest one arrived shortly before I took the photo. (And now it's going to be year or more until I find out what happens next! Wah!)
Alsoalso, another one where I can read a lot of the titles, but just want to say ee, Life of Pi. Good book.
That's good to hear - that section of the bookshelf is part of my to-read pile. (In fact, everything in the top three rows of that bookcase is part of my to-read pile...)
In your second picture, is the spine labeled "Time Lord" about Doctor Who? Oh please, oh please.
It is indeed: that's the handbook for a Doctor Who roleplaying game that was released in the 1990s. (It wasn't very successful, partly because it was poorly promoted and partly because, well, it's not very good.)
All the books past 'The Anubis Gates' on the fourth row of the bookcase are also Doctor Who novels, but most of my Doctor Who books are in storage.
Posted by: Paul A. | January 28, 2009 at 09:14 AM
Sorcyress: A lot of David Weber, not John Ringo. I've read some Ringo, but I don't think I own any of his books.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | January 28, 2009 at 10:40 AM
I also have a whole bunch of Doctor Who novelizations, but they don't really show in this picture.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | January 28, 2009 at 10:41 AM
AJ: Yes, that will be a happy day!
Sor: You can see a few titles in the second picture! But their current state is very sad indeed. It's also very frustrating when I need books that I know I have.
Hm. I suppose I could go to the kitchen and take a picture of the cookbooks that aren't packed away.
Posted by: Carol Witt | January 28, 2009 at 09:57 PM
Kat, no Lackey on my shelves! I had to back into the corner of the room to get pictures and I didn't expect people to read them! The first picture has the end of the alphabetized already-read books, then the bookcase of unread book (plus all the books on the tops of the bookcases are unread), and then a bookcase of anthologies, fanzines, and a couple bottom shelves of non-stfnal stuff.
The second picture is the beginning & middle of the alphabetized already-read books, plus the new books on top, except for the two top shelves on the first bookcase which is keeping partial series that I don't expect to resolve soon.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 28, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Carol Witt... I could go to the kitchen and take a picture of the cookbooks
"The book, To Serve Man, it's... it's a COOKbook!"
Posted by: Serge | January 29, 2009 at 04:27 AM
Here is another view of our library. On the right are my books - and comics. On the left are a mere fraction of my wife's reference books.
Posted by: Serge | January 29, 2009 at 09:44 AM
Speaking of books... I just finished Elizabeth Moon's sort-of military SF novel "Marque and Reprisal", 2nd in her "Vatta's War" series. I liked it enough although there are other books I'd like to read before I move on to the series's 3rd novel. I do have to mention a passage from this novel, if only because it's not typical of the overall tone:
Posted by: Serge | January 29, 2009 at 09:49 AM
While not our books, Neil Gaiman posted a short Coraline trailer today that includes a brief scene in his "downstairs" library, starting around 20 seconds in.
Posted by: Carol Witt | January 29, 2009 at 01:05 PM
Carol... Thanks for the link. Something isn't right about Gaiman's library. I know what it is. It's too neat, I couldn't see any book stacked sideways. Maybe he cleaned it up for the movie.
Posted by: Serge | January 29, 2009 at 03:06 PM
I was tempted to clean up my shelves for the picture. Instead, I was just very selective about which shelves I took a picture of. :)
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 29, 2009 at 04:24 PM
Susan... Tsk, tsk...
I wonder what the 'keep' rate of the above people is. I mean, once we're done with a novel, or an anthology, how likely we are to keep the book even if we're not going to reread it. Mine is fairly high, but then again, I find myself seldom starting a book I'm not likely to be very interested in to begin with.
Posted by: Serge | January 29, 2009 at 04:40 PM
Serge, I have the first books of that Moon series, but am waiting for it to finish before I start reading.
My "keep" rate isn't anything like what I'd want. I only have room for those shelves and I keep buying books. Books that are just read usually go on the shelf, but when I go through to make more room, they may stay, or older things may stay.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 29, 2009 at 06:25 PM
Marilee, the last book in the Vatta's War series came out quite a while ago. I remember this clearly because I too was waiting until they were all out before I started reading.
Posted by: Paul A. | January 29, 2009 at 07:18 PM
I only keep books that I expect to want to re-read someday. In some cases, "someday" has been twenty years and counting, but I still have the books. In other cases, I eventually decide that someday will never arrive, and then I give those away. (And still others I re-read at least once a year or so.)
And the vast majority of books I read come from the library, and I never buy them at all.
Posted by: Mary Aileen | January 29, 2009 at 07:51 PM
I remain cameraless.
On top of Marilee's shelf I see some Alastair Reynolds. I reread a fair amount of his stuff at the end of last year and should type up my thoughts at some point.
Kat's are generally quite clear, and I note some Sluggy Freelance, some Transmetropolitan, a book that declares "Serial Killers" in deliciously large letters and a laptop that seems to displaying a post on Rixosous... in fact it's this post... and now I seem to be stuck... help! I'm trapped in an electronic infinite mirror recursive trap!
Posted by: Neil Willcox | January 29, 2009 at 08:19 PM
Wow! How did I miss that?
Wait, how did she do that? I could swear she sent me the picture before I put up the post. Am I insane? Are we caught in a time travel loop?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 29, 2009 at 08:34 PM
Right now I keep all of my books, unless they're really bad. I do occasionally re-read things, and I really like to loan books out to my friends (as long as it's something easy to replace). I know that if I tell my friends "You should read " they'll forget, but if I loan them the book, they'll read it and then we can talk about it.
Posted by: AJ | January 29, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Apparently if I put "insert awesome book title here" inside pointy brackets, TypePad thinks that I'm trying to do HTML and makes it go away. I apologize if I managed to break anything!
Posted by: AJ | January 29, 2009 at 10:03 PM
Doesn't look like it screwed up anything. Where were you trying to put the pointy-bracketed title?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 29, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Susan: I greenscreened my computer, and photoshopped Rixosous in later, when you weren't looking. >.>
Neil: Yeah, I am looking forward to spooking myself silly some night with the Serial Killers book. And oh, Transmetropolitan. I am only three books in, which is terrible. And I have all of it. I would tear through the stack, except I was specifically warned not to read it all at once.
I am packratty in general, and brought up in a family that likes owning books (Someday I'll get pictures of my mom's shelves...*drool*) so I tend to keep books. The really important ones are the ones I keep more than one copy of --the Hitchhikers Trilogy (two seperate copies of the ominbus, individiual copies of the first four books in english, a copy of the omnibus in swedish, and a copy of the first book in German) and more importantly, "The Pirates Mixed Up Voyage", by Margaret Mahy, which is my security blanket, comfort food, and gets read something on the order of every six months. I own three identical copies, just so I can lend them and still always have a copy near at hand.
~Sor
Posted by: Sorcyress | January 30, 2009 at 12:44 AM
Just what I said above: insert awesome book title here. I think "insert" is an HTML command, right? Maybe it makes a space, because that's all it put in!
Posted by: AJ | January 30, 2009 at 01:03 AM
AJ: No, I think that space is the space that would normally be before it - what I mean is, you wrote "You should read <insert awesome book title here>", but it's taken the not-a-tag out entirely, leaving "You should read ".
(And when I say it's taken it out entirely, I mean that - it's not even there in the HTML source. Probably TypePad has a set of allowed tags, like <b> and <i>, and anything else taglike that it doesn't recognise gets trimmed out in case it's part of a fiendish plot to hack Susan's blog.)
Posted by: Paul A. | January 30, 2009 at 08:25 AM
Sor: That's the one with all the little islands, right? And the amnesiac with the interesting tattoo? And the pirate with the literal tin ear? Brilliant book, I should read it again some time.
Posted by: Paul A. | January 30, 2009 at 08:27 AM
AJ: Paul's explanation is correct. Only a certain limited set of tags are allowed and it just takes out anything else.
Sor: You need to loan me one of those three copies. Maybe tomorrow?
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | January 30, 2009 at 08:54 AM
I tend to keep books, like I said earlier, but each move - from Quebec City to Toronto to the San Francisco Bay Area to New Mexico - has forced me to do some culling, as unpleasant as that was. Still, there are some books that have made it unscathed thru all those moves - or rather as unscathed as they can be from being boxed in and out. Among those are the first SF books I ever bought, and those of my favorite authors (Simak, for example), and pretty much anything I can lay my hands on that was witten by Leigh Brackett.
Posted by: Serge | January 30, 2009 at 09:40 AM
Paul and Susan: Oh yes, that would make sense. Thank you! Can you tell that I leave all of the coding stuff to my in-house programmer?
Sor: Is that book YA or adult? Anything that's worth re-reading every 6 months or so sounds like something I should check out. *is building up quite the shopping list for her next bookstore trip.*
Posted by: AJ | January 30, 2009 at 01:27 PM
Paul: You have no idea how friggin' happy you've made me by having had read it. Man, I am such a dork for this book.
Susan: *salutes* In my bag, will hand it off to you when I see you.
AJ: It's young adult/childrens --It's written clean enough that I wouldn't hesitate giving it to your average eight year old, provided they were at a reading level that allowed chapter books. I will not be so presumptuous as to say it is the best book in the world, but it's fast paced, with a lovely complicated plot, and full of little pictures, and, of course, it features pirates as the main characters. And, I mean, the very second sentence is "He was dissatisfied with living in real life, which was full of rules and regulations, and in his heart he dreamed of being a pirate." which could so easily fit any number of people I know, myself included.
More importantly, it's very very fun, and hopelessly silly. Plus, Margaret Mahy has quite the good turn of phrase, something I look for especially in books.
~Sor
Posted by: Sorcyress | January 30, 2009 at 03:55 PM
Aha, Paul, I checked the series list and my bookbase and I have them all! I don't think I can read them all between bookgroups, so I'll have to plan to have a bookgroup book in the middle.
Yes, Neil, an entire stack of Al's. They're next chronologically (at least the first is), but I think I'm more in the mood for Moon.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 30, 2009 at 08:16 PM
Marilee... I'm more in the mood for Moon
"Fly me to the Moon"
By the way, it was fun, attending one Denvention panel she was on with John Hemry, "bleeding-heart liberals who write military SF".
Posted by: Serge | January 31, 2009 at 01:34 AM
Serge, I've never seen that movie. Is it good?
I have, however, heard that song with added verses by the Black Book Band. Unfortunately, they only made one CD and that's not on it. You can hear some of the original songs here.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | January 31, 2009 at 07:11 PM
Marilee... I wouldn't call "Space Comwboys<" a great movie, but it's entertaining.
Posted by: Serge | February 01, 2009 at 01:16 AM
I tend to keep books, but I got rid of many when I was planning to move. I'm using the public and university libraries much more. I don't buy nearly as many books now as I used to. That said, I still don't have enough bookshelves.
Posted by: Carol Witt | February 01, 2009 at 03:21 PM
Carol, *is* there such a thing as "enough bookshelves"? I mean, I have enough for the books I own right this minute, but I'm already planning on where I'll put more when necessary. (Because it *will* be necessary sooner or later.)
Posted by: Mary Aileen | February 01, 2009 at 05:20 PM
I'm definitely reading more from the library, but it's popular books that I'm not sure I'll like. I got Gaiman's The Graveyard Book there and that's not something I'd keep, and I have Roy Blount, Jr.'s Alphabet Juice waiting for me. I'll pick that up tomorrow.
In the past, I probably would have just bought those and passed them on if I didn't want to keep them.
Paul, I started the Vatta's War series last night!
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | February 01, 2009 at 07:26 PM
Mary Aileen: No, of course not! I meant that I, plus my husband and son, don't have enough bookshelves for all the books we currently own, despite massive culling.
Susan: The Kalamazoo program is up! I still don't know if I'll feel up to going, but I don't see any sessions I'd desperately want to attend scheduled at the same time as yours.
Posted by: Carol Witt | February 03, 2009 at 12:30 AM
Front page of the WashPost yesterday: Business Brisk at Area Libraries
In Bad Times, Free Resources Are a Hot Commodity.
Also pulled up by my search term, US Airways pilot Sullenberger had a book in the now very wet cargo hold and asked his library to give him an extension and waive the late fees. Instead, they waived all fees and are dedicating the replacement book to him.
Posted by: Marilee J. Layman | February 03, 2009 at 08:26 PM
Having now read one of Sor's copies of The Pirates Mixed Up Voyage....eh. It was fine, but I think aimed too young for me to start appreciating it at my current advanced age. Had I first encountered it when I was the right age, I think I'd have liked it a great deal more and perhaps retained a nostalgic attachment to it.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 12:58 PM
Carol:
I'm trying to decide how long I'm going to go to the conference for now that I know when I need to be there. I couldn't find any other program pertaining to dance - did you see any?
Marilee:
Makes sense that in bad times free resources get used more.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 01:02 PM
Susan... my current advanced age
Posted by: Serge | February 09, 2009 at 01:18 PM
On the shelves in my picture: what's primarily visible are the shelves for F&SF series, spilling over into the shelving for single books on the shelves nearest the bottom in the picture. The Lackey book is one of her Diana Tregarde mysteries and is sharing a shelf with (among others), Halting State, Stardust, and and One Jump Ahead. You can see my David Weber habit on the shelf above. The stacks of printout are a couple of his novels printed from pdf files Baen subscribers sent me. There are a couple of Scalzi paperbacks there too, and the bright blue-spined paperbacks are the whole "Borrowers" series of kids' books. The top shelf on that side has the Noviks, Lynn Flewelling, and Martha Wells; the latter two are huge favorites of mine on the fantasy side lately.
On the left, the top shelf has Bujold, Lichtenberg, Lorrah, Tarr, and Wynne Jones. The next one down has lots of Darkover & Pern stuff with David Brin and Snyder on the far left. The third one down used to be just single novels, but has been invaded by the Kushiel books and Jo Walton's pseudo-Arthurian series.
The crates at the top contain my small selection of media tie-in books, a stack of Pern fanfic fanzines and Sime/Gen fanzines plus a signed manuscript (well, dot-matrix-print-script) of the original version of Unto Zeor Forever (then known as Sime Surgeon), and then two crates of mostly Star Trek zines, with a few Star Wars and other stuff mixed in. The zines are mostly late 1980s stuff, though there are a few later ones and the small ones with black and white covers are reprints of the old 1960s Spockanalia.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 01:40 PM
My Harry Potter books are hiding behind the Flewlling/Wells books on the top right shelf, by the way, along with a bunch of Barbara Hambly.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 01:42 PM
Susan... You can see my David Weber habit on the shelf above
Not in the closet, on a hanger next to your nun's outfit?
Posted by: Serge | February 09, 2009 at 04:52 PM
Serge:
I don't have a nun's habit, but I did a basic priest or monk's outfit (simple black robe with a white tabard over it) for a show many years ago. I think it's still hanging on my costume rack.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 07:12 PM
Susan as a monk? Oh, what a sight that must have been... May I ask what the show was about?
Posted by: Serge | February 09, 2009 at 09:57 PM
The costume wasn't for me. I can't remember what show it was; it's been almost two decades. Possibly 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 09, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Susan... The costume wasn't for me
I thought you'd have been quite good as the Singeing Nun, member of the Defendantesques.
Posted by: Serge | February 09, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Susan, if by "Wynne Jones" you mean Diana, I should point out that she's actually "Jones, Diana Wynne", and she's been known to get quite cross with people who get it wrong. (It doesn't help, of course, that there's at least one other children's fantasy author, no relation, who actually is Wynne-Jones.)
Posted by: Paul A. | February 11, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Serge, you're looking good for your advanced age. But when did you shave off the beard?
*runs away very fast*
Posted by: Paul A. | February 11, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Paul A... What? Oh, that was supposed to be a photo of Susan in her advanced age.
Posted by: Serge | February 11, 2009 at 08:46 AM
Paul:
Oops! Yes, I meant Diana, and thanks for the correction.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | February 11, 2009 at 08:58 AM
Susan: I haven't gone through the whole program yet due to computer and body problems, but a quick search through doesn't turn up any more dancing.
Posted by: Carol Witt | February 11, 2009 at 10:33 PM