Post your library

[Susan Gerbic]

Excellent - just added your library to my list.

I love the hitchhiker books! Isn't May 25th Towel Day? Here is the link for the first one I participated in last year...http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83007 post 16 (sorry the picture is so big)

You have ONLY 4 books in your "to read" label? I just bought 9 books today!

Actually just got the "God Delusion" today. Now I need to read it and get him to sign it. I am hoping to take a suitcase full to TAM6 to get signed. I want to say I have read the book to the author.

Susan

 

[Francesca R]

I don't buy books much in advance--I'm afraid I won't read them. So it's kind of hand-to-mouth. I get through about one book a week or maybe less. At the moment I'm part way through "God is not Great". It's more interesting than The God Delusion IMO, which felt a bit "not required" to me (merely because I was brought up atheist and was thinking "Yes of course that's true, etc etc") whereas Hitchens is going for the jugular in saying how evil religion is . . .

I don't know about towel day. My hitchhiker copies are ancient, bought and read in the 1980s when I was a teenager (or not even in my teens). I haven't seen the movie.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

Don't see the movie

I thought the British were into Towel Day.

That was the day selected to bring a towel with you everywhere to salute Douglass Adams. I had some great reactions as did my son. I was depressed how many people had no idea what the Hitchhiker's Guide was.

Susan

 

[Francesca R]

I wasn't planning to see it . There may still be a big cult hitchhiker following in the UK. The franchise is pretty old now though. It was a radio series in the 1970s before I moved here, and was on TV in the early 1980s, repeated later.

A minor bit of trivia (relevant to the books/radio/TV versions)-- I live in Islington not far from Douglas Adams' house before he emigrated, and my phone number starts with the same numbers as the phone of the flat where Arthur Dent went to a very nice party and met a very nice girl he totally failed to get off with. The number is also the improbability factor of (I think) Dent and Ford Prefect being rescued after they were thrown off the Vogon constructor ship.

 

[Geek Goddess]

I've been working on this some, and got through one bookcase.

It's a bit fun. Sometimes I can't locate the exact edition I have, in which case I pick something close.

I didn't realize that my copy of Bambi, that my grandmother originally gave my aunt, was a first edition. I wish I had not written my name several times inside the front cover, when I was in first grade. I also need to talk to a certain Sailor about where my very old (1900 +/- a few years) copy of Ben Hur is. I'm pretty sure I told him to go by a cheap paperback copy if he felt the need to read Charlton Heston in the original.


GG's books

 

[Madalch]

Madalch - so do you own any books that don't have "heraldry" in the title? <<grin>>

I suppose you just haven't gotten to that shelf yet, right?

A few.

Last I counted, I had about a hundred heraldry books. Some of them are too old (or too foreign) to have ISBNs, so I haven't put them all in yet.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

It is so interesting to see what we all collect. The last 3 years just about everything is history related. I try to read as much as possible about a period of history before a class, then all through the required readings, then because I'm really interested in the subject I still read more.

Very likely someone could recreate my classes based on when I review them. Still got a long way to get through the reviewing process.

It's a bit fun. Sometimes I can't locate the exact edition I have, in which case I pick something close.

This is frustrating to me as well. I'm an exact type of person when it comes to tangible things. I want to book I select to be the exact one not something kinda right. But what can you do?

Francesca PM'ed me with her frustration on the Google site. One day it says I have 13 books in one label but when you click on it only 5 books will show up. Then the next day you click on the same label and all the books are there.

I still can not find all my books when I search for them.

Personally I think we should all complain. I have sent them two e-mails, the first one said to keep them informed, the second response said something about my continuing feedback, (it sounded like I was annoying them). I did tell them that there was a group of us using this service and discussing the Google site. I told them that we are discussing the different library options out there. So maybe we should make more noise over the Google site? I did get a personal response and not a auto-reply one.

Cool old books, at least this process makes us notice what books are missing. I have a certain son who also is "borrowing" some books. I guess it could be way worse, he could be borrowing my underwear!!!

I did find my mom's geography/history book from when she was in high school (she is 85 now) the book is in bad shape but now a prize for me. She has noted a mid-term date on one page. Most of the books I got from my dad's shelves he has written his name in, I wish he had made notes like I do in the margins.

I love to buy books that have been inscribed by the giver. Very sad that they end up in some used book store. But in the end I have them and enjoy the notes.

I purchased "the idiot" some time ago just because of the inscription in the cover..."could I but love you as he did her... August 20, 1937 Pete" Don't know if this is a quote from the book or what as I have never read the book. But I think it is so sweet.

Susan

 

[Francesca R]

Francesca PM'ed me with her frustration on the Google site. One day it says I have 13 books in one label but when you click on it only 5 books will show up. Then the next day you click on the same label and all the books are there.

I still can not find all my books when I search for them.

Yes this problem seems endemic. I didn't appreciate it fully at first and thought that Susan was simply having trouble locating books. But it persistently under-reports what you've loaded. For example, Geek Goddess has 8 books under "epidemics", but right away I can only get 7 to reveal themselves. That's the first label I looked under--it happens all over the place.

I will e-mail them, but it's a free product, and as such the best tactic is to shop around I suppose. Is Library Thing freer of bugs, I wonder? And is their database as good?

My collection is getting seriously dwarfed here. But according to Umberto Eco, it's the number of books you haven't read that matters. .

The most recent book I got hold of in the week was the late Mancur Olson's "Rise and Decline of Nations" written in 82. Olson is kind of post-Keynes, post-monetarist political economics and is very lucid and clear (I've read two others by him). I have some plane and train time next week due to a business trip so I will probably read it then.

 

[jmercer]

Hmm... last count, I had between 1,500 and 2000 books... mostly science and sci-fi.

 

[Geek Goddess]

I can find my older out-of-print books, they just don't always have pictures of the covers.

I think this personal library is not the intended use of the Google Books - it was conceived as a way to search online, for all books. So, I'm not expecting it to be flawless.

I won't ever get ALL my books in, but I also whittled down my library during the past two years. I know, I know, some people think giving away books is a terrible thing to do, but I sent over 300 books to the "Books for Soldiers" during the past three years. (see booksforsoldiers.com) A few of them I bought at the half price stores, but most of them came out of my own library. The soldiers seem to prefer adventure, mysteries, science fiction, so I pretty much depleted those shelves. I also had books like the autobiography of Colin Powell, journalistic accounts of WWII and Vietnam, my dozens of copies of LOTR (why did I keep buying MORE of them???) Blackhawk Down, anything I thought they would enjoy reading. I've been told the books get passed around until they are literally in tatters. They like paperbacks because of the weight, but like hardcover books because they last longer and therefore more soldiers get to read them before they disintegrate.

So yes, my library is a bit wimpy on science fiction, but it's not because I've not read and owned more. I was serving a Higher Purpose.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

My collection is getting seriously dwarfed here. But according to Umberto Eco, it's the number of books you haven't read that matters. .

Who or what is Umberto Eco?

Hmm... last count, I had between 1,500 and 2000 books... mostly science and sci-fi.

I truly thought that I would end up with 1300 once done. But I finished at about 800. This process forced me to get rid of some books which was great. I would highly suggest that you think about a library site as we have. It not only is kinda fun, but a great weeding event.

I think this personal library is not the intended use of the Google Books - it was conceived as a way to search online, for all books. So, I'm not expecting it to be flawless.

It has some great points, the ability to label your own way, the ability to write reviews, the ease of linking to other people's libraries, and I get to see my shining face every time I look at my library. But, come on, the inability to be able to search through our own books? That is something that should be elementary to a library.

I won't ever get ALL my books in, but I also whittled down my library during the past two years. I know, I know, some people think giving away books is a terrible thing to do, but I sent over 300 books to the "Books for Soldiers" during the past three years.

Getting rid of books for me is difficult (kind of like losing a friend you haven't talked to in a long time, but you know they are there) Anything that gets people reading is a good thing. I think I might look into this program, usually I just give my old books to the Goodwill or to our library that sells them. But now that I think about it there are probably lots of places that could use some of my old mysteries that I'm not interested in anymore. Add this to my very long list of things to do.

Susan

 

[Geek Goddess]

Whenever I have a few minutes, I add a few books, both to the Google site and to the Collector library software. Doing this has triggered memories of the hundreds and hundreds of books I have read - many that I borrowed from friends or libraries, and many more than I owned at one time and gave away or loaned to someone who never returned them, mostly paperbacks.

If anyone 'slightly older' remembers buying books through a little newspaper that you received in school every 2-3 months? This would have been in the late 60s, primarily, into the early 70s. The books were more or less priced according to size. The longest books would cost up to 50 cents each. My mom would really let me splurge and buy 5, 7 or even 10 books at a time! I picked the books based on the length, while many of my classmates got slim books based on current movies or TV shows. I remember reading Shirley Jackson, and William Shirer's shorter The Rise and Fall of Hitler which was taken from his classic work, and all the Lovecraft books, and The Once and Future King. I read a lot of biographies, and most of the science fiction books that were offered.

I also realized how many times I've bought the same book. Not because I forgot I had it, but because I read it to tatters. Tonight I found three sets of LOTRs in various stages from barely held together, to my leather-bound set. I have multiple copies of many of Mark Twain and Louisa May Alcott's novels, ditto. I have three copies of Kidnapped. Two complete sets of William Shakespeare. Three copies of Tale of Two Cites: one paperback, one in a hardbound edition from a book club, one in a leatherbound collection of Dickens. After my sons were born, I would buy the classics in these leatherbound sets so that they would always be available in my "library" as opposed to the piles of books in every nook and cranny.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

Whenever I have a few minutes, I add a few books, both to the Google site and to the Collector library software. Doing this has triggered memories of the hundreds and hundreds of books I have read - many that I borrowed from friends or libraries, and many more than I owned at one time and gave away or loaned to someone who never returned them, mostly paperbacks.

When I have a few minutes I am trying to get the reviews in. Naomi you are so right! I am having memories of all kinds, books were special friends of mine for many years, still are some days. We had a library (very small branch) around the corner, my mom felt comfortable allowing me to go there by myself. So I always felt safe and comfortable there.

The books that I have that are worn to bits are "A Candle in the Dark" "Dune" and the "Chronicles of Narnia" series.

I have been keeping this reading journal since 1998 and am using that to post my reviews. I am so totally shocked to see how many books I read from libraries. Now I never go to the library. Wonder if that is because I am so much better off money wise than I was in 1998? Or if maybe I have just decided to read the large overload of books sitting here?

I am currently reading, the "Diary of Mary Chestnut" who is the wife of a Confederate Colonel during the Civil War. She goes on and on about all the books she is reading, lots of them in French. I am so jealous, I have never heard of many of these books, but she quotes them and shares them with friends. She has read, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" several times already. I was led to believe that southern women were uneducated, in her case that is not true. I really wonder how much the Internet, TV, DVD's and so on has messed up our lives. Yes, we are enriched, but seriously I don't know many people who read these days. It is so nice to have a thread where I feel like I fit in.

Susan

 

[Francesca R]

Who or what is Umberto Eco?

Sorry for the absence/delay. Umberto Eco is perhaps best known for Foucault's Pendulum. I read in an unrelated book (The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb--in my library if the software lets it be) that Eco has 30,000 books.

But, come on, the inability to be able to search through our own books? That is something that should be elementary to a library.

Yes, this is a let down.

When I have a few minutes I am trying to get the reviews in.

That's great. Since loading them in a few weeks back I haven't written a single review yet, but I linked the library in my sig, following Geek's example. Things-to-do list . . .

Now I never go to the library. Wonder if that is because I am so much better off money wise than I was in 1998?

I don't either. I like to buy books new. I only get through one every couple of weeks (and that's if it's no more than 300 pages) so it's not a huge expense.

I really wonder how much the Internet, TV, DVD's and so on has messed up our lives. Yes, we are enriched, but seriously I don't know many people who read these days. It is so nice to have a thread where I feel like I fit in.

I spend about the same amount of time on the net as I do reading books and news (well more on the net if you count at work), but my 32inch TV and digital subscription really haven't paid their way . . . TV is way down the priority list except for, erm, "The Apprentice" and "Desperate Housewives", both of which have just started up a new season in the UK (although the first few episodes are still unwatched on my HDD since I haven't had time yet.)

 

[Madalch]

Umberto Eco is perhaps best known for Foucault's Pendulum.

Surely, he's better known for "The Name of the Rose".

 

[Francesca R]

Yes, you're probably right.

 

[Susan Gerbic]

Since the X-files sank a few years ago, I haven't watched anything on TV with any regularity. If the TV is on when I walk by I might watch a bit.

Getting almost done with the reviews, it has been interesting. I have 10 years of reviews that are more personal (like a blog) than critical of the book. I keep finding entries that say, "I really loved this book, learned a lot" but now a few years later I don't remember much about the book. This happened tonight when I reviewed a history reference book I had read, "Flappers, Bootleggers, Typhoid Mary and the Bomb" I could not remember anything about it, but I loved it. So tonight we went to dinner and I took the book with me and read aloud to my family events/people they shouted out to me. I need to re-read this again.

I am finding this to be true with many of the history books when I knew almost nothing about the era, American Civil War for example. All the books I read in the beginning need to be re-read now that I know what I now know. I want to move on to new books and here I am needing and wanting to re-read the old books.

I rarely purchase new books, used are just fine with me. I don't take all that great care of my books (or car, or furniture or men....) so I don't want to shell out the money for something new when I can just buy a new one later. Besides there is something very rewarding about wandering around a used book store and not thinking about how much you are spending. Then taking them to the counter and adding all the books the kids want and the eyes of the employee/owner get real big. I love that feeling that I am keeping them in business.

The town I live in Salinas, CA has over 150,000 people but we have NO used book stores and only ONE small B. Dalton store in the mall. We just added a Christian book store after the one we had closed. And that is it. When I say I don't see people in my town reading, I am not kidding. We were one of the biggest cities not to have a library (almost) we managed to keep our libraries open very limited hours until we managed to pass a increase in sales tax to keep them open. It was embarrassing, it made the news all over the world. We are home to John Steinbeck, I live within blocks of his home and museum.

So when I say I have almost no one to discuss books with I am not kidding.

Susan

 

[Susan Gerbic]

I did it, I am all done! Thanks Fran R for starting this thread, cause this was something that needed to be done. My boyfriend is going to be so happy that I am finished with this project. I don't think I have ever underestimated a project so badly. Google has a lot to improve on, but hopefully they will get a move on.

My library link is in my signature. At first I was upset because Google has no way of allowing the top rated books to be pulled up, so I fixed that using the labels. Now when people say, what do you like to read, or who are your favorite authors I can just give them the link and that is that. Now if only Google will allow us to be able to search for a specific book.

Susan

 

[Francesca R]

I've just looked again at your lib Susan--awesome! At the rate of a book every two weeks it will only take me another 40 years or so to match you.

 

[Kotatsu]

For bragging purposes, I'd like to call my library to everyone's attention once more (link provided earlier in this thread). We have recently started clearing out the library here at the zoological institute, and apart from some books which will be kept in the new library, we were allowed to take whatever we wanted. So I spent most of yesterday going through those old books, picking out what I wanted to keep. Today, I have added them to my library, making me go above 1700 book. I still have about 100 to add, but I would like to draw attention to some of the more interesting finds:

- Anthropogenie in two volumes by Ernst Haeckel, including, as I understand it, reproductions of his infamous embryo comparisons. This is the expanded version from 1903, though, which makes it less exciting. Still, it's good to have those books --- in beautiful covers! --- printed while he was still alive. And people were prepared to just throw it away!

- A small book (in Swedish), attempting to put the new "Darwinism" into a proper "rational idealistic world-view" context. The book --- or perhaps pamphlet --- is from 1874, and about 40 pages long.

- Five ENORMOUS books (A3 format!) by Paul Rosenius, containing all kinds of information about Swedish birds and, most importantly, their nests. These books are too heavy for me to carry more than one at a time, but the old photos (the books are from 1929-1942) are quite interesting.

If anyone is interested in either D. L. J. Quickie's "Principles and Techniques of Contemporary Taxonomy" (1993) or Brohmer's "Fauna von Deutschland" (1953), I have several copies. I doubt the latter is of much interest, but the former may still be useful. The alternative is that we'll throw them away, so... There's also quite a lot of old books on histology and similar things, if anyone is interested.