What's on your: book shelf? · 8:54pm Mar 4th, 2014
This may come as a surprise but I don't have a lot of books, by and large, especially as compared to how many movies I have. There are a few explanations for this. First of all, many of the movies were gifts or from bargain bins. Books were gifts too but, books are a little more expensive than movies. Also, I was and am a big proponent of public libraries. I could and have spent hours there just browsing the shelves and picked out many gems from random picking and checking on books near to others.
My book collection... wow. Ecclectic doesn't even begin to describe it. And I only keep a portion of my books on the shelf. Some paperback mystery novels and miscellaneous volumes are in a box in my closet. I also don't necessarily keep the books in the available shelves to read. They help fill out the shelves and would otherwise take up boxes I can't store anywhere conveniently.
I keep a mix of hardcover books, paperbacks, tankobon and the phonebook-sized Japanese 'zines. I'll start there, as their sheer size makes them take up a lot of "real estate" as it were. They're all from one (technically two, but very loosely technical) magazine anthology: Comic Yuri Hime. All girl/girl cuteness, allthe time. Note: Clean. I never actively sought out Yuri Hime Wildrose, the explicit work. I have 29 volumes of Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S (the distinction sort of eluded me; I think S was for more moe/schoolgirl crush stories and the main had more older teens and adults). Now... I can't read them. I can pick out kanji and phrases here and there but mostly I like the art. That's also why I got some of the tankobon collections from Yuri Hime. My favorites in that vein are two volumes of Konohanatei Kitan (filled with animal girls and various spirits), and the one-shot whose title works out to "Prince of the Night, Princess of the Dawn" (which I got because it was by Mera Hakamada.) I do have English manga, of course. Though, mostly yuri, like Strawberry Panic and The Last Uniform (also by Mera Hakamada.) The non-yuri is taken up by Guru-Guru Pon-chan, an unusual story about a dog that can turn to a human with a special technological bone and who falls in love with the neighbor boy. It's a touching series.
Also taking up a lot of real estate is my Geronimo Stilton/Thea Stilton/Creepella Von Cacklefur series. I don't make excuses for that. I'm a furry and, honestly, those Italians can draw some sexy mice ladies. I stopped collecting them a while back for money reasons, but I have a good number. I also have a few foreign language versions. Two Geronimo Stilton books in Spanish (which I can read, with some dictionary assistance; they were great when I was taking Intermediate Spanish) and three Tea Sisters books in the original Italian (which I really can't read, beyond educated guesses based on Romance Language similarities): Two Life at College books (the soap opera series, as compared to the regular educational series) and one hardbound regular series book (I have the softcover English version; the hardcover is vastly superior because of an extra section of interesting educational stuff.) Getting them was a real adventure. It involved a friend in Germany buying them from Italy and sending them. Shipping ended up being more than the cost of the books, and because they're priced in Euros I got dicked on the exchange rate, like I did buying the Japanese books.
The comic of which I am most proud and enjoy the most is my hardback "Castle Waiting" volume one. You MUST get it. It's just amazing.
Before leaving illustrated works, there are some more signs of my furriness. Volumes of Ozy & Millie and Kevin & Kell. I'm actually missing two O&M volumes and can't imagine where they might be. What's really nice is that my three O&M volumes are autographed (I bought they from Dana herself, pre-transition), and two of the K&K volumes are autographed (one came that way, the other was purchased for me at a convention by a friend from Bill Holbrook, who signed it to me.)
Now: The Books Proper. They aren't all stoic and stodgy classics. I have a mix of humor and escapism as well as nonfiction and classic stuff. For example, I have books by Erma Bombeck. My mother introduced me to her works early and I still love them. I've also got several H. P. Lovecraft volumes. He is singlehandedly responsible for swinging my area of focus to the pulp era. Gotta love that neurotic little racist. Speaking of the era, I also have my favorite "little used bookstore" find: Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore (a book I had been specifically seeking for a while. It's quite significant, being a sword-and-sorcery heroine written BY a woman, in the pulp era, and BEFORE Howard's Red Sonja.)
Nonfiction is a bit varied. Starting at the point that sounds a bit self-aggrandizing I have some books on philosophy. Most came from a friend who was a bit of a philosophy buff and liked to share. A few collections of essays and miscellaneous wisdom from Arthur Schopenhauer, two Nigel Warburton basic philosophy books (The Basics and The Classics) and a very special gift: Truth by Simon Blackburn, an uncorrected advance reading copy. Very nice. Then some classic nonfiction like Sun Tzu's Art of War and Machiavelli's The Prince. And some stuff to tie in with my atheism and irreligiosity. The Atheist's Guide to Christmas, Dawkins' The God Delusion and 101 Myths of the Bible.
Fiction, the mix of fiction... wow. Quite a varied mix. About all I have is classics or what could be called near-classics. The Canterbury Tales. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Dante's Divine Comedy. Cyrano de Bergerac. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Ovid's Metamorphosis. The near classics are The October Country (my absolute favorite Bradbury work) and a complete collection of poems and stories by Edgar Allen Poe (everyone should have one, if only to see that, however dark and depressive he may have been, he also knew how to write a magnificent comedy. He really was a genuinely funny man and pulled a few pranks in his day that made it into newspapers.) The non-classic: Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden. Lesbian love and dedication.
Other than all that, there are a few poetry collections, a math textbook (finite mathematics), a book on origami, a few books on modern Native American legends (I'm part Comanche but I got them for other reasons), a few Uncle John Bathroom Readers (yeah, yeah, but they're actually modestly educational) and a book on Irish words and phrases (which is where I get some of Gilda's phrases.)
Well... that covers it by and large. Tell me about your dead tree collections!
...The only things I read are fanfictons.
Med's books let's leave it at that
Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter Books 1 through 3.
House of Leaves.
All the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books
Some books based on the old Star Trek cartoon.
Baldur's Gate 2 Manual
The Legend of Drizzt books divided into 3 trilogies and one whatever you call it when it's 4.
The first and second Space Wolf Omnibus
And 3 Disk World books. Why do I have Men at Arms, Equal Rites, and The Fifth Elephant?
Note to self, buy a book of Lovecraft stories.
1895712 Get this man a good book, stat!
Two wrestling autobiographies "Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps" by Chirs Jericho and "Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks" by Mick Foley, both of which are a lot funnier and interesting than books actually aiming to be a comedy.
Several mangas.
The second Walking Dead Compendium.
Several Civil War book, which also double as a good mouse pad.
Murder mysteries .
Cheat code books.
Some terrible books.
Nothing really of note, except for the autobiographies, although I did recently add All Quiet on the Western Front and my favorite "Ginger Man Beats Black Haired Man to Death While the Police Look on."
Sadly not much on my shelves at the moment, mostly in boxes. My largest bookshelf finally gave out under the weight and collapsed. On the average day I tend to have a mix of my largest books (Cookbooks, textbooks, larger hardcovers) etc stuck on my smaller shelf simply because they are to large and heavy for convenient storage anywhere but a shelf. The other half of the mix is the stuff I read constantly. The rest are currently in storage in cardboard boxes.
I'm known as the book guy at work. I carry around a backpack with no less than 3 books inside, usually more, for when I am on the bus. Or waiting in line. Or pretty much have five min downtime anywhere. You'd be surprised how much of a novel you can get though if you pull it out every time your waiting in line for something.
Of my usual go to books, I've got a fair number of sci-fi fantasy. I'm a big Warhammer buff, since I tend to enjoy stories that don't have lawful good protagonists (bleh
) And Warhammer as a whole, even the best and most stereotypically heroic individuals tend to be a mixed bag of fanatics, people put in a bad situation and trying to make do, or are non-traditional protagonists.
One of my favorites, the Malus Darkblade chronicles, starts off the prologue with the 'hero', a dark elf prince, describing in detail to a human slave how they tortured his lover to death before throwing him off the ship to be eaten by sea monsters. The whole series is generally him murdering, scheming, and ruthlessly manipulating everyone to try to suit his lust for power. Over the course of the books he murders most of his family, is cast out of his royal privileges to become an outlaw, recovers a series of ancient sorcerers artifacts, starts 2 wars and a holy war that could forever change the fate of his entire people, and has to constantly stay a step ahead of an ancient manipulative demon that is using him with his soul and freedom on the line. It’s gritty, dark, violent, and I love it. His books led to my exploration of anti-hero characters like Ciaphas Cain the cowardly commissar and similar novels; Or Kage, a penal legion trooper who murdered a superior officer over a game of cards and is now stuck fighting in the worst battlefronts in the war as punishment, with the fate of worlds at stake if they succeed or fail. You’ll find a lot of stories about reluctant heroes and the like on my bookshelf; I tend to find the most interesting interactions are with heroes who don’t want to be there in the first place, let alone be stuck with saving the day. You’d probably find a fair number of such books if you glanced through my bookshelf.
If you felt like digging through my boxes for books I’ve read but don’t read often enough for ease of access you’ll probably find star wars, fantasy comedy, dark fantasy, some biographies, a couple dozen textbooks I kept for reference. Pulling open a random box now I see Calvin and Hobbes, a English handbook, In the Company of Ogres, A Dilbert collection, Ghosts of Onyx, Batman vs Predator, and a art book on drawing dragons.
What's a book shelf?
Well, the first thing that comes to mind for me is this giant book I have, which is a collection of Jules Verne's seven most famous novels. (Five Weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the Center of the Earth, To the Moon and it's sequel, Around the Moon, 20,000 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Mysterious Island.) It's one of my favorite books, but it's also one of the only books I know of to invoke the Square-Cube law on itself.
There's also Frank Herbert's Dune, which is a fantastic book if you haven't read it before. I know there's something like twenty sequels, but it stands by itself perfectly fine. Also a classic!
And of course, most, if not all, of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. which has the unique quality of being a series set in a universe, as opposed to the protagonist being the universe. Because it doesn't really have a single, defined protagonist; it has groups of characters, which things happen to, and they all play off each other while dealing with those. (Sergeant Vimes and the City Watch stand above most others, in my opinion.)
Oh, crap, lemme see now.........
I like just about anything (except for anything Harry Potter, or anything by the guy who wrote The Golden Compass; I hate both of those with a passion), but my reading habits tend toward the following:
Elfquest books and novels
Anything by J.R.R Tolkien
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novels and movie novelizations
Archeology books
History/military books
Drawing/art books
Horse books
Wolf books
Books about birds of prey
Weapons books (especially if they're about swords, spears or bows and arrows)
Viking/Celtic books
Books about Native Americans; their lives, cultures, dwellings; etc.
Um, I'm sure that there are more, but this is all I can think of for now.
well fuck I would be here all week because I live like Twilight in a second story flat above a library I don't own the shop but the owner took pity on me because for a while I was homeless and now when I'm not deployed over seas (Australian armed forces) I just help out so I read anything on the shelf's
Oh boy... books. Well, for those like 1896039 who like to read on the bus, I really, really advocate getting an e-reader. The older model kindles are fab, and even the paper white isn't too expensive. e-paper is so frickin' nice to read, so much better than LCD/LED/screens of any type!
But I am very much a dead tree collector. I have a bunch of stuff, far too much to actually catalogue. Sadly it's all stuffed into shelves and not really accessible at the moment, but includes a few non-fictions like "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" and programming books, and some child-care books from my well-meaning but often overbearing parents, as well as:
* quite a number of pratchett's books - mostly discworld but also others
* several of banks' Culture novels
* some golden-age scifi from the like of Clarke, Niven and Heinlein (I have "the moon is a harsh mistress" somewhere... hmm... as well as "the magic went away")
* books 1-5 (and 6 in Finnish) of the Harry Potter series (bought by my sister, the last one purchased second hand by me)
* a number of Alastair Reynolds books
* a number of (some signed) Peter Hamilton books
* several copies of various parts of LOTR
* some witchcraft books (including demonology and demonolatry)
* a version of the kama sutra somewhere with the, uh, other stuff left in that the Western versions usually omit
* various Greg Bear books
* several doctor who books
* various belgarath (and that... other series...) novels
* and one well-meaning purchase of a set of stories by Stephenie Meyer. I haven't read it. I also have a few wishy-washy new age bullshit books like kryon. Same person. Sigh. Face palm.
...and a whole lot more. I've read and read all of them. Seriously, if you want me to love you forever then buy me a book. Just never let me catch you bending the cover over backwards
A big enough collection but the only thing I care to mention from it is the complete Deltora Quest. First series adapted for television as an anime.
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House of Leaves automatically makes you super awesome.
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Had I the money for an eReader I'd have every book ever eBooked ever
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One that I sort of passed over is a Japanese book of Shiba Inu photos. I love those things. They look like they're smiling.
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they're like $65 if you want the older official kindle, new. Chinese knockoff ones cost less, you don't have to get the fire. And, uh, you can always put ebooks you already own (including fanfics!) onto them too like I have
1898612 Yeah, they're cuties, alright. i'd love to have a book on them!
However, given that I wouldn't pay $65 for an Elfquest or TMNT book (two of my favorite fandoms (even of I had it to spare (which I rarely ever do)), I sure wouldn't pay that much (even used) for a book like that.
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It was actually about $15 as I recall. I got dinged on the exchange rate but not too badly. Mids was talking about the Kindle, which is a surprisingly good deal.
1899357 Ah, okay. $15.00 does sound a bit better, and more reasonable. I think that I could swing that.
Yeah, exchange rates'll get ya, won't they? Hope you didn't take too bad a hit with them.
Oh, okay. I don't have a Kindle (or a Nook, for that matter; wish I had either one, though), so I didn't know what he was talking about.
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They can't just blatantly make up stuff, butthey can be a bit free about the rate, plus taxes and import fees. As long as they post their rates.
1901588 Well, that's true, on all counts.
Thanks for the heads up, btw. I'll be looking into that Shiba Inu books soon.
The Wheel of Time, the majority of the Star Wars books pre-shit, ahem, pre-Vong, the Warcraft novels, various and sundry high fantasy, The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear, lots of 'classics' that I had to get for school, random SF like Bradbury, old news by today's info dinosaur books, various wolf, weapon, art, Star Wars and dragon reference books. I have P&P books out the ass, most of 3.0 and 3.5 D&D, some White Wolf, and D&D Modern. Lots of manga as well, many harem comedies like Love Hina, some not like Bunny Drop, Trigun, and Hellsing.
Edit: Almost forgot my kitchen resources and cookbooks. I've got this massive Escoffier tome that is amazing.
Since it's sort of on the subject, even though the eyes have gone from this, have any of you ever read a book about a dragon keeper boy where dragon's blood burns, but dragon saliva heals (and vice versa with human saliva on dragons)? I read them 20 years ago and got them in the library, but only knew them by their content, cover, and position in the library, I lost track of them when they moved. They also had an animated segment on Saturday Morning TV once, something like Reading Rainbow but not. The internet fails me, how about you guys?