Ramblings

[oyceter]

Again, books. I was rereading through my LJ (am I the only person who rereads her own LJ entries? Now that I say it, it sounds particularly self-interested and stuck-up), and I want to kind of jot down stuff I plan on buying.

Books, I mean.

I'm so incredibly happy I have an apartment with space and I don't have to move every year, although I'm moving this year anyway. But still! Next year I will have three rooms, and if the boy doesn't have too much stuff, I can maybe even stick bookshelves in his room! Then I can have my genre bookshelf, my YA bookshelf, my non-genre fiction books, my non-fiction bookshelf, my manga bookshelf, and my comics bookshelf. Or, er, shelf.

I went through a brief period of trauma when I couldn't decide if I should put authors like Susan Cooper and DWJ on the YA shelf or with the rest of my genre books. Right now they're living with my fantasy books (romance is on another shelf). Even when I was a kid I used to periodically pull all my books off the shelf and organize them alphabetically by author's last name (Mc incorporated into M, as opposed to before), then by series and chronologically within an author's work. Or sometimes I'd put hardcover and trade paperbacks before the mass markets, depending on my mood. Mostly I have mass markets because I'm cheap, so it annoys me when I have a trade paperback or hardcover of one book in a series because it sticks out and it is not pretty. I am very neurotic about my books -- I used to give this giant spiel to people before I let them borrow my books (no spine bending, no page folding, and it has to come back in mint condition!). Now I'm a little better, but it still annoys me to get books back in bad condition. I left my romances lying around my room in college and all my roommates read them, and now they're in awful shape. The boy said that when he was a kid he was taught it was good to break the spine so that the binding wouldn't fall apart later. I personally have no idea what he's talking about... anyone else heard this?

Can anyone else tell that I am extremely obsessive compulsive about some things?

Anyway, I really need to beef up my YA collection. I want to buy back all the books I loved as a kid in great condition. I want a new copy of Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard, because my cover fell off and is now scotch-taped on. I just treated myself to the boxed set of Anne books. I want LM Montgomery's Kilmeny of the Orchard. I want the Wise Child books. I want Sherryl Jordan's The Juniper Game. Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series. The Chronicles of Narnia. Cynthia Voight's Izzy Willy-Nilly. Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. More DWJ, particularly Howl's Moving Castle. More stuff I can't think of...

For sf/f, I want Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, GGK's Tigana in better condition, Robin McKinley's A Door in the Hedge (with Sunshine, these are the only two books of hers I don't have), Earthsea, the third George R. R. Martin book in PB, the second and third book of the Kushiel trilogy, Juliet Marillier's Son of the Shadow, and assorted others.

All books I've read, so the need is not pressing, but it really annoys me, not having a complete series. And I feel they are good investments. So I wait in my bookstore for them to drift in in good condition.

Comments

[thewildmole.livejournal.com]

Dude, are you me? *g*

Can anyone else tell that I am extremely obsessive compulsive about some things?

*Ahem*...Books organized in read/not read/to be re-read sections. In those sections, they are organized alphabetically...by subject and author.

I want to buy back all the books I loved as a kid in great condition.

BTD(oing)T. I made sure I got the Dark is Rising series again, Mary Stoltz' Cat in the Mirror, and some others. I want to find a copy of Saturday, the Twelfth of October by Norma Fox Mazer, Richard Peck's Ghost books, and one I can't remember about the Children's Crusade. (BTW, Chronicles of Narnia now comes in an omnibus edition - I bought one *g*).

Try half.com for good copies of books. They range from Like New to Acceptable and it just depends on what you want. War for the Oaks is available for $3.25 right now in Like New condition (and if you haven't read them? Might I suggest Bull's other books Finder, Bone Dance and Falcon. Her episotolary novel with Steven Brust, Freedom and Necessity, is also very good in a romance/scifi kind of way).

All books I've read, so the need is not pressing, but it really annoys me, not having a complete series. And I feel they are good investments.

You are so me *g*.

[oyceter]

I really need to have a read and unread shelf! No room yet... but soon, haha. I always used to get in conundrums over the Mc/Mac before M or integrated in M question and if the de Lune would be before or after Delo or something. Ah the workings of an obsessive mind.

I've read Finder, but I don't really remember it, and Bone Dance and Falcon are both sitting on my shelf waiting to be read... And I adore Freedom and Necessity. Borrowed it from the bookstore and ended up buying it because I loved it so much.

I'm kind of torn about getting books on the internet -- not that I have a problem with Amazon or anything, but I kind of enjoy the hunt in used bookstores and libraries. Of course, I figure when I get desperate enough, I'll go straight to half.com or abebooks.com or addall.com or something.

Hee ^_^. Now I want to see a picture of your shelves ;).

[thewildmole.livejournal.com]

Hee ^_^. Now I want to see a picture of your shelves ;).

Hee! I'll have to see if I can get the digital camera to work. But picture this: I have 3 of those bookcases you can buy in Office Depot that are tall and have six shelves each. I also have two VHS "bookcases". They have five shelves each for holding videotapes, but I've found that mass market and trade paper fit quite nicely in there - even some hb's. And that's just the stuff I've read and kept *g*. I think I have something like $600 in credit at the used store.

[oyceter]

Oh, very clever. I'm sadly still building up, but getting there!

[thewildmole.livejournal.com]

The Spousal Unit calls me the Human Print Vacuum *g*.

Oh, and hey! ('cause I keep forgetting to tell you. TWM = brain like steel sieve :P). I found two authors you might want to investigate - Karen Traviss and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Traviss is a new author who just put out a book called City of Pearls. I've read a couple chapters and it's got an interesting setup.

Rusch has a couple series out. The ones that caught my eye were the "Retrieval" series and "The Fey" series. Reviews seem to indicate that they're of the scifi or fantasy genre that is more complex versus the obvious hero and the obvious dilemma. I ordered a few of her books (used) from Amazon sellers.

And your icon makes me smile *g*.

[oyceter]

Ooo thanks! I will check them out.

It's actually this little toy I gave the boy! Too cute... got it in Japan, since it seems these type of things are their specialty.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You are me! My sister rolls her eyes at me because I still give her the "Don't bend the spine" spiel, even though she's heard it our entire lives. I don't separate out most books by genre--I separate out romance, but most of the other fiction is shelved together. I do separate mass market from hc/tpb, because you can fit more on a shelf that way. Poetry, plays, Victorian novels, mythology & fairy tales, and nonfiction have their own sections, although I'm kind of lax about the nonfiction -- if I have ten novels by an author and three books of essays, I shelve the essays with the fiction. And of course the unread is separate from the read, and the graphic novels are shelved with picture books and oversized other. Oh, and it's all alphabetical by author, and withing chronological by series and/or date of publication.

So, um, yeah. A little obsessive.

Also, I do reread old LJ entries.

[oyceter]

Yeah, all my friends used to do that to me too! I'm a bit more relaxed now, but the warning goes on very firmly with my Sandman series -- hurt them and you die!

I used to shelve all the fiction together (romance included), but right now I've got sci-fi/fantasy, romance, general and YA. Of course, it may change sometime during experimentation. I'm still debating on separating HC and TPB... I've got non-fiction by subject and graphic novels with my manga artbooks. Except Sandman -- Sandman gets a pretty display shelf in my display bookcase (the series, the two Death ones, Sandman Companion, Dustcovers, signed Death: High Cost of Living, signed Stardust). Sigh. I shoudl stop collecting Neil Gaiman stuff -- I have two copies of Stardust (one in HB, signed, and one the illustrated version).

Hee hee. I always have fun going to libraries and bookstores and kind of figuring out their classification system -- the Mc/Mac and M question, is Jennifer Crusie in general or romance, what about the Mira reprints, where are the anthologies, etc. etc. I am such a dork.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Let me know on the Carey... I've got both and I don't think they are keepers for me.

[oyceter]

Thanks... still debating. I'm not quite sure if they're keepers, but I already have the first one, heh.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I was rereading through my LJ (am I the only person who rereads her own LJ entries? Now that I say it, it sounds particularly self-interested and stuck-up)

Not at all. I spend many happy hours re-reading my LJ at work when I'm bored. Then I change the icons and fix the spelling errors and index all my entries in my memories section. I've also downloaded the whole thing to my hard drive so I can have a permanent copy (assuming I don't accidentally hose it with my zip program).

[oyceter]

Permanent copy? Download? I can do that?

Yep

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Go here: http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=8

Re: Yep

[oyceter]

Thanks!

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I am almost you! We grew up with enough used copies with pre-mauled spines that we just gave up on trying to keep books in really pristine condition. Good taste in books. And my husband is always bemused by my book-reorganization tears. I'm trying to figure out how to handle the nonfiction bookcase, because I can't quite fit linguistics/languages and history/military-history on the same shelf, and...well, I'll stop there. :-)

[oyceter]

Ooo that's good too... less money to waste ;).

*giggles* I know how it is! I got so frustrated because my nonfiction wasn't fitting and I had to move some anime critique stuff with my manga instead of non-fiction.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I re-read journal entries, catalog my books and DVDs and CDs in eccentric ways, and own and love almost all the books you mention. By the way.

[oyceter]

^_^. Good to know I'm not the only one.

[knullabulla.livejournal.com]

Even when I was a kid I used to periodically pull all my books off the shelf and organize them alphabetically by author's last name (Mc incorporated into M, as opposed to before),

As the Official Minion of All Things Boring (OMATB) at work, I have to do all the filing. And OH how it annoys me when I see that the previous OMATB had placed all the Mc and Mac at the front of the alphabet.... only to change her mind at some point and actually start doing it correctly.

As for my books... I've got them organized by country of origin, genre, author's last name, publication date. Plus even more sub organizing for books that I have lots of critical sources for (i.e. all my shakespeare texts)

[oyceter]

Woooow. I am quite impressed.

Ugh, I hate it when the alphebetization is inconsistent. I think it's the grammar freak in me or something.

Me too!

[ann1962]

I first organized them when my daughter was napping. And then when we moved here I insisted the movers keep them in order. They had issues with that but I insisted. We purchased enough shelving to keep them in order by author for fiction and by subject (almost library of congress order) for non-fiction. Other than the kids moving them around, I have been able to keep this order. Former librarian angst.

Re: Me too!

[oyceter]

*giggles*