BOOKS

[labellementeuse]

This is what I did with my extra fortyfive minutes this morning: unpacked all my books onto the bookshelf in the laundry. (The drier is in the garage, don't panic!)




That's about 170 books in my collection (okay, I stole some of them off my mother, but I know she won't miss them.) I estimate at least another 2-300 still at home. Of the ones here, I haven't read about twenty of them; about the same number is non-fiction (okay, maybe a little less. But The Science of Discworld COMPLETELY counts as non-fiction, right?); about the same number is poetry. Of the remaining 100, probably 60 are fantasy or YA fantasy and the rest is fiction or YA fiction. Man, going through these and unpacking them from the boxes sent me into complete joy spasms; I forgot I bought my Frances Hodgkins Burnett anthology, for example (Secret Garden, Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy; the big pink book centre right on the third shelf up).

Astute readers will notice that they're, um, not terribly sorted. Maybe I'll do that this afternoon- poetry, fantasy, fiction, non-fiction. By author alphabetical or subject alphabetical for the non-fiction, because I am not quite dorky enough to implement the Dewey system at home. (Not that it would make much of a difference: sixth_light mocks me for my nonfiction "selection," which I can only respond to by mocking her fiction selection, because at least I own non-fiction. Anyway, not even she sorts her nonfiction by Dewey. I think.)

TO THE BOOKSHELVES.

ETA: DILEMMA: where do I put my Blackadder scriptbook? :O so much confusion!
ETA2.1: The Screwtape Letters: fact (theology and/or satire), fiction (not actually real letters :p) or fantasy (apprentice devils!)? discuss.
ETA 2.2: The Little Prince/le petit prince: fiction or fantasy? fact (social commentary)?

ETA 3: done and dusted (literally), and may I say, if I never have to decide again whether Tom's Midnight Garden is fantasy or fiction my life will be a lot less complicated. (I picked fiction, in the end.)

Interesting things discovered:
-I have two copies of Anne French's Wild, a poetry collection, and Tessa Duder's Songs for Alex. If you would like a copy, drop me a comment (The closer you live, the more likely you are to get it. :P)
-I have both English and French copies of The Little Prince/Le Petit Prince. I think I stole the French from my school.
-Somehow when packing up my Tessa Duders, I managed to pack only books 1 and 2 of the Tiggie trilogy. *TWITCH* I know exactly where the third is at home, too.
-I am missing the first four Narnia books. *doubletwitch* I know my LWW has long since fallen apart but I know I have the others at home somewhere. Grr.
-I bought Abhorsen a month ago and I've already misplaced it.

Well. I'm going home for the holidays in a week and a half, so I know I can replace some of these. But still. *twitchy* I may start developing a tick.

ETA 1001: now meme-ified! If you recognise a bookcover from my shelves, I will write you a drabble or short fic (in a requested fandom. If I had guts, it would be in the fandom of the book guessed, but I'm worried about some of the selections. :D)

Comments

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Actually...yes, I do sort by Dewey. And I have a fiction section (thirty to fifty books), a non-fiction section, _and_ a sci-fi/fantasy section, so any mockery of my tastes will receive what it deserves.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Damn, I knew you would, you giant adorkable geek, you. Also, two words: poetry section. Also: well, I guess if you could Enid Blyton, the Swiss Family Robinson and Ngaio Marsh as a "fiction section," I'll buy that...

... wait, no.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

PS: The Screwtape papers: fact or fiction? (or fantasy?)

[sennical.livejournal.com]

I cry when I look at my giant bookshelf and think about how tiny my dorm room will be next year. Wherever I end up going.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Dude, you have no idea how bad it was last year. I had one shelf the size of the five- I ended up double-layering AND stacking books on top. This year it's a little better but, man, 2/3rds at LEAST of my collection still at home. It hurts, precious!

[shoeless-girl.livejournal.com]

The majority of what I own is books :D Friends hated helping me move flats as I generally had 10-20 boxes of books alone.

I recognise a lot of your collection. Have you read Sir Thursday yet?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm, books.

(I know that's Sabriel in your icon. But that cat is so not Mogget: he reminds me of the cats in Maurice Gee's Halfmen of O. Which is something else I forgot, now that I think of it...)

I have not, unfortunately... can't afford it and have no time for the library. Hopefully during the holidays I'll be able to get hold of it.

:D I love looking at photos of bookshelves- or at bookshelves in person- you can tell so much about a person by looking at their shelves.

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was called The Screwtape Letters. But that could be Americanized, because unfortunately everything is these days.

My room at my mother's house alone contains over six hundred books. I kid you not. I have two bookshelves and a huge closet full of boxes. Then again, books are basically the only things I own. I can barely remember the last time I purchased something that wasn't a) food b) hairdye c) a book. Seriously. It's an addiction.

Love to the YA books though :)

(I spy Monstrous Regiment! Yay!)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

hahahaha, oh, it is- I was attempting to solicit advice on where to shelve the damn thing.

Wow. I mean, I have a lot of books, but... wow, not that many. I wish I could admit to being that selective about my commerciality, but I can't- I own books and clothes and CDs. Other than that, what else is there?!

(heh, I just love bookshelf photographs. You should see a lot of other pratchett there, too, and you would if I had the American covers like I do for MR. :P)

[pyralid.livejournal.com]

I like the photo. Your bookshelf is lovely.

I have no suggestion for placement of any of the problem books; I tend to think everything is fact, even the wildest fantasies. I wish them into being...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

I know exactly what you mean. I ended up putting them all into fiction as my "half-way mark" but, seriously, I could completely put LPP into non-fiction without stretching. It feels true to me.

I realise you're just starting really, but...

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

The bookshelf next to my computer is roughly that size. However, I have the books in at least two rows deep on each shelf. And some piles. And there's a bookshelf a third of the size with textbooks and classical texts. And two cardboard boxes of stuff I don't read much in storage. And small piles of books around the house.


And I have nothing compared to the five bookshelve sin my mother's room, the two massive ones in her study, the three amoung the bedrooms and the two plus tens of boxes kept in the attic.

I have songs for an Mp3 cd. Would you play it as is (using vastly advanced technology) or would you have to go through and copy them onto something else to listen? It affects whether I folderize them, etc.

I'm so sad, replying to myself. I'll use a different icon, that'll help.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Also want to add that I have given up attempting to sort my books. I tried by author and popularity (if I like it it goes higher, hence easier to get) but there's just too many and the kid doesn't help things either...

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
2. The Amber Spyglass
3. Almost Like a Whale
4. A Wizard Alone
5. Lord of Chaos
6. The Book of Night with Moon
7. I believe that fat one is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
8. Something I can't identify by Diana Wynne Jones, darn.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Almost like a Whale? Wow. I bow to your superior book-identification skills! #7 is correct (well, you could conceivably be looking at HBP, but OotP is there as well) and #8 is Conrad's Fate. It could be The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, but if you could read "Diana Wynne Jones" on that one's spine you'd be able to read the title. :P

1. After the bother with Mr Strange (as she referred to it in her own mind, being possessed of a sense that the mere thought of magic or magician might be enough to call him back) Miss Greysteel quite despaired of her Niece. Flora had never been what one might call a biddable child; but after what her Aunt suspected she thought of as an adventure she had become quite unpredictable. Naturally Mrs Strange was a welcome addition to their household and yet, thought the elder Miss Greysteel, her attitude seemed somewhat odd for a woman who had lost her husband. On the family's return to England that summer, Mrs Strange lost no time before visiting all her friends and acquaintances in London. As Aunt Greysteel remarked to a particular friend of hers, "Of course, my dears, it is very commendable of her to be so brave, with Mr Strange so far away--" this is how ladies of a certain disposition liked to refer to Mr Strange and Mr Norrell, as if they had merely taken an extended trip to the Continent-- "And yet, do you know, Mrs Strange sometimes seems not brave but quite unconcerned!"

But of far more concern to Aunt Greysteel was the company Arabella persisted in introducing Flora too. Ordinarily Lady Pole, by virtue of her marriage, should have been considered quite the cream of society; and yet since the histories of Lady Pole and Arabella's troubles with the thistle-headed gentleman were somehow the gossip of London within hours of their return to England, both women were considered to be terribly fashionable but not a little disrespectable. Further, Lady Pole's apparent disregard for convention and her insistence on behaving in an independent manner that quite offended the elderly matrons of London- well, Aunt Greysteel certainly did not consider herself conservative, and naturally she only wished for what would make Flora happy- yet for every moment that Flora spent with Lady Pole Aunt Greysteel imagined her becoming more intractable and less respectable- and hence less likely to make a good marriage. (In this she was quite mistaken; Flora, Lady Pole and Mrs Strange being so fashionable, and Flora being the only unmarried woman among them, the younger Miss Greysteel found herself quite beset with offers of marriage; and not all of them would wholly have offended her Aunt.)

It is necessary at this point to recall that Aunt Greysteel was still Miss Greysteel; that is she had never married and being so concerned for her neice without mother to influence her, and imagining Flora as so much like herself (for she had no children of her own), she could imagine no fate worse for Flora, so beautiful and clever, than her own spinsterhood. So you can see that she must have viewed Flora's developing independence with increasing alarm; yet there was nothing to be done, as it was undeniable that Flora grew more happy and more beautiful daily in her companionship with the two other women. So Aunt Greysteel's concerns were of no effect; it was marked only by the way, as soon as anyone in her companionship brought up the topic of the ever-interesting English Magic, she could be heard only to say that "Certainly it's all very wonderful: but we must consider our young ladies!" before chusing a subject she found to be more tasteful.

560 words. Woo, I made my daily target! Any requests in another fandom, as you still technically have another 200 words? :P

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

The Tricksters!!!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

OMG YES. good pick, but please don't ask me to drabble in it because I think my head would explode. Other than that, requests? :D

That's such a good book... Mahy is my goddess/rolemodel.

[crankyspank.livejournal.com]

So freakin' jealous. Really. Your bookshelf makes me happ(il)y (jealous). So many lovely, lovely books.


Also, can we just talk about how I've never known another person who's even heard of Tom's Midnight Garden, let alone read it. SO COOL.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I like it, too. >:D

And, wow. Seriously? o.O Children these days are so deprived when it comes to reading...

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

OMG! top left! quite possibly my fav book of all time!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly me too! It's just the best I finished it today and duuuude so good.

(Uh. Did you want a drabble?)

[dragonwire.livejournal.com]

...it's scary how many of those I recognize. Also how many I own. And I'm vaguely surprised that my Pratchett collection seems to be larger than yours.
Also, kudos for attempts to organize! You are a beacon of light for the rest of us who follow the 'put it down somewhere, you'll find it again' system!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

It's a hivemind of books (well, when you think about it, most of the people here I met through a shared fandom. And most fandoms I'm in are book fandoms so we're going to share literary tastes...)
I have 7 pratchetts down here; I have a few more at home, but my Pratchett collection isn't all that enormous because a)my mother, brothers and sister own Pratchetts and there's no point doubling them up in the same house b) sixth_light owns Pratchetts, ditto. :P

Well, I organise my books once a year or so- which says something, ie that I have to reorganise once a year. :P I do try! But somehow all my best efforts sort of... fade... (and I can still never find what I need.)

[melata-fic.livejournal.com]

Legends II... is that the one with the Neil Gaiman story in it? Where Shadow walks around a bit but doesn't actually do a lot?
Conrad's Fate!
The Fifth Elephant, I'm guessing. That or The Last Continent, but it doesn't look right for that.
Something by Tamora Pierce?
A few other Discworld books, that I don't really know by size and cover. Except for The Science of Discworld, which isn't really the series, but a part of it.
More Tamora Pierce.
I'm assuming they're all the old Tessa Duder covers, too. :)

I have maybe four of my original books with me. Am very sad about this, and need to rebuild my personal library from scratch. Only trouble is, books these days are expensive. Time was, I could pick up a DWJ book for $2. Dude.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Good job! Fandoms requested? (If you pick a series I'll do TP, I think, but DWJ and Pratchett frankly terrify me.)

And, um, yep, that's the Legends- you made me laugh about the Shadow story :P And, man, you're so right about book prices... even second hand you're looking at almost $20 for a couple of books... *sniff*

[claystarling.livejournal.com]

Can you read Le Petit Prince in French? I struggled through it before I actually got interested in learning French, but really, it doesn't count as reading; I used a dictionary the whole time.

Now that I've been working on vocabulary I should re-read it. You've reminded me. :)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

We actually studied it in French class, but I'd already read it in English so I don't really know- i already know what it says :P I probably should re-read it too, actually...

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Hold on, I found a couple more that I recognize: Waifs and Strays (which I haven't read yet, but I've been meaning to), and of course A Wizard Alone. And I completely can't find any Potters. Damn, I fail.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Heeee. It's because they're the British covers; bottom shelf, third from the left and second from the right, OotP and HBP respectively!

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

ooh! Lord of Chaos! And, there's two Harry Potters, and BONWM, and AWAL, ooh! Discworld, and something that could either be Tamora Pierce or Patricia C. Wrede, I can't quite tell up there on the second shelf, and ...are either of those bottom left two books myths? Because I have a book of Mesopotamian mythology that looks just like them, I swear. *ponders*

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*g* you picked 'em all! Tammy, not Wrede; and the two on the bottom left are actually Shakespeare plays, looks like Hamlet or Henry V and A Midsummer Night's Dream; They're the Oxford editions, so maybe your mythology books are OUP too?

Fandom requested? (and a character request, since I'm running out of bunnies!)

[lady-larla.livejournal.com]

will take extra books.. is that close enough for you? you'd have to walk say 10 steps from the bookshelf to my room :)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

yeah, but you don't have a bookcase ;) Actually, I'm thinking of putting one in the hallway at some point over the next few years. You wanna share space, since you'll be here for the next however long (hopefully at least a couple of years... *crosses fingers*)

[blueyeti.livejournal.com]

*perves at your bookshelf*

*perves at everyone's bookshelves when I'm in their house in order to determine something about the owner of said house*

*recognises about 20% of your books, even though some of those I recognise have different covers to my copies of the same*

Oh, you've got Knife Edge, Malorie Blackman right down in the lower right corner... Is it any good? I'm 130 pages into Noughts and Crosses, and the book is driving me mad with it's simplicity and inversion of history (because it is an inversion of civil rights history, and not original at all). Do I strive on?

[blueyeti.livejournal.com]

*gets tempted ot actually write out the list*

Jonathan Strange
The Raging Quiet
Monstrous Regiment
Science of Discworld
The Fifth Elephant
The Amber Spyglass
Jingo
A Philip Pullman... I *think* Subtle Knife.
Guards! Guards!
Wizard of Earthsea
Legends II - which I believe has an addition by PTerry, so I'm not *just* reading the large title
A Tamora Pierce. If I'd ever read her I'd know what Empress that book is.
A Young Wizards can't tell which
Legends I - which I've never got my hands on.
A Short Histroy of Nearly Everything
Two more Tamora Peirce
HP - OtoP
A Keys of the Kingdom. I *think* the blueish one is Monday, but it might be Wednesday.
Conrad's Fate
Knife Edge
HP - HBP

I need a hobby...