I lurv old books. I've collected a fair few, including a first edition Lady of the Lake. Most of my books are kept at a friend's house because my place is shit and has too much damp, although I have about 20 or so here. I can't afford the expensive ones. The oldest book I have was only 50 Euro from a rain soaked market in The Hague! I think it was printed pre-1619, as one of the many messages written in the front few pages is signed off 1619. As below. I can't read it because I think it's Portuguese. I lost it for a while and then found it stashed in a place it shouldn't have been, so I hope I didn't make the damage worse. Dammit. Edit: Ok so below are two stashes of books in house atm. I've only read half of these. I normally just thumb them for reference. I've only read all of: Tourist trap, Gulag: A History, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Flashman, Castaway, Women, Mercenary, 1988, True Stories, The Campaigns of Alexander, The Conquest of Gaul, and Letters from Byron. Below is a stack of older (and other) books. Most are not very old at all, but the good ones are in plastic because of the damp and bugs (yeah, I know...). I finished Tree and Leaf, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, all the works by George McDonald, as well as Catcher in the Rye, The Gift of Nothing (one of my favs!), The old age of El Magnifico, and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: a history in pictures.
I'm not great with handwritten script, but if you can take a good close up of it I might be able to translate. My Portuguese isn't great, but I can give it a good try!
Cool, I'll try now. I don't know if the handwritten is Portuguese, or even the book... gimme a moment....
Here's mine. I have over two thousand books I had to put in storage when I moved recently, I don't have the space in the rented house for a library. But as soon as we buy again, hopefully in a year or so, they'll take their rightful place on the shelves. These are just bits and pieces I need for my novel and random bits of stuff. These days I buy books on Kindle wherever possible, and only buy hard copies of those I really loved, and Murakami, since I can't read him on Kindle at all, I need to hold the books in my hands for some reason.
@GingerCoffee. All those great books and I get the biggest kick out of Woodstock. I haven't seen the little guy in years.
@jazzabel , inside criminal mind, what kind of book is that? Non-fiction about understanding criminal minds? Is it good?
It is one of the manuals intended for profilers, criminologists and forensic psychiatrists, but Crime Classification Manual is much better.
Here's my bookcases... Now let me explain.. The tell white bookcase is actually built into my apartment and that's my primary bookcase. The second short black one w/ my printer on top I don't even think of as a bookcase, it's mainly for my magazines and some miscellaneous items. Now the large black empty bookcase I just bought for $5 off of a friend who had also just graduated with me, and she moved and needed to sell off some of her furniture, that's also where I got the small dvd/cd/bookcase (also $5). I'm planning on rearranging my bedroom and putting the large black bookcase into my bedroom, not sure about the dvd shelf. It might go into my bedroom as well as more to hold decorative stuff. I honestly don't own a lot of books. I was in college the last 10 years (on and off, but more on, and the last 4 years straight) and there wasn't really any time to read for fun. Now in my Creative Writing classes for my minor I did get some interesting books to read that I didn't finish. Now that I'm out of college my plan is to finish reading all the books I currently have, THEN I'll start buying new books. I know it's going to be hard! Also I'm not as big of a reader as most "good" writers are because of learning disabilities I am a very slow/steady reader, and I get overwhelmed by too much on a page, so when I read I have to use a note card to hide the text I haven't read as I read along, otherwise an entire page of text is too overwhelming for my brain. Now as far as comprehension of what I read, I'm off the charts on that, just a slow/steady reader who gets overwhelmed easily. So that's kept me from reading a lot like other writers I know.
I love all things mysterious, I just don't believe in the occult explanations. One of my favorite books as a kid (I've mentioned before) was This Baffling World; John Godwin. Back then I believed in the mysteries, now I know there are natural explanations. They're still fun, like the moving stones at the Race Track in Death Valley: I took my son there, 25 miles down a dirt track inside Death Valley. I took him to Roswell, NM, (supposed UFO crash site), Area 51 and The ET Highway. We also tried to find the tortilla with the face of Jesus in some small town we passed through but it no longer existed. In Iceland we stopped at the Sea Monster Museum and The Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft. We've stayed twice in the Manresa Castle, in the haunted tower room. I have a xeroxed copy of the guest register for the two rooms with reported activity. It's fascinating, some guests saw and heard things, others didn't. We did. Late at night something stomped overhead in the attic, too heavy to be an animal. And the attic door was locked, I checked and asked. But I do know the explanation, not what you'd think. How could you miss those places if you were passing by?
Oh wow. All ya'll's bookshelves are making me jealous! I have no where near that many books... A lot of mine are digital on my Kindle, but even if they weren't I don't think I could compare with everyone here. I'd be too embarrassed to post a picture of my bookshelves. I miss being able to just browse used book stores. They are a rare thing nowadays.
Awesome thread !I'm going to try to revive this thread by showing off my main bookshelf collection: These are mainly non-fiction business, self-help, philosophy, and politics. Some fiction. My childhood fiction collection and college textbooks are stored elsewhere. There's definitely a handful that are on my "read someday" list.
@GingerCoffee ah seeing those goosebumps books brings back memories.. yep this is my tiny little bookshelf.. pretty lame. my other books are in boxes
@Daniel, that bookshelf screams college student. @rhduke, I have the whole set, plus a gazillion Goosebumps products. Don't ask me why because I have no good answer.
Thread resurrection! @minstrel, what do you think of those Library of America books? I have two of them myself now and simply adore them.
Okay, but some of pics of bookshelves were not visible for me I haven't the specified bookshelf. A part of my books is in two box in the backyard and basement and the other part is dispersed in the various places of the home. I have decided frequently to buy or make a bookshelf but I didn't succeed to do that up to now. Sorrily, in recent years, I was not in the mood to read any book
Here're a few pics of my and T's bookshelves. In hindsight, I could've removed the grippers, but then again, they're kinda cool. This shelf contains an unusual amount of books in Finnish, it seems. Sofian Maailma , for example, is Sophie's World. These shelves are kind of messy, I know. We're too lazy to keep it arranged 'cause we constantly pick up books from there for reading. Couldn't fit the bottom row to the pics, and no, our floor doesn't tilt to the right in case someone wondered whether our house is halfway into a sinkhole. There're two more bookshelves in our house I didn't snap a photo of for the simple reason that they're the untidiest of 'em all. They also contain the coolest and the most embarrassing books in our collection, so maybe that's a good thing.
Couldn't help but find this thread and have a sneaky look through it. There are some beautiful personal libraries here.
Here's my growing library of golden age science fiction titles. What appear to be imperfection in the spines are actually visual artifacts of the plastic sleeves in which they reside for posterity. I'm very finicky as to what I collect. (Though there are three right in a row that are a little rough. They were gifts.)
@Wreybies - I almost weep with nostalgia when I see your collection of those old Ace doubles. I read a big batch of them when I was a kid. I wish I still had some of them - Eric Frank Russell was a favorite, as I recall. I have to get on Ebay and start outbidding you!
