|
You heard me. Let's post our bookshelves.   This is only my books in this country, but I still have to shelve them two deep, hence the before/after shots.
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2017 06:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 23:48 |
|
|
Why not? I live abroad, so, aside from a couple select hardbacks that I have collected, I don't actually have a bookshelf. Instead, I'll post my kindle library. I organized it alphabetically by author.
I apologize for the load of words, but hopefully this will help whomever is going to end up being my secret santa. Going through the list made me realize that I own a lot of books that I don't really like. I blame Amazon's Deals of the Day/Month. It probably took me around $100, but I learned not to take any chances on cheap books that I don't know anything about.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2017 08:11
|
|
|
 theres one more but its full of family pics that im not gonna post
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2017 22:39
|
|
|
Most of my books are in a bunch of boxes in my closet but here's the shelf:   I tried roughly to keep it in an order of nonfiction (Indian -> ancient/medieval -> Middle Eastern -> European -> military -> general), then fiction (Indian -> Middle Eastern -> general), with the last shelf reserved for religion/spirituality, but it breaks down almost entirely in the third and fourth shelves where I bought some new books and didn't feel like moving whole shelves around to get them where they belong. Also a selection of comic strip treasuries from when I was a kid that I can't get rid of because of nostalgia just kind of thrown in there.: Punished Chuck fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Nov 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2017 03:01
|
|
|
Sure, could be fun. I want to see what I have to hate and envy you all over owning. I'd like to see people talk about their stuff too, not just showing it. Pulp and noir collections, Sherlockian pastiches and just a little bit of scholarship (I like the pastiches more than the Great Game, even if most are bad and just a warning of what not to do when I write my own, like Sherlock vs. Jack the Ripper version MCMXIV). The Black Lizard books at the top blotted out by the light are mostly Jim Thompson. A lot of Centipede Press stuff because I love their releases. Actual pulp magazines are all in the basement.  Mythos and mythos inspired, plus other horror. I should probably purge more of those Chaosium collections in the top middle, but there's just enough good stories scattered amongst them to make that annoying. A lot of mid-Victorian to Edwardian stuff at the bottom is buried by the David Morrell and the KE Wagner-edited anthologies in front. Cut off at the bottom left is one of my favourite books, big enough to club someone to death with: http://centipedepress.com/anthologies/wtcircle.html (still available!)  History: Will & Ariel Durant's Story of Civilization plus Churchill's WWII memoirs, then Early Modern warfare through to Napoleonics, then English Civil War/French & Indian War/American Revolution/War of 1812, then American Civil War, some random British empire stuff, misc naval, and military theory and doctrine at the very bottom, mostly cut off. In the left corner: Bloom County etc and proud nerd poo poo.  More history: Greek & Roman, Medieval/Byzantine/Arab/Turkish, First World War, then three shelves of Second World War. I have another full shelf of misc history (Vietnam War, assorted commie stuff, airpower, etc) boxed up in the basement, and another at school (on Iran and Poland; got a nice Polish complete Sherlock Holmes and a Polish translation of Joshi's Lovecraft biography too). Most niche titles here would probably be "The Finnish Guard in the Balkans, 1877–1878" or "Armaments and Politics in France on the Eve of the First World War". I should probably get rid of those Oxford dictionaries of Byzantium because they take up a lot of precious space, but every time I go to do so I start having fun reading them, only to never look at them again until the cycle repeats itself.  Random paperbacks. On the left at the back is old sword & sorcery stuff; in front of it is just random bits. On the right is mostly detective and the like: there's two more rows behind this of all John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee etc). Best titles on display: "Cockfighter", "The Lustful Ape", and "The Sunday Pigeon Murders" (for the latter there's a sequel, "The Thursday Turkey Murders", which I sadly have never come across). Don't have any decent photos of my political history, or my sci-fi and fantasy, but for the latter it's mostly the usual anyways, except for a Centipede Kane collection and a huge pile of Flashman and Fu Manchu. Also have a bit of weird not pictured, like 80s church hysteria books on D&D and the satanic terror of Grand Funk Railroad. Xotl fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Nov 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2017 05:13
|
|
|
Wow, just seeing these bookshelves makes me super jealous. I'm going to have to eventually move into a bigger place where I can start my own collection.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2017 06:59
|
|
|
Xotl posted:
It bothers me that the Woolrich titles aren't grouped up like Jerad released them. Also, FYI, Haffner has released two very affordable volumes of Woolrich's short stories. I'm out of town right now, but will snap a few photos when I get home.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2017 03:46
|
|
|
 Just one of my shelves. I have another shelf full of art books, and another with graphic novels, and a few stacks not shown.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2017 06:12
|
|
|
 the study; there are a few more in the living room. the two shelves in the middle are a fossil/rock collection and a uranium glass display with a black light built into the shelf above. can't really see the glass glowing during the day, though    
chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Nov 11, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2017 19:05
|
|
|
I'd estimate this is about half of my collection, the rest is in storage. Best books on display:  Best books in the living room:   Non-fiction and assorted:   Philosophy:  Fiction:   Foucault/Beckett/Communism:  To-Read shelf (and Shelf of Shame at the bottom): 
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2017 16:24
|
|
|
My parnter and I haven't organised things yet from moving in but downstairs is the fancy looking ones with favourites and upstairs is everything else 
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2017 20:25
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2017 21:03
|
|
|
built ins? nice.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2017 02:14
|
|
|
This is part of what I have, the ones more worthy of display. These shelves aren't in any particular order, except that they fit.   These are in somewhat of an order. Top shelf is fiction, except for two titles on the right end. Well, one's a 1950s child's book, Prehistoric America and the other is a J. Edgar Hoover book about communism, so yeah, all fiction.  Middle shelf is from left, Georgia history, U.S. history, European history, sports books. The big pile of blue books on the bottom are childhood biographies of famous Americans. I salvaged these from a library looking to toss them as they're from the 1950s and barely accurate looks at our noble American heroes as kids. Old medical books are in the middle. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2017 02:56
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Also, FYI, Haffner has released two very affordable volumes of Woolrich's short stories. Just wanted to thank you for letting me know about this, because he wrote so many short stories and so many of them have escaped collections. However, I've never heard of these collections, and I can't find any sign of them on the Haffner webpage. Are you sure it was Haffner?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2017 18:31
|
|
|
RC and Moon Pie posted:The big pile of blue books on the bottom are childhood biographies of famous Americans. I salvaged these from a library looking to toss them as they're from the 1950s and barely accurate looks at our noble American heroes as kids. Old medical books are in the middle. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind covering these biographies a bit more. I always love to see how attitudes shift over time with something as measurable as this, especially with the idea that these were intended for kids. Any particuarly outrageous samples?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2017 18:33
|
|
|
Xotl posted:Just wanted to thank you for letting me know about this, because he wrote so many short stories and so many of them have escaped collections. However, I've never heard of these collections, and I can't find any sign of them on the Haffner webpage. Are you sure it was Haffner? Doh! I got Woolrich and Frederic Brown confused! Sorry 
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2017 23:32
|
|
|
Xotl posted:I was wondering if you wouldn't mind covering these biographies a bit more. I always love to see how attitudes shift over time with something as measurable as this, especially with the idea that these were intended for kids. Any particuarly outrageous samples? I had read a few as a child, but really hadn't cracked any open until a few minutes ago. Since they're from the 1950s, the definition of "famous American," is quite different. Men and women of action, really. Presidents, Revolutionary heroes and the books I have contain perhaps one or two authors. And very lily white, of course. Booker T. Washington is in there, but that's the only person of color I have out of 60 or so books. Most of the text are made up conversations, perhaps based on a real facet of personal history, but entirely fictional exchanges. The FDR one, for example, does contain this story: Wikipedia posted:Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. His father, had graduated from Harvard Law School in 1851 but chose not to practice law after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather.[7] James was a prominent Bourbon Democrat;[9] when he took along five-year-old Franklin to see President Grover Cleveland, the busy president told Franklin, "I have one wish for you, little man, that you will never be President of the United States."[10] However, the author turns it further into a conversation between tiny FDR and his parents. I'll see if I can find anything really egregious in some of the others. On one hand, I really can't tell you much about the childhood of Paul Revere or Oliver Hazzard Perry. On the other hand, there are books on Nathan Bedford Forrest and Stonewall Jackson.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 04:31
|
|
|
Xotl posted:
Are those phonebook-looking volumes on the far-left of the top shelf collections of pulp adventures, locked room mysteries etc. or are they books about those things? I don't recognise them but they look like the sort of thing I would enjoy.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 09:53
|
|
|
Wheat Loaf posted:Are those phonebook-looking volumes on the far-left of the top shelf collections of pulp adventures, locked room mysteries etc. or are they books about those things? I don't recognise them but they look like the sort of thing I would enjoy. They're Otto Penzler-curated edited short story anthologies, though they each have a small intro essay and the usual biographical stuff for each author. All of them are top notch, as you'd expect coming from probably the best mystery/crime editor alive today. So yes, I'd very much recommend you grab them. They're still in print, and very cheap for their size. Rogues and Villains just came out about a month ago. The Black Mask volume is particularly nice because (other than original Black Mask issues costing a fortune) there were two other Black Mask anthologies released over the years (one of which you can see right next to the phonebook version), and there's no overlap there, so if you own any of the earlier ones you're not getting a ton of repeats. If you have any other questions on specific contents let me know. RC and Moon Pie posted:On the other hand, there are books on Nathan Bedford Forrest and Stonewall Jackson. I'd love to see you take a look at the Forrest one, brave hero of the Confederacy and KKK that he was. Xotl fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Nov 15, 2017 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 17:29
|
|
|
Xotl posted:They're Otto Penzler-curated edited short story anthologies, though they each have a small intro essay and the usual biographical stuff for each author. All of them are top notch, as you'd expect coming from probably the best mystery/crime editor alive today. So yes, I'd very much recommend you grab them. They're still in print, and very cheap for their size. Rogues and Villains just came out about a month ago. Sounds good to me. I enjoy a lot of pulp pastiches (Kim Newman etc.) but my exposure to the pulps themselves is unfortunately limited to Zorro, Conan and some Tarzan and Doc Savage stories (as well as stuff that's in the spirit of the pulps even if they aren't pulps themselves - Sherlock Holmes and his imitators, Nero Wolfe, Maigret, James Bond etc.) and I've never been sure what the best way to actually read the originals would be. Are there any recognisable names in it (either characters or authors) or does it mainly feature stories that have been underserved?
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 17:47
|
|
|
There's numerous pulp anthologies out there. They tend to follow the same formula: a few stories from the big players, and then the editor's pick of unappreciated or once-big authors. Some focus on just a single magazine: for example, the anthology Hard-Boiled Detective you can see in the image you quoted contains only stories from Dime Detective magazine. Here's some Tables of Contents: Big Book of Pulps http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0718/2007021103.html Black Mask Stories: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/.../9780307455437/ Locked Room Mysteries: https://nook.barnesandnoble.com/products/9780804172790/sample?sourceEan=9780307743961 So you can see you're getting a good selection of the majors (Hammet, Cain, Chandler) a lot of second-tier guys that are still great, and then people that were probably obscure even in the 1930s and 40s. There's a few others in the line that I don't have, the one that seems most applicable to you being The Big Book of Adventure Stories (for all your savage-cannibal, weasels-ripped-my-flesh needs).
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 18:28
|
|
|
Looks good to me, thanks very much.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2017 19:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 23:48 |
|
|
Here's an album of my shelves. https://imgur.com/a/RHsna Top shelf is my wife's Stephen King collection. She has more but they're in a closet.  I think Between the World and Me is hiding behind Stonewall in this pic.  Here's the books on their side on the 3rd shelf.  Oh yeah that striped booklet with no text on the spine is a FORTRAN manual from the 70s. I found it in a flooded warehouse in New Orleans.  And here's a bunch of books that I need to shelve or finish reading. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2017 19:20
|
|
