The Culling

We are rearranging some things in our house and it looks like there won't be limitless storage for my library or my comic book collection.  I have gone through and seperated all of the books that I want to keep.  Any book that I thought a friend would enjoy, I gave to them.  I will try and sell the rest of the books on Amazon or Craigslist.  I now have a little over 50% of the original pile.  My comics are a different story.  It will take a long time to go through them and then it is silly to remove books to sell because the current comic market isn't so hot.  I will probably want to keep anything worth any money anyways.  I will have to sell them in lots for cheap. 

I seriously need a bigger house with a room for just my stuff. 

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Booking Through Friday (but magically backdated to Thursday)

Books as collectables

 

Hardcover? Or paperback?

Illustrations? Or just text?

First editions? Or you don’t care?

Signed by the author? Or not?

 

I have hardcovers and I have paperbacks.  I have illustrated books, I have plain text books.  I may have some first editions, I may have some advanced reader copies.  I have signed and unsigned books (mostly unsigned).  Heck, I even have some books in electronic form. 

 

At one point I wanted to own every book I have ever read in Hardback form.  Wow, how silly of me.  Now, I loath buying hardcovers and am as likely to give away a paperback as let someone borrow it.  The exception being Trade sized paperbacks, they are just too expensive.  I think it is important to have a nice home library, but you have to draw the line somewhere.  There is a difference between home library and home is a library.

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Booking Through Thursday

“How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?”

BTT site

 

Initially they are aranged by author with seperate sections for hard backs, nonfiction, and fiction.  It never stays that way though. 

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Booking on through

BTT

1. Do you have a favorite author?  Yes, Japanes author Haruki Murakami.  I would recommend Norwegian Wood, The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, and/or Underground. 

2. Have you read everything he or she has written?  No, not yet. 

3. Did you LIKE everything? I have really enjoyed every book that I have read of his.

4. How about a least favorite author?  I don't think this is a fair question. I mean if I don't like an author, I usually don't finish the book and am not likely to pick up another book by them. 

5. An author you wanted to like, but didn’t?  James Fenimore Cooper and maybe Jacquiline Carey.  I couldn't really get into either of their writing styles and they both came off as wordy with lack of substance.

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Keep on booking

What was the last book you bought?

I was at Goodwill the other day and got 1) A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time

2) Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

3) Indian in the Cupboard

 

Indian in the Cupboard: 2 in 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name a book you have read MORE than once

Watership Down, Dune, Starship Troopers, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Lesson Before Dying, Where the Wild Things Are, You're Too Big, Porky Pig, Lama Lama Red Pajama.

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

I guess the Bible is pretty obvious.  Books usually just change my perspective on aspects of life, not life as a whole.  I guess I don't read enough philosophy

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

Sometimes I don't even know, but it does remind me of a post I once did.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Fiction, although I enjoy some non-fiction as well.  Black Hawk Down was amazing.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

Gripping plot, try reading some Henry James and you will see what I am talking about. 

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

Hiro in Snowcrash and Hazel in Watership Down

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

Dauntless:  The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell.  I finished it on Tuesday.  I finished Battlefeild Earth on Sunday.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

Yes,  Kushiels Dart comes to mind.  I tried and tried to give the book a little bit more time to draw me in, but it never did catch.  Sometimes you have to let the book go and move on to something else or you will just stall at that book. 

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Seasonal Reading Habits

"Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?"-BTT

It is harder to force yourself to stay at home, indoors during the summer.  You have the kids wanting to go to the pool, or go to the park, and the yard needs mowing along with hundreds of other chores.  When Autumn rolls in and the weather starts cooling down, all of these other activities are put on hold until the next year.  The chill in the air makes snuggling up in your favorite chair with a blanket and a book one of life's true pleasures.  The only problem is getting so comfortable that you end up falling asleep. 

My choice of reading material is as ecclectic as ever.  There is no real change with the seasons for me, at least not at a concious level.  I have a shelf full of books to read.  I try and pick the one that has been there the longest to read.  This shelf gets put on hold with things I read for book club and things that I run into at the library. 

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Booking Through Thursday

"Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.

So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.

And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?"

 

Um.... no.  I have always been able to seperate fiction from real life.  If anything it makes the presence of evil a more real thing and adds to the books.  I don't really read those terrorism type books though. 

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Booking Through Thursday on Friday

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

I listened to the Divinci Code because everyone was reading it.  I thought it sucked.  I usually base my book reading off of recomendations of friends or my interests.  Sometimes things are given to me free.  I propably read the first Harry Potter to see what all the fuss was about, that one worked out though.  Most books that non readers love are not very good. 

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Book Reviews

Caves of Steel (Robot City)

Isaac Asimov

Really good book that mixes the genres of mystery and science fiction.  This book takes place in the far future and the Earth is at its limits.  Man now lives in a completely enclosed eco system, in caves of steel you might say. Due to population, jobs are scarce and robots are feared for taking what little jobs there are.  Centuries ago people migrated to space, but due to eradication of disease and hence no immunities, migration was stopped.  Some "spacers" came back and live in a city right outside of New York, and one them was murdered.  Elijah, a New York plain clothes police detective, is partnered with R. Daneel, a robot from space town, to solve this murder. 

This book explores racism and classism as well as popultion management and robotics.  It is a quick and easy read.  I have never sought out who-dun-its, so I can't really say how it measures up there.  Asimov doesn't disappoint.

 

Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

Mike Mignola

This was pretty good.  Hellboy is mainly an action adventure comic full of wit and sarcasm with a touch of x-files thrown in for suspense.  I really like the artistic stylings of this book.  The story isn't ground breaking but is very entertaining.  You just can't help but cheer for Hellboy.

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Have You Read _____?

Have You Read _____?

http://elen.vox.com/library/post/have...

From Booking Through Thursday: What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell...

 

Norwegian Wood (Vintage International Original)

Haruki Murakami

I would have to say Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. 

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