Random books from AsYouKnow_Bob's library
Mother London: A Novel by Michael Moorcock
The tunnel of love by Peter De Vries
Shadow Climber (Bifrost Guardians) (DAW #749) by Mickey Zucker Reichert
HUNGER FIGHTERS by Paul De Kruif
Hell's angels : a strange and terrible saga by Hunter S. Thompson
From Alexander to Cleopatra by Michael Grant
The Mind Pool by Charles Sheffield
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Member: AsYouKnow_Bob
CollectionsYour library (14,419), To read (1), Read but unowned (22), Enthusiasm from childhood (147), Uniform Gifts to Minors (4), All collections (14,563)
Reviews169 reviews
Tagssf (7,694), science fiction (5,947), new (1,592), DAW (1,490), fantasy (1,445), history (1,268), anthology (1,232), 1995 (1,187), 2008 (1,157), 1996 (1,092) — see all tags
Cloudstag cloud, author cloud
Groups"I See Dead People's Books", 18th-19th Century Britain, 20th Century British Realism, Ace Doubles, Albany NY Area Science Fiction Fans, American Politics, American Revolution & Founding Fathers History, Anarchism, Annus mirabilis, Astronomy & Astrophysics — show all groups
Favorite authorsAbdul Alhazred, Kingsley Amis, Poul Anderson, Anonymous, Assorted Authors, Ann Beattie, Elizabeth Bowen, Buddha, Noam Chomsky, Avram Davidson, Richard Dawkins, Samuel R. Delany, Peter De Vries, Barbara Ehrenreich, Loren C. Eiseley, Brian Eno, John M. Ford, Frederick R Ewing, Alice Fulton, Gang of Four, God, God, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Stephen Jay Gould, Michael Harrington, George Herriman, Christopher Hill, Nick Hornby, The Jam, Joy Division, R. A. Lafferty, Ken MacLeod, John McPhee, George Orwell, Samuel Pepys, Barbara Pym, Keith Roberts, Sonny Rollins, Bertrand Russell, Marquis de Sade, Satan, Robert Sheckley, Cordwainer Smith, Sonic Youth, Neal Stephenson, Max Stirner, Charles Stross, The Smiths, Hunter S. Thompson, Gore Vidal, John Wain, Howard Waldrop, Gerrard Winstanley, P. G. Wodehouse, Various Writers (Shared favorites)
Favorite bookstoresAmherst Books, Bakka-Phoenix, Blackwell Oxford, Bookmarks, Chapters - World's Biggest Book Store, Fantasy Centre, Hay Cinema Bookshop, Librarium, North Country Books, Raven Used Book Shop, Strand Bookstore, The Cranbury Bookworm, Troubadour Books
Favorite librariesBerkshire Athenaeum, Bodleian Library, Library of Alexandria, Library of Congress, New York State Library
Other favoritesReadercon 20
About me"Book collecting is a full-time occupation, and one wouldn't get far if one took time off for frivolities like reading" - A.N.L. Munby
Which, these days, seems to be more than a little true: for the past few months, I seem to have been spending more time cataloging my books and reading the book groups on LT - and now book-swapping - than I have spent actually reading.
- - - - - - - - -
"As you know, Bob..." is one of the traditional ways to refer to the typical clunky exposition found in bad science fiction, when characters turn to each other to patiently explain the obvious. (SEE, for example: Jed Hartman's How I explained infodumps and saved humanity)
I use the name occasionally as a nom de internet, so I might as well use it here on LT, as I've certainly read more than my share of clunky exposition.
I'm a minor civil servant. My partner in this book madness is my wife [MaggieO] (who has a major library of her own); and we have three kids. Our house is now officially Full of books.
(People who visit us are at first staggered by the number of books. Then they usually manage to remark politely, "Welll...errm...I guess you can't HAVE too many books." Uh, no, sorry: we are living proof that you CAN in fact have too many books....)
I have a B.S. in Communication Theory, a reasonably numerate branch of the social sciences. (I washed out of Physics because I'm only reasonably numerate.) While beating my head against upper-division physics courses, I somehow picked up three minors - in Philosophy, in History, and in something called "The Human Dimensions of Science and Technology."
Our friends also tend to be fairly high-powered nerds; between myself, my wife, and our friends, we're interested in a wide swath of human activities, from flint-knapping and (fiber) spinning to nanotechnology and astronomy. You can of course get the gist of our interests from our tags.
E.g.: see the above photo of the 2004 transit of Venus: I made it myself, with some not-so-simple tools found around the house. Note that the photo is of an earth-sized planet half-way between us and our star: our entire planet set against the sun would be about half the size of that black dot. The photo serves as a reminder to keep things in perspective.)
About my libraryNo, I have NOT read everything here. (I've read more of it than you might think, though.) I custom-built a couple hundred feet of bookshelves for our family room. Yes, we have now officially run out of shelves (we've been forced to resort to the barbarity of double-shelving (*Gasp!* The horror!), and - until the kids leave the nest - we've just about run out of wallspace to put bookshelves. Consequently, some of the older/rattier/less-referred-to stuff has Gone to Storage.)
We are gradually coming around to the strategy of building a library put forth by Samuel Pepys: "For every book that comes into the house, a book will have to leave the house."
{Diaries February 4, 1668: I all day at home, and all morning setting my books in order in my presses for the fallowing year, their number being much increased since the last, so I am fain to lay by several books to make room for better, being resolved to keep no more then just my presses will contain.}
Right now, I'm using LT as a catalog of my BOOKS. I know that a "library" can include more than just books, but that's not how I think of LT.
For about a year, I seemed to have had the largest library of books on LT. This of course was temporary - in the real world, I know a guy who has about 40,000 books, and I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
I have a huge collection of SF, but my non-SF collection is a respectable library all by itself. If we're keeping count, I also have several thousand CDs, several thousand LPs, and probably 4,000? science fiction magazines. I have not yet included these in my LT catalog, although if I ever get some sort of hand-held LT-reader, that may change. (How is "porting LT to the iPod" going?)
Some highlights of my SF collection: I have all of the "Ace Science Fiction Specials" (all three series); (Somewhat surprisingly, this seems to be the only complete set on LT, even after two years here.) I think I have all of the Ace (and Tor...) SF "Doubles"; I have most of the DAW Books (all of them through #1,000). I have every "Year's Best SF" collection that I've been able to find (well over two hundred of them...).
It's said that "the Golden Age of science fiction is 'twelve'". Which is certainly correct in my case - I had been reading the stuff as soon as I could read, but discovering the Wollheim/Carr World's Best Science Fiction anthology when I was, yes, twelve, made my head explode. I've been hooked ever since.
So I seem to be strongest on the SF of the late '60s and then the 1970s - all the stuff that I read as a kid. (E.g.: I bought DAW #1 as a teenager, when I first spotted it in my local store.) As the field has grown, I've made relatively less effort to keep up.
There are some notable gaps for a major SF collection: no Rowling - those are the kids'. No Gaiman or Pratchett or Doug Adams, either - those are either my wife's, or the kids'. The magical-realists are under-represented, simply because they aren't to my taste. "Fantasy" is over-represented (for my taste), largely because for a couple of decades I was a DAW completist. (I'm better now.)
Some thoughts on taxonomy:
For a decade or so, I've kept a catalog of my SF (after a few thousand volumes, I could no longer remember just what I owned, and increasingly found myself accidently buying duplicates). "Tagging" my books has forced me to sit down and think through the taxonomy. My "SF" tag includes not only "speculative fiction", but all sorts of associational stuff: lit crit, biographies and memoirs of sf writers, poetry by Leonard Nimoy, horror by Ambrose Bierce, mainstream novels by PKD, writing guides, etc. So under my 'SF' tag, I place several major subdivisions: I have a couple hundred titles that are "non-fiction about the SF field" ("sf nf"); and the fiction proper is now somewhat arbitrarily divided into "science fiction" and "fantasy". Poul Anderson's Tau Zero is clearly "science fiction", Tolkien's The Hobbit is clearly "fantasy"; but in between, the border between SF and F is of course a question of taste. (Are the "Darkover" books SF or F?). So, each of my 6,000-odd {oops, now 7,000-odd} "SF" books now gets (at minimum) two tags.
I'm going back through to tag some information that applies only to the book-in-my-collection (and not to the work) - where and when I bought it, where I keep it, etc. Sorry if this personal info distracts from the 'tag cloud' for any particular book.
(One reason I immediately joined LT is because Tim used the word "folksonomies" in a sentence. Clearly, I belong here.)
My library is large enough that there really ARE books that I've forgotten I own. One of the pleasures of signing up for LT has been reacquainting myself with books on my shelves that I have not opened in decades.
I find the social aspect of LT to be endlessly fascinating - book lovers are certainly an interesting bunch of people.
UPDATE:
One of my kids recently insisted that we had to go to {major chain bookstore} - because there was nothing to read in the house.
Homepagehttp://asyouknowbob.blogspot.com/
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 AsYouKnow_Bob reviewed, rated, added:The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky  (read review) |
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posted by wlnd at 8:20 am (EST) on Dec 4, 2009
Just stopping in and saying hello!
I found your site online and really like the books you have chosen. Thanks!
http://www.empoweringparents.com/blog/
http://www.thetotaltransformation.com/op...
posted by polandspring at 4:44 pm (EST) on Nov 25, 2009
Re: leaving behind the large catalogue, let me put it this way - I have been spending more time here than on those 3700 books!
posted by existanai at 6:37 pm (EST) on Nov 12, 2009
we are talking about new writers, publishing, and the future of the library
irene
campuscoed07
I will have this author chat until Novl 6th thanks to abby Blanchy/librarything head librarian. So please drop by to leave a message & say a bit about your work, too
posted by CampusCoed07 at 10:19 am (EST) on Nov 3, 2009
posted by avaland at 3:53 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2009
Now THAT is the funniest thing I've read here in weeks.
Perfect. Absolutely Perfect.
posted by Makifat at 6:07 pm (EST) on Oct 24, 2009
btw, Comma Press in the UK is putting out an anthology — a partnership between SF authors and scientists — called "When it Changed" edited by Geoff Ryman. It due out any day. I've bought three books from this publisher in the past... Here's the info on the book:
http://www.commapress.co.uk/?section=boo...
Best, Lois
posted by avaland at 7:41 am (EST) on Oct 16, 2009
I am currently on vacation out of town. I have cataloged about the first third of my ace doubles. I hope to finish by the end of the month.
posted by fitzwater at 6:33 am (EST) on Oct 6, 2009
posted by Astrobob at 10:12 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2009
posted by LolaWalser at 4:50 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2009
posted by allthesepieces at 11:11 pm (EST) on Jun 21, 2009
posted by Esta1923 at 1:30 am (EST) on Jun 20, 2009
posted by nickhoonaloon at 5:04 am (EST) on May 26, 2009
posted by Nulla at 10:43 pm (EST) on May 25, 2009
i hope you find my "tiny" library just as interesting as i find yours!
in fact this is the internet-page i looked for for many many years ... just to realize, it's been here since 2005. :o/ better late than never ... really amazing page, i mean YOUR profile page as well as LT, of course ... ;o)
posted by Papst.Benedikt at 4:47 pm (EST) on May 17, 2009
posted by SomeGuyInVirginia at 11:31 pm (EST) on May 1, 2009
Ahhh, here's a prophetic verse for you (chorus from a song I don't remember):
"Amerika i Engleska bit će zemlja proleterska!" : "America and England will be(long to the) proletarian(s)!"
My uncle taught it to his colleagues when he was working for Dow Chem in Louisiana--he did not try to repeat this stunt in Libya. :)
posted by LolaWalser at 12:49 am (EST) on May 1, 2009
Wishing you and Maggie a beautiful May, Bob.
posted by LolaWalser at 12:23 am (EST) on May 1, 2009
posted by avaland at 7:15 am (EST) on Apr 29, 2009
I enjoyed your comment about my literary leanings. Tragically, I was recently subjected to a Gothic/children's lit/erotica [sort of] fusion in the form of *Pureheart* - one of LibraryThing's recent Early Reviewers offerings. My review, along with many of those by fellow reviewers, tells the tale of this painful read . . . As much as I like an eclectic mix of reading material, rest assured that I do *not* want to see it all between the same pair of covers!
All the best,
Robyn
posted by Robyn_Bradshaw at 6:29 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2009
posted by Morphidae at 7:35 am (EST) on Apr 20, 2009
You might be interested/amused to know that Bill was responsible for one of my many his-hearings of lyrics.( One of my friends believes my mis-hearing of lyrics can actually be better than the correct version - for a long time I believed Slade sang "Does your Granny own Australia ?" in their song Merry Xmas Everybody and was quite disappointed to learn it`s actually "Does he ride a red-nosed reindeer ?"). Anyway, for years I wondered why in Beauty Secrets (one of my favourite Bill tunes), our man sang of someone "Having a ball with the men in velour" . Odd, I thought, but it was the `70s. Only when I wore one copy out and replaced it with one with a lyric sheet did I learn it`s "Men of the law" someone was having a ball with !
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 1:18 pm (EST) on Apr 19, 2009
posted by LolaWalser at 8:55 pm (EST) on Apr 18, 2009
posted by LordNigelKnickKnack at 2:08 am (EST) on Apr 13, 2009
Very impressed about Bill/Be Bop. I don`t know why he was for a time very anti- his own back catalogue, to me Be Bop were one of very few bands to be consistently energetic, melodic and musically innovative. I actually think he was a terrific songwriter as well as a great player.
What was he like in person ? I could imagine him to be quite difficult, though the fact he`s chosen to live for many years close to his origins in defiantly unpretentious Yorkshire perhaps indicates he`s not as arty as some have suggested.
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 1:15 pm (EST) on Apr 10, 2009
posted by lquilter at 10:15 pm (EST) on Apr 1, 2009
posted by TerryWeyna at 6:15 pm (EST) on Mar 31, 2009
Terry
posted by TerryWeyna at 3:56 pm (EST) on Mar 28, 2009
(triggered by noticing Pox Americana). Though we had PLENTY of other deadly epidemics to cope w/! Cholera, yellow fever, malaria, diptheria, flu (ague)..etc.
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 7:50 am (EST) on Mar 5, 2009
"Nothing to read in the house!" Major Laugh Out Loud moment.
posted by reading_fox at 4:24 am (EST) on Mar 5, 2009
Faceless government bureaucrats like Johnston have saved thousands of American lives - oh, and have laid down their lives doing their wingnut-mocked job - while monitoring volcanos. Johnston spent his last week on earth convincing the Forest Service and the State of Washington to evacuate the area around Mt. St. Helens, and saved hundreds if not thousands of American lives.
Does Jindal think the NOAA crews who fly into hurricanes are equally frivolous?
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 9:47 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2009
posted by LizzieD at 9:51 am (EST) on Feb 27, 2009
A couple of hundred pages into Anathem it turns into a harder and harder scifi adventure. I'm finding it much easier to read than anything else of his (haven't read Zodiac, so I don't know about that). Philosophy has always been a closed book to me, so it's a heady experience to find myself following his arguments. He isn't totally disregarding Latin/Greek roots, so I guess somebody could make a case for the evolution of language. (I wouldn't try.) And as a former teacher, I like the narrator. He's not the quickest kid in the class, but he's the one who sees connections and has some leadership qualities. If I could read just one thing at a time, I'd polish this one off, but that's not my style....
Thanks for reading this ramble1
Peggy
posted by LizzieD at 9:49 am (EST) on Feb 27, 2009
thanks very much for the flowers....
posted by duffy_duck at 5:58 am (EST) on Feb 27, 2009
posted by LizzieD at 1:00 pm (EST) on Feb 26, 2009
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 10:58 am (EST) on Feb 25, 2009
Wow, yes I do have a lot of books. It will probably end up at about 3000 and the best I can do right now is box them in the basement. I would prefer to fill my rooms with shelves and have them around them.
Probably a note just to myself, but I feel that you can understand.
posted by carterchristian1 at 9:46 am (EST) on Feb 25, 2009
have you read either of your Millar books yet? I found them both great fun, esp "Suzy, led zep and me" which hit rather too close to home in the protagonist's essential cluelessness and my own at his age. But i sure laughed a lot. And Millar has a very good heart. I also liked Lonely Werewolf Girl, lots of wonderfully silly conceits, but could have shed 75 pages or so.
curiously,
bob
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 6:45 am (EST) on Feb 25, 2009
Peggy
posted by LizzieD at 10:32 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2009
Uncanny.
posted by gregtmills at 11:43 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2009
Love your blog. Especially enjoyed the 2005 short biographical piece about your father.
posted by carterchristian1 at 2:45 am (EST) on Jan 29, 2009
posted by orangethunder at 6:45 am (EST) on Jan 24, 2009
When I saw the newly added title, I also thought of the resisting-Nazis story from the early part of the Iraq war; good to see you noting the connection. I remember reading somewhere that the US occupation once carried out a hidden-weapons search in which 800,000 US troops went door-to-door - a somewhat larger number than we had available for that sort of service in Iraq.
posted by dukedom_enough at 10:16 am (EST) on Jan 18, 2009
I know exactly ONE other person who'll swoon.
posted by LolaWalser at 8:43 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2009
posted by Jesse_wiedinmyer at 4:03 pm (EST) on Jan 11, 2009
posted by Jesse_wiedinmyer at 7:37 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2009
posted by thegreattim at 10:18 pm (EST) on Jan 8, 2009
posted by yangguy at 8:08 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2009
posted by mmignano11 at 12:06 am (EST) on Dec 31, 2008
posted by atticusjame6 at 6:18 pm (EST) on Dec 28, 2008
http://www.librarything.com/topic/50696
that's degenerated into an argument over the knowability of the distance to the sun.
As shown by the photo above, this is personal for me: unlike any of the participants in that argument, I've actually measured the distance to the sun.
I was one of the 1510 registered participants - and one of their 30 or so North Americans - in the ESO's June 8, 2004 experiment - and my data helped come up with their answer.
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/eduof...
(As Randall Munroe says at XKCD: "Science: it works, bitches!")
More subtly, the point is rather that "the Truth" will always have error bars.
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 3:27 pm (EST) on Dec 25, 2008
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 6:22 am (EST) on Dec 22, 2008
Have you ever been to spacecollective.org? Username carel has an interesting article (I thought) on how we resemble our paleolithic ancestors more than we do people a century ago.
posted by atticusjame6 at 7:48 pm (EST) on Dec 16, 2008
posted by atticusjame6 at 6:31 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2008
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 12:45 am (EST) on Dec 10, 2008
Best, Atticus
posted by atticusjame6 at 3:38 pm (EST) on Dec 6, 2008
Thanks for the welcome and the compliment. The tag is correct.
Be well,
mfm
posted by mingfrommongo at 5:25 pm (EST) on Nov 16, 2008
- Ken MacLeod, The Execution Channel
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 6:13 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2008
Known to be missing in action:
- several James Joyce books
- the box of collectible pbs
- the second box of ST pbs
- at least one more box'o'college (which might be home to the JJs)
Most of the MIA stuff - which must be at least 100 books - is still likely to be under the eaves in the kids' room. (It might be time to shape up an expedition-in-force to go in and retrieve it....)
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 4:52 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2008
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 10:13 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2008
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 9:36 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2008
Whew! I'm so glad YOU said it, and not a lunatic anti-American Euro-Commie like myself. :)
posted by LolaWalser at 11:13 pm (EST) on Nov 6, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh9BmNuqe...
posted by LolaWalser at 10:31 pm (EST) on Nov 6, 2008
posted by Jesse_wiedinmyer at 12:30 pm (EST) on Nov 4, 2008
We are awaiting our prepress copies to arrive in the mail for us to look over before giving the official go-ahead and assigning the ISBN. Although the link may allow you to purchase the book now, please don't! No matter how valuable you may think it may prove in a future eBay auction, we don't want anyone to be disappointed should we discover errors in the physical copy.
We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did writing it.
Feel free to sound off with review commentary!
Here's the private link to check it out:
http://www.lulu.com/content/4707292
*(it may take a minute to load all the pages in the previewer depending on your connection and how busy the page is at certain times)
Boomer M. Wadaska
Illegal Pad Publishing
posted by illegalpadpublishing at 5:01 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2008
Now I know I'm obsessive about cataloging.
But I thought I was obsessive about book collecting. Then I saw your library.
Now I know I'm not obsessive about book collecting. At best I am an accumulator.
posted by MaggieLeber at 4:20 pm (EST) on Oct 31, 2008
While I had considerable differences with him/her, (s)he had an encyclopedic knowledge of Federal Law and could be of tremendous help with the countervailing Constitutional issues involved with our little Amendment exercise. I hate when truly knowledgeable people leave our little coterie of conversants, especially when I disagree with much of what they say. Knowledge is king in the land of opinion.
posted by geneg at 1:06 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2008
posted by bigal123 at 7:49 am (EST) on Oct 18, 2008
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 3:43 am (EST) on Oct 13, 2008
(just looking for something relatively brainless to take the edge off of readality...also looking at Bear's Blood and Iron which i think will fit the bill nicely; i happen to enjoy much of the urban fantasy although it's becoming ever more mundane)
cheers
bob
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 9:23 pm (EST) on Oct 12, 2008
Best...Harry
posted by stevetempo at 2:53 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2008
What, there's somebody who thinks differently?
posted by modalursine at 5:16 pm (EST) on Oct 7, 2008
I know! Hence my bemusement about the UK posts!
It's entirely possible that OSC would have been unfamiliar with it at the time he wrote it. (I assume that someone has told him since then.)
I agree. That's why I asked about the background to the story... especially if he chose the term at sixteen; people may be reluctant to let go of things they think are "neat", whatever the latter cost for meaning etc. Did I tell you how I spent a portion of my childhood inventing stories about a character (male-ish), named Fairy Tale? ("Tale... Fairy Tale".) No wonder I'm not a writer.
it's also entirely possible that OSC is a deeply repressed closet case himself.)
Well, I'm sure you're in a better position to speculate (since I hardly knew the author's name until a few weeks ago), but it wouldn't be first such occurrence. But it's interesting--when you look at the relationship with the sister, would a 100% hetero man be able to commit such an unfortunate innuendo-rich situation?
PS: I too have a complete set of the Python episodes - because I faithfully taped it off the air.
Curses! You win, again!
posted by LolaWalser at 12:25 pm (EST) on Oct 5, 2008
Cheeri-oh!
posted by LolaWalser at 11:32 am (EST) on Oct 5, 2008
posted by languagehat at 9:53 pm (EST) on Oct 3, 2008
I think it was Brecht who said something like
It is intolerable to live in a country without a sense of humor/
It is intolerable to live in a country where you need a sense of humor.
posted by modalursine at 12:27 am (EST) on Oct 1, 2008
Great photo up top.
Terri (Red Roomer friend of Maggie)
posted by teelgee at 10:47 am (EST) on Sep 23, 2008
posted by codyed at 1:32 am (EST) on Sep 21, 2008
Presumably, they told him that he could do more good for the cause where he is now.
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 11:15 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2008
What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?
Libertarianism Makes You Stupid
A Non-Libertarian FAQ
(courtesy of Avedon)
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 7:14 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2008
One book I'm surprised not to find in your library, btw, is Jonathan's Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis. I've seen you plug Haidt's articles on the talk forums (which I appreciate--I had read his book and enjoyed it, but hadn't read any articles or interviews).
posted by Medellia at 5:31 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2008
posted by Medellia at 2:33 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2008
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 1:25 am (EST) on Sep 16, 2008
Yes, it is. I'm posting only my non-fiction works for now, but I do admire Mr. Shute's work.
That's an amazing picture of Venus you have posted. I intend to do something along those lines when I retire.
posted by Toolroomtrustee at 6:06 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008
Of course there's Joan Didion's scathing essay on the Reagan gov. mansion in California where no room was left for books in the design when it was rebuilt in the 80s. I'd be v. depressed if i knew for sure how few American citizens ostensibly middle class and above owned less than 100 books.
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 3:01 am (EST) on Sep 14, 2008
well...there are also probably a lot of people who haven't entered anything close to their whole library; or people like my sister who has ~ 7-8k books and is just terrified of the prospect of having to enter them all. I offered to get her a hand scanner (we do it all by typing, but we also are gradualists..the books get entered a few at a time..Initially i did most of it; recently my wife has been doing the entry and someday ~ 2500 books or so will be entered..but not for a good, long while!
A big problem w/ hanging on to a large number of books isn't just space - it's keeping the books in readable condition (at least if one has asthma triggered by dust/mold). I tried to read Priest's '74 book, "Inverted World" last week..and though the book looked "safe" by the time i was half way done i had to give up the effort (or give up breathing).
cheers!
bob
Our rule of thumb for disposal..If neither of us think that we'll want to reread a book...it goes to the library booksale - 5-700 books have been dealt with that ways..of course i've gotten ~ 300 in return so the net loss hasn't been as helpful as it might have been. And we save books that our 24 yr old son might want someday..including quite a large library of good childrens/YA books..
posted by bobmcconnaughey at 7:50 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2008
I didn't realize that so few people on library thing had more than 1,000 books...but, I also have no idea how many members there are on this site. I'm sure it's an incredible amount.
Best of luck with the book hunting!
On occasion I'll probably throw you some books you might find interesting.
Did you pick up Bradbury's most recent? Farewell Summer?
posted by amandaking at 4:11 pm (EST) on Sep 12, 2008
I am not spotting him eight hundred million Hindus. I call shenanigans.
- or -
Being #3 in Al-queda is like being a "creative vice president" at a Hollywood studio. There are dozens of them ... and they are expendable.
I have been wondering about that #3 al-Qaeda guy for quite a while now. Either they are just capturing, torturing, and releasing the same guy repeatedly, like a cat with a mouse, or al-Qaeda is organized like a bank or insurance company. Bin Laden would be the CEO of course, and I suppose al-Zawahiri would be the executive VP, and then you have literally hundreds of VPs who are, yes, expendable.
posted by oregonobsessionz at 2:52 am (EST) on Sep 11, 2008
Which was repeated recently:
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 11:42 pm (EST) on Sep 9, 2008
Obviously not.
posted by amandaking at 9:19 pm (EST) on Sep 9, 2008
What can I say, I really expected something better. I don't know if you read the whole scattered discussion, I made clear my reference points are all outside the genre (I think the only other straight fantasy I read was Le Guin's "The wizard of Earthsea"), so, I suppose genre readers see it in a very different context.
Okay, now I'm going to append a whale of a post copy from another group (my post, not that you can possibly miss my inimitable brand of obscenity :)), regarding in more detail Wolfe's use and treatment of female characters. I have to say this element does not necessarily damn the whole thing (it does make it rather unpleasant for any egalitarian), as I said in the sci-fi discussion, personally I was willing to overlook it, if only other aspects had made up for it. But, since you hadn't read it, I'm sharing this out of prurient curiosity about ol' Wolfe's proclivities--and maybe those of his fans. Read and learn!
Excerpt copy:
Consider this interesting fact--there's a dramatic power imbalance in EVERY--yes, EVERY--sexual relationship the hero has, not merely symbolic or innate (greater male strength, the hero's super-strong), but situational.
1. "Thecla" is older (but still young and gorgeous), an aristocrat, taller than S, the hero (tall height is a mark of the aristocrats in the book), and educated, so, relatively speaking, has status in the society vis-a-vis the masses, but is a mere tyrant's concubine nevertheless. However, in regard to S. she's literally and utterly disenfranchised--she's a prisoner, a "client" for torture (S. is an apprentice "torturer"). After conveniently providing S. with instruction and polish otherwise out of reach for someone of his class, she's tortured, and kills herself (he provides the knife).
(We learn later that the relationship WAS sexual although S. had been directly prohibited from "pleasuring" her by his boss.)
2. Valeria, a prostitute physically resembling Thecla. S. goes to a brothel to learn this mystery called "woman". For some reason, the proffered whores are blatantly fearful of their customers, abjectly submissive, and explicitly expect to be beaten. Sure enough, S. makes to strike (or actually strikes) the girl he chose, because--as far as I could make out-- she looks like, but isn't Thecla.
On this occasion, as in some other places, Wolfe gives us a piece of his well-earned, no doubt, wisdom on women--why do you care, the whore tells S., whether I "am" Thecla or not, when Thecla herself maybe isn't Thecla etc. The point is that no woman is THE ideal woman every honest chap yearns for in his heart of hearts. And that being the case--pussy is pussy is pussy.
S. agrees, but doesn't return to the brothel after losing his cherry. When I read this, I thought his love for Thecla shamed him from boning her in effigy, but when the sexual relationship between them was revealed, the explanation became simpler, if less romantic: he was getting regular and free sex from the "real" thing.
3. Dorcas, a mysterious young girl with amnesia (truly) S. fishes out of a lake. This is probably the most disgusting relationship (and I don't mean the soap-opera family connection between the two we learn of in the end). Practically every mention of Dorcas, especially those accompanying descriptions of sex, focuses on her "childlikeness", youth and vulnerability. She's timid, scared, frail, little, flat-chested, narrow-hipped, no more than "sixteen or seventeen", and as I said, repeatedly described as a "child" and "childlike". She's literally not all there, incapable of remembering her past and what had happened to her, but S. has sex with her the same day, in fact, she has to beg off the "third" bout, "being tired". But we get the message--what a stud S. is! But... did we get the message? Wolfe apparently isn't sure, so somewhat later regales us with a scene where child Dorcas demurely murmurs to S., after kindling him to sex, whether he's sure "she won't be too small?" What a silly, smiles S., "she asks although we had coupled before!"
A writer's writer, for sure.
4. Jolenta. The most beautiful and most sexually attractive woman S. had ever known, but, oddly enough, she doesn't seem to have any personal affection or need for sex. She's some kind of a living come-hither passive sexual toy, with the nonexistent libido (and personality) of an inanimate thing. S. notes philosophically his lack of "real" desire for Jolenta, who's so much more beautiful than Dorcas, whom he "really" desires. Nevertheless, out of the blue one day he and Jolenta take a break for a little boat ride, and... well, this is really remarkable--she falls asleep. And he's so pissed off she's "ignoring him", he takes off her clothes and fucks her, as "drowsy" as she seems to him--S. speculates there may have been some drugs in the cushions on the boat that knocked her out.
I am not making this up. One needs the gift and experience of a writer's writer for such shit.
5. I think I'm--mercifully--at the end. Pia, the slave. She's enslaved by people hostile to her people, and she putters about and toils with chained hands. Like most of the women in the book, she's barely clothed, and has a great figure. S. is immediately hot for her, but there's some pressing business etc. to get over with, and that over with, he and Pia reach the safety of her people, and he "enters her" as soon as they touch land, "she still wearing chains".
To sum up, S. sleeps with a prisoner slated for torture, a terrorised prostitute, a traumatised young girl, a woman who's at least half-asleep and possibly drugged, and a chain-bound slave.
Now, no "psychologician" me, but i'm awfully tempted to suspect that someone's scared witless of anything woman-shaped that's not bound, gagged and kept at a safe distance, away and below.
Tell me if I'm wrong.
ETA: Oops, forgot one roll in the hay--an older lady (crazy-sexy-foxy, though) he's sent to kill. She doesn't know this during their intercourse, he does and tells her immediately "after". She freaks out and begs for life. He planned to release her, and does so, but this woman too is utterly at his mercy.
posted by LolaWalser at 12:03 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2008
Well, actually, I still view yours that way. There are four on Zeitgeist that show larger:
* I believe Tim has already posted that one is not a real library, but the result of an application gone wild.
* Anyone with a private library could have 20,000 copies of invented books, ruling out two ahead of you.
* The last says in their comments that they own only about 5000 of the books listed, while you seem to own all.
Congrats!
*smile*
posted by TadAD at 4:15 pm (EST) on Sep 2, 2008
As for looking at the world and seeing oneself, I've done enough dramamine (see #14) to be wary of pointing fingers at others...
posted by Jesse_wiedinmyer at 3:38 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2008
My
God.
posted by Arctic-Stranger at 4:24 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2008
posted by Jesse_wiedinmyer at 8:24 am (EST) on Aug 31, 2008
i've added the canonical title.
btw -- it won't satisfy your collecting need, but if you want to *read* the book before you find it, i've got it. < g >
cheers,
laura
posted by lquilter at 10:44 am (EST) on Aug 25, 2008
posted by lquilter at 9:02 am (EST) on Aug 25, 2008
posted by iansales at 3:52 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2008
Cheers,
Richard
posted by richardm123uk at 10:04 pm (EST) on Aug 20, 2008
"We see things, not as they are, but as we are."
- Anais Nin
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 6:32 pm (EST) on Aug 16, 2008
posted by yoyodyne at 7:35 pm (EST) on Aug 12, 2008
"Sheer unadulterated brillance!"
posted by supergeniuscoyote at 8:55 pm (EST) on Aug 9, 2008
posted by supergeniuscoyote at 4:06 pm (EST) on Aug 9, 2008
posted by supergeniuscoyote at 3:54 pm (EST) on Aug 9, 2008
Hope you're both well (and reasonably dry).
posted by Eurydice at 9:09 pm (EST) on Aug 4, 2008
(Now, if I were ever tempted to form a band...)
posted by LolaWalser at 6:18 pm (EST) on Jul 14, 2008
If you're having a party, I hope the soundtrack is worthy... :)
posted by LolaWalser at 3:14 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2008
pop trash
We'll see how your esteemed friendship holds up when I start entering mine. Two words: cabaret, ukulele. :)
posted by LolaWalser at 10:23 pm (EST) on Jun 22, 2008
Daaaaaamn! Er, most excellent! :) It's more than I can say... but from the recs, she's really very good (one always feels apologetic when it comes to near-unknowns). Eh, did you catch the circus in the first home page thread? I got a bit excited yesterday.
Music account--GO for it. It's clearly far from perfect (I couldn't decide where to stick catalogue numbers so skipped them entirely--there will be hell to pay once I enter all cca 3-4K recs and have to go back to comments or something for the lot), but I'm not fussy. It'll do. And aren't the CD covers nifty? Googling them can become a bit of an obsession though. Still, I discovered dozens of cool music sites doing that. Bottom line, I'd love more music-catalogue company. Most people didn't bother to separate them from books. Out of curiosity, which way do you lean, pure or mixed catalogue? Can't say I have very well-worked out reasons for separating them, and if collections allow integration, I may meld the two accounts. Then again... it's one thing to have a whole set of music recs called "books", and another to mix them up with actual books.
Let me know your thoughts on this that and other!
posted by LolaWalser at 10:17 pm (EST) on Jun 22, 2008
I guess they must not do ARCs for the best-of-year - usually someone has an ARC by the time one gets one's copy.
posted by dukedom_enough at 7:30 am (EST) on May 30, 2008
=================================
"caveman fiction, that is a good tag! Hope to see that one expand!"
Oh, hi.
Yeah, thanks, me too - that tag occurred to me as I cataloged a couple specimens of the genre. I don't actively read or collect that tag, but long ago I did read a children's "caveman fiction" story that I would not mind finding again. (It's too bad I don't know the title or author.) Maybe if the tag spreads, someday I'll find it.
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 11:47 pm (EST) on Jul 14, 2006
=================================
I strongly suspect the book you were thinking of is "Fire Hunter" by Jim Kjelgaard (yes, the guy who wrote the "Big Red", books--though I never read any of those myself. Wasn't interested in dog fiction). But "Fire Hunter" was a great book when I read it in 4th grade. I don't know what I'd think of it now. I notice that it doesn't exist on LT anywhere.
posted by unclebaldrick at 11:32 am (EST) on May 27, 2008
posted by kdough03 at 8:18 pm (EST) on May 14, 2008
Don't you dare. Maggie would have my hide on a toothpick. :)
Yeah, Pankrti are one of the glories of the old YU music scene...
posted by LolaWalser at 1:11 pm (EST) on May 3, 2008
posted by Doug1943 at 4:51 pm (EST) on May 1, 2008
posted by LolaWalser at 11:12 am (EST) on May 1, 2008
posted by Garp83 at 6:22 am (EST) on Apr 24, 2008
posted by BGP at 4:49 am (EST) on Apr 24, 2008
posted by bslavin at 9:49 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2008
posted by Vonini at 3:14 am (EST) on Apr 16, 2008
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much action in the Delany group. Perhaps we can change that! Anyway, I am in awe of your library!
posted by atthesametime at 8:24 pm (EST) on Apr 14, 2008
Sincerely, ReneeMarie
posted by ReneeMarie at 1:50 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2008
-Bob
Thanks, Bob. I bow to the superior selection and volume of your collection. I look forward to getting lost in your library. --KR
posted by Artemis26 at 11:09 pm (EST) on Mar 26, 2008
posted by LordNigelKnickKnack at 10:33 pm (EST) on Mar 26, 2008
posted by KatsBooks at 10:10 am (EST) on Mar 26, 2008
Yrs,
Spunky Brewster
posted by JNagarya at 6:05 am (EST) on Mar 24, 2008
I'm just starting my cataloging efforts, but since I've moved my bookshelves and left most of their contents on the living room floor, I'm having no trouble finding inspiration to continue the efforts. I was recently pleased to discover that it was possible to include my Analog Science Fiction - Science Fact periodicals. They seem to be uncommonly collected though - I've the only registered copy of most issues. Perhaps I'll have to scan in some covers and do some cleanup once I get all these beasts entered.
posted by sangretu at 7:43 am (EST) on Mar 20, 2008
posted by PDExperiment626 at 11:14 am (EST) on Mar 17, 2008
posted by alibrarian at 9:04 pm (EST) on Mar 9, 2008
And, you've got at least one of my novels on your overcrowded shelves. For which, many thanks.
posted by rosinalippi at 7:54 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2008
But it is quite disturbing that almost every 'cyberpunk' book I've read that I should have absolutely adored... well... hmmm, my grandmother's bowel movement updates are more interesting to me... ugh. That should say a lot.
*snicker*
posted by kassetra at 5:15 am (EST) on Mar 3, 2008
Thanks ever so for the link, and for the thought! Both tickled me immensely. I just adore the pic!
Hope you're well--
Tavia
posted by Instigatrix at 1:57 pm (EST) on Feb 29, 2008
posted by BenjaminFranklin at 4:01 pm (EST) on Feb 4, 2008
And thanks for the good words.
posted by Arctic-Stranger at 2:30 am (EST) on Jan 9, 2008
posted by SaintSunniva at 11:44 pm (EST) on Dec 28, 2007
By the standards of the LT heavy hitters we have hardly any books at all. My wife and I looked each other one day and simultaneosly said (of our books) "Too many notes, Mozart, too many notes". We havent actually uh "de-accessioned" a whole bunch, but we've been trying to hold the increase down to a dull roar.
Its not obvious so far, because I've only got about 250 which is just maybe 10% or so, wont be sure till the job is done, of our books onto LT ; BUT we are also big Sci Fi addicts.
We may have mentioned that our "master plan" (quit giggling back there!) is for us to retire to Colorado. We spend summers at our Colorado house and winters in Manhattan. Its a "bicoastal" life style that we've been enjoying so far, but figure we wont be able to support once both of us have completely quit having earned income.
posted by modalursine at 3:23 pm (EST) on Dec 24, 2007
posted by MagisterLudi at 2:42 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007
It certainly is.
I don`t know if you do Xmas, but Season`s Greetings anyway,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 6:04 am (EST) on Dec 20, 2007
posted by bookzombie at 9:07 am (EST) on Dec 18, 2007
Keep seeing your posts in the Pros and Cons thread, so thought I`d just say hello as we`ve not come accross each other for a while.
How are you keeping ?
As you can imagine, Ann-Marie and I are currently viewing the world through a haze of exhaustion, but are basically very happy indeed. The new arrival is largely a very contented little lad, but can certainly make his presence felt when he wants to !
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 3:28 pm (EST) on Dec 9, 2007
I know, it's funny!
I see you like Joy Division. I collect JD concert bootlegs in a small way, and have about twenty or so. Quality varies wildly. I note you catalogue music on LT too. I'm intrigued, but part of me really doesn't want to know how you do it, as I have around 5K albums...
I have reserved the sfcollectorseditions.blogspot url, which indicates to me that my subconscious is gearing up for another book binge. Many of the editions I have found seem pretty cheap, but one or two are hideously expensive, which is putting me off somewhat.
In light of the sheer number of books you have, when you say you 'like' Penguin Classics, I envisage that you have about 400 of them!
Regards, Andrew
posted by Diamat at 6:32 am (EST) on Dec 9, 2007
foreign-born population:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/doc...
15% at 1900. decline from 1930 until ca. 1970, waxing since then.
(googling for 'recent-immigration-by-year' mostly turns up a bunch of RW trash - a freeper link is hit #2)
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 3:51 pm (EST) on Dec 8, 2007
posted by Diamat at 2:34 pm (EST) on Dec 8, 2007
posted by marydell at 8:53 pm (EST) on Nov 29, 2007
Say, I see you're on flickr as well, I'll go check out your pix!
posted by marydell at 8:44 pm (EST) on Nov 29, 2007
posted by slpeterson at 9:43 am (EST) on Nov 29, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 11:15 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2007
posted by StephenDedman at 7:41 am (EST) on Nov 14, 2007
Have you seen The Unofficial Alan Garner Website, by the way? It has some wonderful interviews and articles; the one by Charles Butler called "Red Shift and the Shifting Ballad of 'Tam Lin'" is particularly worth a read.
Incidentally, I was going to recommend to you a video I found on YouTube called "Barthomley and Mow Cop"; effectively a slideshow of photographs taken by a local, and set (disconcertingly) to the tune of "The Old Rugged Cross"! However, it's since been removed by the owner - no idea why. As it happens, when I lived in England a few years back, I made a side trip to Barthomley (couldn't manage Mow Cop). St. Bertoline's Church is exactly as it's described; I kept expecting Jan and Tom to come in the door and examine the rood screen or "that dead her" (= Lady Houghton's memorial, just as lifelike as described in the book - the locals like to put flowers on her marble from time to time). Who knows, given the fluidity of time in [Red Shift], perhaps Jan and Tom were there, I just couldn't see them...
posted by chamekke at 11:06 am (EST) on Oct 31, 2007
Well spotted, didn't even tihnk of there, being in more of a find the contents thought mode.
posted by bluetyson at 11:58 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 8:36 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 8:33 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 1:07 am (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 1:05 am (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by amysisson at 1:25 am (EST) on Oct 24, 2007
Funny you should pick Tau Zero as an example; it's one of the top three most important/influential books in my life. The other two are The Songs of Distant Earth by Clarke (not considered one of his better books, but I differ on that) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
So I bet we've been at the same Albacon before. We lived in Waterford 1996 to the end of 2002, and got to at least three Albacons in that time period. We were planning on coming for World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs this year, but I changed jobs and have not yet accrued vacation yet.
Perhaps we'll cross paths somewhere down the line!
posted by amysisson at 1:20 am (EST) on Oct 24, 2007
But I lived in upstate NY just before we moved here.... Waterford, near Albany. My husband went to RPI and I worked at PEF. We went to Albacon several years; do you go to that?
Anyhow, thanks for the answer on Artifact by Benford. That was the quickest I've had a book mystery solved, I think!
I'm curious, what is the difference between your sf tag and your science fiction tag, if you don't mind my asking?
posted by amysisson at 11:33 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2007
I wasn't aware!
Hi, Bob, I just got back from a very unrestful vacation... Altho', I was a Woman Who Swims With the Squid for a while... :)
posted by LolaWalser at 7:38 am (EST) on Oct 15, 2007
You're lucky that Pepys didn't specify "for X new pages coming in, X old pages have to leave." That means for any book coming in you can launch some skinny little item into the abyss. Maybe you'll want to stock up on a shelf of skinny little things before the Pepysian Rule becomes mandatory, so that you have a stockpile of ejectables. Oh, wait, you'd still be in the shelf space crunch, wouldn't you?
Never mind.
posted by Melanchthon at 10:00 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2007
Here in Hoonaloon land things are going well, and the new arrival is expected early November.
For all the difficulties of running our own business, I think it will be good when that time comes that we`ll both be around so much to enjoy the experience, much better than in my own father`s day, when he actually didn`t see that much of my early years due to working long hours.
Living in Derbyshire is also appealing, after a very rough start, and things are settling down nicely now.
How are things with you ? Say `Hi` to Maggie for us.
Best,
Nick & Ann-Marie
posted by nickhoonaloon at 4:24 am (EST) on Sep 30, 2007
Thanks indirectly for the "Birdland" link. I also associated SilentInAWay to InASilentWay. Another also for associating Joe primarily with "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." RIP.
posted by DromJohn at 12:12 pm (EST) on Sep 14, 2007
posted by SilentInAWay at 12:06 am (EST) on Sep 12, 2007
posted by SilentInAWay at 10:26 pm (EST) on Sep 11, 2007
posted by badgerthorazine at 11:43 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2007
I read it, and can't think of what the bug might be. I do catch a great many such bugs in the sf I read, actually in nearly all, though I usually can enjoy the story anyway. What's the problem?
posted by dukedom_enough at 7:53 pm (EST) on Aug 21, 2007
posted by FourSeasons at 9:42 am (EST) on Aug 20, 2007
posted by almigwin at 9:34 pm (EST) on Aug 19, 2007
posted by almigwin at 1:54 am (EST) on Aug 18, 2007
posted by freezotic at 11:43 am (EST) on Aug 11, 2007
posted by TheresaWilliams at 7:28 pm (EST) on Aug 1, 2007
posted by ggchickapee at 10:46 am (EST) on Aug 1, 2007
posted by ggchickapee at 7:49 pm (EST) on Jul 30, 2007
posted by dukedom_enough at 8:09 am (EST) on Jul 30, 2007
posted by Pepys at 3:58 am (EST) on Jul 26, 2007
>patron of civil servants: Yes I noted this afterwards in your profile. It's rather logical. Do you intend to rise in the pecking order as He did?
François
posted by Pepys at 3:16 am (EST) on Jul 25, 2007
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 12:30 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2007
But how do you do with so many books?
posted by Pepys at 3:26 am (EST) on Jul 24, 2007
Finding a web site like this is akin to "coming home again" for anyone who loves books and reading.
LOL!...After reading some of the many comments directed your way, I'd have to say you "lead an interesting life." Best to you,
--Murray in Colorado
posted by FunnyGrampa at 12:34 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2007
Since we moved house we`ve had quite a lot to contend with - the house turned out to be more neglected than we realised and our relatively small budget for improvements was soon eaten up, also the business has needed constant atention to keep it afloat. Plus, I must admit, I can only spend so much time on the computer before I long to be outdoors - this is much more pronounced now we can see Derbyshire countryside from the back windows of our house.
We`re actually finding some time to relax now and I`m getting a bit of reading done - currently making my second attempt on David Levering Lewis` Du Bois biography.
Anyway, we moved, we saw, we conquered and all OK now, plus we`re expecting our first child in November ! You can be the first LTer to hear about it.
Hope you are well, regards to Maggie.
Nick & Ann-Marie
posted by nickhoonaloon at 7:12 am (EST) on Jul 18, 2007
Thanks for responding to my comment-
Twa Corbies
posted by twacorbies at 6:48 pm (EST) on Jul 17, 2007
I popped over to your profile because of the Talk discussion about cool profiles (it is quite nice, by the way). When you were discussing your tags, you mention "speculative fiction." I was wondering if you consider it a term interchangeable with Sci Fi and Fantasy or something quite specific or even a sub genre. I was reading "Darker Than You Think" before work at a cafe and noticed one of the blurbs mentioned something like "a remarkable work of Speculative Fiction." I'm sure some could cynically compare it to the use of "Graphic Novel" in place of Trade Paperback Comic Book (or whatever), but since your library and experience with Sci Fi seems vast, I thought you would have an interesting answer (my own experience is quite small- the only thing Sci Fi I've read in my adult years that I can think of is "The Stars My Destination" so you can take my lack of knowledge on the subject as a given).
Anyway, if you get a chance, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. In any case, great profile page- the lot of you on the Talk thread have inspired me to do a bit more work on my own!
Thanks,
twacorbies (Sean)
posted by twacorbies at 3:48 pm (EST) on Jul 16, 2007
Vive la liberté, égalité, fraternité!
posted by LolaWalser at 12:52 pm (EST) on Jul 14, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 9:32 pm (EST) on Jul 10, 2007
Thanks :)
posted by bluetyson at 12:46 am (EST) on Jul 9, 2007
If that is handy in the Measureless Caverns of books sometime in the future I'd be interested, in knowing what is in it.
DAW 334 I think, if you have all those organised.
Thanks,
bt
posted by bluetyson at 12:40 pm (EST) on Jul 6, 2007
posted by Quaisior at 1:23 pm (EST) on Jul 5, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 11:38 am (EST) on Jul 1, 2007
posted by gregfindley at 5:19 am (EST) on Jul 1, 2007
posted by gregfindley at 6:06 am (EST) on Jun 30, 2007
He is also working on a reference work, the URL below will give you an idea. Myths has a great John Picacio cover too with a fab Modesty Blaise as part of it.
http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Chron...
posted by bluetyson at 11:34 pm (EST) on Jun 29, 2007
Thanks for your post on my question about the Readercon. *Love* your library! I live in a small apt , so I have to do the Samuel Pepys order as well. I hope to see you an your family at the Readercon. I'm doin a bit of volunteering, so you'll most likely find at registration the first day or so.
All the best, Kris
posted by krisa at 11:03 pm (EST) on Jun 29, 2007
"no Rowling - those are the kids'. No Gaiman or Pratchett or Doug Adams, either - those are either my wife's, or the kids'."
Those are also the writers my own kids enjoy, and that I have not always been as drawn to, but I have enjoyed the sharing as we pass books back and forth. I have learned to appreciate Gaiman, and they also introduced me to Neal Stepehnson, whom I thoroughly enjoy. I started them on Orson Scott Card (whose Ender's Game I would teach if I ever had a Middle School English class again), and they read him more voraciously than I ever did. I also shared Philip K. Dick to general acclaim. They passed on their graphic novels (and I have really enjoyed both Y:The Last Man and Finder: Sin Eater by Carla Speed McNeil), and I passed on mine (Maus), much-loved by all of us. They gave me Godel, Escher and Bach, too, which is waaay over my head, but fascinating as an afternoon snack. Very nice to connect with one's kids in this way!
Yes, had I read Dhalgren in my youth I am sure I would have enjoyed it more -- it was a world I partially inhabited then and only remember with some surprise today. But the challenge of the read was quite pleasurable even now -- it kept those creaky brain cells stimulated.
posted by kambrogi at 9:23 am (EST) on Jun 29, 2007
posted by quartzite at 1:56 pm (EST) on Jun 28, 2007
posted by marydell at 9:05 pm (EST) on Jun 27, 2007
posted by dodger at 10:54 pm (EST) on Jun 26, 2007
posted by quartzite at 3:16 pm (EST) on Jun 26, 2007
We likely agree on very little and would probably get into it on a variety of subjects, ideologies and points of view. Nonetheless, I respect your right to disagree with me vociferously and hope you will continue to defend your way of thinking with articulateness and grace. I remain willing to be persuaded and to change my mind if I'm wrong. Otherwise, I'd be a dunderhead and an arsehole.
posted by CliffBurns at 12:12 am (EST) on Jun 25, 2007
~M~
posted by Morphidae at 8:12 pm (EST) on Jun 24, 2007
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
~M~
posted by Morphidae at 7:32 pm (EST) on Jun 24, 2007
posted by kambrogi at 12:33 pm (EST) on Jun 22, 2007
Hmmm, I hadn't actually realized we had stopped speaking. I must not have received everything you've been writing to me since last December before you cut me off! Anyway, I'm so glad we've now finally got that mix-up sorted out. :)
Addressing your last point first ...
"My refutation of point "c" remains: Good writing is good writing, we recognize it when we see it, and it sometimes occurs even in the genre ghetto of SF. Because good writing can appear anywhere, even in a genre as 'low-brow' as, oh, say, golf stories in WWI-era copies of Redbook."
In 1910 Wodehouse wasn't considered "classic literature" or even "literary"; because very few people knew of his existence back then. His popularity clearly changed as he entered his purple prose period (let's say 1920 through the 60s) and it progressively increased throughout that period. However, he was still not considered "classic literature" in 1920 (just after the Redbook period you mentioned), nor was he considered that in 1930, 1940, 1950 ... 2000, or even today. But I do believe he may be getting there ... each generation he progresses further up the literary squash ladder, as it were. But one isn't generally acknowledged as being a literary master over night, any more than you go straight to the top of the squash ladder the day you join a new racquets club, even if you are the best player in the club the day that you join. You have to demonstrate that superior skill set to a fresh opponent (read each new batch of literary critics for the analogue) at each rung of the ladder.
Plum's writing was almost fully matured by the WW1 period you referenced, and by the early twenties he had definitely hit his stride - The Awakening of Rollo Podmarsh (which appeared in Redbook in 1923? I believe) is, IMHO, one of the funnier and best written pieces that he created. In fact, all of the golf stories in The Heart of a Goof appeared in Redbook that year or thereabouts. And yes, his writing then was definitely "good writing" - regardless of whether anyone labeled it as such then, or even labels it that way now. Because, I too, recognize it when I see it. However, that quality assessment is only from my OWN PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE. Just like the Supreme Court, I also recognize pornography when I see it! :)
If Plum remained a literary outsider, or was even considered absolute rubbish by the literati crowd, as long as he is still popular enough to remain in print such that I am able to currently read him I would be quite content. Yet it is so much nicer for my own ego, isn't it, if I also know that my own personal favorite author is well respected in all the best corridors of literature, and that my own choice of reading material is vindicated by people possibly much smarter than me, better qualified academically than me, and possibly even with provably better taste than me, too? And isn't that what parts of that sci-fi thread were really all about (at least in those places where the actual OP topic was forgotten)?
****************
BTW, you loaded your last argument there with quite a bit of hyperbole, IMO. "Because good writing can appear anywhere, even in a genre as 'low-brow' as, oh, say, golf stories in WWI-era copies of Redbook." I am personally not acquainted with the status and quality of the Redbook publication - unlike, say, The Saturday Evening Post or Playboy magazines, I have never actually seen one. But even if I accept that that particular publication normally churned out abysmal, lowest of the low-brow pap, the fact is, each of those golf stories were published in the Strand magazine in London about two months prior to their appearing in publication on this side of the pond in Redbook. So however much you may claim that those Plum stories were pearls hidden amongst a bunch of crap from, say, other areas of the genre ghetto(s), over in London Plum was being published in what was considered to be the best magazine in its class - one in fact that he had read assiduously as a child when one of his own literary heroes, Arthur Conan Doyle, was still publishing Sherlock Holmes short stories in it.
So Plum's writing had clearly already been recognized sufficiently in Britain for it to be published cheek-by-jowl with the best other top commercial-selling authors of the day. Now I fully realize that "top-selling" doesn't equate to "literary", nevertheless the situation is also far from being the "hidden bright spot in a dismal genre ghetto" scenario that you just tried to paint. Good writing may indeed occur within the genre ghetto of SF - for instance, I think Vonnegut would obviously fulfil that description, but no one on that thread knew enough to mention him - but IMO Plum's stories (or at least the Redbook era ones that you specifically referenced) are simply not very good examples of some of that kind of writing.
Later.
posted by Rule42 at 1:10 pm (EST) on Jun 20, 2007
I really have no idea why you found my post "borderline offensive" but hopefully I addressed your concerns somewhat with my response. However, having just reread that second post I now realize that it may contain something that could well be misconstrued due to my poor sentence structure. At the end I wasn't calling you a numpty; only the people that have previously flagged other innocuous posts of mine. I probably need to go back and remove that comment.
The problem with aesthetics is that it's such a thorny discipline. If you insist that there is an aesthetic in whichever field of endeavor you're addressing - art, music, literature, or even just the sci-fi genre thereof - then someone is bound to call you an elitist and a snob. If you acknowledge that all tastes are somewhat valid then you've just destroyed the concept of their being an aesthetic hierarchy (i.e., good all the way through bad, by whatever value system you choose to use in order to determine that progression). Finally, if you try and take the middle ground between these two extremes (as I think you were doing), in the end all your arguments will end up sounding like something that is straight out of Orwell ... all tastes are equally valid but some are more tasteful than others!
So you can choose to be an elitist snob (in the eyes of others), or you can adopt the skeptical viewpoint that you cannot discern between different values (what I was calling intellectual nihilism), or you can try and walk the middle ground and end up sounding like a hypocrite! Elitism, nihilism, hypocrisy ... not a pretty choice! I never enjoyed aesthetics. :( Of the three, I prefer to be an elitist simply because I don't want to be a nihilist or a hypocrite.
I think that Warhol and Duchamp pretty well destroyed the elitist position in art (if Brillo pads and urinals are art, what isn't art?) which might be one of the reasons why nihilism is now so prominent in post-modernist thinking. Anyway, I'm sorry you thought I was trying to put words in your mouth ... I really wasn't ... it's just the nature of the beast. To my mind, aesthetics is just one big slippery slope. Personally, I prefer not to think about it too much and read Plum instead! :(
Take care.
posted by Rule42 at 11:40 pm (EST) on Jun 17, 2007
I've only listed 68 books so far - 11 of them non-fiction - and we share 50 of them, so I naturally admire your taste!
The SF and warships groups look interesting - I'll have to join those.
Tony Williams
posted by AnthonyGWilliams at 10:09 am (EST) on Jun 4, 2007
Thanks for the heads up on the Utica group, nice of you to think of me. I took a peek, it looks like she wants to begin a reading group and as you suspected, Utica is a bit too far for me to drive for that. Thanks though:)
posted by cckelly at 10:58 pm (EST) on Jun 3, 2007
thanks for offering to help me get the utica ny book lovers grp goin
nice profile
posted by bookwhore78 at 7:10 pm (EST) on Jun 3, 2007
I'm gobsmacked. Thanks for the info on the author site...and Inman. The book has been of interest to me for years, one of those niggling titles that you can never really get out of your head. The only thing comparable was this short sports novel called THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN a friend gave me when I was in Grade 7. Only problem was, the last five pages were missing so I never knew how it ended. A couple of years ago, thanks to abebooks.com, I found the book super-cheap and read the conclusion. A mystery stretching back 25 years solved. Doncha love when that happens? I'll follow up your tips in the a.m. I'm a bit tired and 50 pages into the new Lee Child "Jack Reacher" novel. I find the series bloody addictive. Reacher solves the crime and viciously exacts punishment on wrong-doers. Often with fatal consequences. That gibes well with my northern Irish genes, methinks. Be well--undoubtedly there will be further contact between us.
posted by CliffBurns at 12:25 am (EST) on Jun 2, 2007
Having trouble paring down the "LT Author" site you alluded to. Is there somewhere specific you have in mind? I'm getting something like 60 entries...keep in mind I'm a technological moron and make the appropriate adjustment in terminology/approach.
C.B.
posted by CliffBurns at 10:49 pm (EST) on Jun 1, 2007
Thanks for the invite and I'm intrigued that of all the people in LT I think I have the most books in common
with you. I appreciate your modesty (describing yourself as a "minor civil servant"). No inflated egos there. I shall have a look at the group you mentioned and hope I fare better there than with the SF fandom crowd. I envy your collection and have a feeling that if I dropped by to browse your collection you'd have to get rid of me with mace and a Taser.
Regards to you,
Cliff
posted by CliffBurns at 10:40 pm (EST) on Jun 1, 2007
You have a VERY impressive collection here.
I guess that makes me just another admirer of your library. *chuckle*
Although, by the looks of things, and after reviewing the number of books we share (167 works, 197 books) I'm not really that surprised that so many eventually wander into the corners of your library to gaze at, wander around and hopelessly stare at the collection you have amassed here. Will Durant in common, very nice. :)
Anyways, just rambling about and thought I would throw a smile/comment your way.
Much bliss & happy reading! :)
~PandorasRequiem
posted by PandorasRequiem at 7:39 pm (EST) on May 31, 2007
Harry Harrison
1967 : The Left Hand Way - A. Bertram Chandler
Judith Merrill
07 : Parky - David Rome
08 : Change of Heart - A. Bertram Chandler
10 : It Could Be You - Frank Roberts
11 : There's A Starman in Ward 7 - David Rome
posted by bluetyson at 10:32 pm (EST) on May 20, 2007
Thank you for the welcome - some people are lumpers/some people are splitters - I'm a lumper is all.
I am very excited about this site - I have been looking for something like this for years and have contemplated actually, in the past, buying software to do the job. (Usually when I get home from the library booksale and find I have bought another duplicate...)
I imagine that I will run into you a few times - you have 58 of the 75 books I have entered - and I have only put in my Heinlein and one shelf of anthologies!
Thanks again for the welcome.
PortiaLong
posted by PortiaLong at 10:32 pm (EST) on May 16, 2007
Even though I have less than half as many books as you, I too have to double-shelve and keep finding books that escaped the first cataloguing. One side benefit is that I discover (after years or decades of ownership) that two or more books that I kept in completely separate mental drawers were written/edited by the same person! Another benefit is that people can finally dare to give me books as gifts, since they can easily find out whether I already have them.
posted by languagehat at 3:49 pm (EST) on May 12, 2007
Thanks for the welcome!
It's always nice to come across another Keith Roberts fan--in fact it's always nice to come across someone else who has heard of Keith, it amazes me that a writer so good can be so little known, but then I suppose the the old "lowest common denominator" rule comes into play, and that means the best known and the most liked of anything, books, music, movies, is . . . . um....ordure!
posted by solarisbooks at 9:23 am (EST) on May 12, 2007
posted by mamachunk at 8:32 pm (EST) on May 11, 2007
this thread on least favourite works by Card?. Some interesting discussion to read, at least for me, in finding others who liked some of the works but really disliked some of his other opinions. I remembered your previous comment on the throwing a book across a room.
posted by ryn_books at 7:46 am (EST) on May 3, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 10:35 pm (EST) on May 2, 2007
http://adventuresinscifipublishing.blogs...
May be of interest, there is a SF book club editor one in the middle episodes.
Also saw Dozois has a Best of the Year's Best book out too, while browsing ABE. Lol.
posted by bluetyson at 3:41 am (EST) on May 2, 2007
I do believe someone was asking about $50 for that issue of Interzone. I wondered if Angela Carter might have been the British equivalent of our John Crowley within the genre. You know? Not in writing style, but in their relationship to the genre.
Dealer list is up on the Readercon website now. Start saving your pennies:-) Best, Lois
posted by avaland at 12:52 pm (EST) on Apr 29, 2007
To collect them if they keep going at this rate you would need a titanium reinforced bookcase (and probably floor) as they ain't small.
posted by bluetyson at 9:32 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2007
http://www.yearsbestsf.info/
Population of world much bigger than in DAW's day, so should be able to fill a few more books I guess. :)
posted by bluetyson at 10:35 pm (EST) on Apr 23, 2007
http://www.bestsf.net/reviews/wollheim19...
When it said review, I figured that is what it was, not a story list!
posted by bluetyson at 7:41 am (EST) on Apr 23, 2007
I think the 1979 has Creator by David Lake, which is in one of Paul Collins' anthologies here, but not one I have found at other than very keen collector prices.
So he may be the earliest local in one of those.
Thanks,
bt
posted by bluetyson at 7:39 am (EST) on Apr 23, 2007
-- Clarke's Fourth Law.
(I don't see why Arthur should be the only Clarke who gets to formulate them.)
-- Paul Clarke, rec.arts.sf.written
posted by bluetyson at 3:00 am (EST) on Apr 21, 2007
PZ rocks!
Highly recommended: "Evolution" by Carl Zimmer.
posted by monado at 2:58 pm (EST) on Apr 18, 2007
Thanks again and have fun with the shelf checking.
posted by ryn_books at 10:21 am (EST) on Apr 12, 2007
On a more positve anthologies note....when you get a moment I'd welcome any opinion on the Brian M Thomsen Novel Ideas anthologies. They look interesting, but would be an import/bookstore order for me to get down here.
posted by ryn_books at 6:07 am (EST) on Apr 11, 2007
posted by ginmar at 9:27 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2007
I like some of you blog entries. Particularly the home ownership analysis.
And I'm not so keen on SF, but I notice we have a lot of other books in common. The question of tagging is an interesting one, though the divisions for me were slightly different - I puzzled over the divisions between national/language-bound literatures and settled on an inadequate compromise, but I did go over some of the points in detail on a thread started by LolaWalser. I'll dig it up if you're interested.
posted by existanai at 1:43 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2007
I've started reading your blog too - interesting. See you around!
posted by existanai at 12:07 am (EST) on Apr 9, 2007
posted by NativeRoses at 11:05 pm (EST) on Apr 7, 2007
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au...
posted by bluetyson at 1:44 pm (EST) on Apr 6, 2007
I will look at the Bookmooch list, but there is the whole tyranny of distance/postage! :)
posted by bluetyson at 9:53 pm (EST) on Apr 5, 2007
posted by bluetyson at 8:09 am (EST) on Apr 5, 2007
posted by steinbock at 11:06 pm (EST) on Mar 23, 2007
posted by NativeRoses at 8:19 pm (EST) on Feb 27, 2007
posted by Fnarf at 4:23 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2007
I saw your post about selling duplicates on ebay. I have a few I'm thinking of selling but I've never done the ebay thing. What were the advantages of ebay over, say Amazon, for you? Any pointers of wisdom you'd be willing to impart?
I keep trying to get through your Bookmooch inventory btw, however, I'm always about 10 pages in when the site becomes ungodly sloooooow. Probably just as well since I could blow all my measly few points and not get through half your offerings.
posted by cckelly at 12:24 am (EST) on Feb 7, 2007
posted by andyl at 4:30 am (EST) on Jan 30, 2007
AND "Growing Up In Tier 3000"!
posted by doubtfulpalace at 12:12 am (EST) on Jan 19, 2007
posted by MyopicBookworm at 6:46 am (EST) on Jan 11, 2007
You're high on my list of "raw" booksharers at present, but I think that's because my catalogue currently prioritizes books in boxes under the bed, and that's where most of the SF is!
posted by MyopicBookworm at 12:29 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2007
thanks for your reply. "Site Talk" is there such a group, or is it a fishing expedition.
I seem to miss a help link (for some of my basic questions) on this site.
anyway, belated A Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year.
posted by bolger at 12:26 am (EST) on Dec 30, 2006
posted by selfnoise at 7:07 pm (EST) on Dec 29, 2006
posted by DeadGoodBooks at 6:03 am (EST) on Dec 25, 2006
posted by howie at 9:20 am (EST) on Dec 24, 2006
Anyway, I sympathize about shelf space. Of course, I have far, [i]far[/i] fewer books than you do, but I also only have a single room to put all my belongings in. Right now I have all the books I've read in storage, and the unread ones are all piled onto a single bookcase, all jumbled and out of any sort of order (which drives me nuts). Whenever I get around to getting my own house, I think I'm going to have to get at least one extra bedroom to function as a private library.
Maybe I can get them to build shelves into the walls.
posted by stochasticooze at 12:20 am (EST) on Dec 20, 2006
posted by Fnarf at 12:38 pm (EST) on Dec 15, 2006
I remember the Konica T3 as being quite an important product in some ways; though not to me personally. I didn't have an auto-exposure camera until 1987, when I got an Olympus OM-4T; I'm a bit of a curmudgeon on the topic of exposure automation still. My first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex; decent enough, but a clear mistake for me (courtesy of Consumer Reports; I like them better than any other consumer review magazine, they're the only one that understands statistics for one thing, but they're not so good at reviewing things for specialized markets, and for me camera and computer gear isn't just ordinary consumer toys). I eventually traded that for an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic and a Leica M3, then replaced those when they were stolen out of my house with a Nikon FM (about 1980). Switched to Olympus in 1987 for the multi-spot metering, and back to Nikon in 1994 for auto-focus. My first DSLR was a Fuji S2 (Nikon mount) in 2003 (well, 30-Jan-2002), and I upgraded that to a D200 last spring (in time for Minicon of course). I've still got a darkroom in boxes around the basement here, including an Omega D5 enlarger and three lenses (there are 4x5 and 6x4.5 cameras around too, though little used). At this point the darkroom is not, I think, going to happen again. There's some slight possibility I might shoot B&W film and develop it weirdly and then scan it still, but that's about all.
"Dave Powell" rings a bell -- but maybe I'm wrong, because he doesn't seem to show up on the seating chart for where I worked. I was a Large Computer Group guy, Marlboro MA, from 1981 to 1985.
Yes, my photos certainly were linked from Making Light, and I comment there occasionally also. We've known Patrick and Teresa for quite a while at this point, though I didn't really meet him when he came through Minneapolis as a 16-year-old wandering around fandom.
Well, pleasant as this is, I think there are some people expecting some code to be commmitted today, so I'd better type at the other keyboard for a while.
Cheers!
posted by dd-b at 12:17 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2006
Huh; strange commenting/discussion system here, clicking "reply" on your comment that showed up under my profile shows me making a new comment under your profile, with your response to my comment nowhere in sight.
I've liked the idea of cataloging my library for more than 30 years. I first started doing so on punch cards. I next started, *much* later, using ReaderWare and a cuecat scanner, and I've still got that data. That was new books and books I reread, fairly consistently for a while. At this point it'd be all four of our libraries, with owner codes and location codes (since there are very few rooms in this house with no books -- just the bathrooms and kitchens, water and books don't mix). But taking it on systematically is a HUGE job, and then I think of the high risk of it getting out of date; recovering from an out of data situation is almost as big a job as entering it in the first place. (We're talking somewhere around 15k volumes I'd guesstimate).
I certainly like the idea of having the listing with me -- and in fact I've got the Palm Pilot module from Readerware so I can do that with that database.
But LibraryThing has its own charm, too. I'm a sucker for online communities, starting with Arpanet mailing lists, then Usenet, and I ran the Fidonet SF echo and their WRITING echo for a while in the late 80s/early 90s. I don't know if that's an attraction for LT or a reason to run screaming :-).
I lived out in the Boston area 1981-1985 (working for DEC), then came back to Minneapolis. I've been pretty visible various online places, and in some parts of SF fandom; I was in charge of photography for the retrospective slide show at Noreascon III. We could have overlapped any number of ways. I'm the only David Dyer-Bennet on the planet so far.
posted by dd-b at 12:01 am (EST) on Dec 12, 2006
I was indexing with ReaderWare, but not too heavily; I haven't systematically attacked the shelves yet. And the shelves actually have *four* people's books on them, it's a big household. And I don't know if I'm going to use LT or not, but the way to figure it out is to use the tools a bit and see, right?
posted by dd-b at 5:40 pm (EST) on Dec 11, 2006
I did wonder whether it was quite the right touch to send something published by a political party (Morris) - but as SPGB is (indirectly) a decendant of Morris` Socialist League, I thought it would appeal. I must admit, I got a copy for me as well, and really like it.
You might be interested to know that Mushroom Bookshop, who published `Robin Hood`, was a worker`s co-operative (remember them?) which was in Nott`m for around 25 years. Their publishing sideline was the work of a friend of ours, Ross Bradshaw, who now runs his own publishing company (albeit he has a part-time job as well). He is very (very!)thorough, and would probably get an ISBN allocated if he sent a postcard !
You might want to know, he has published a book by a man who re-enacted (if that`s the word) Morris` journey down the Thames and wrote his own account. Our last copy sold earlier this week, but we are planning to re-stock.
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 5:20 am (EST) on Dec 10, 2006
posted by pechmerle at 4:37 am (EST) on Dec 10, 2006
I brought my wife there last summer ('05). She's never been out of Texas (maybe twice, really) and I felt sorry for her because she has never seen a tree grow straight up out of the ground.
If you get the chance, you should go to the Adirondack Museum in Long Lake. Arrive early, you'll need every minute of daylight to see all of it before closing time.
Regards,
WholeHouseLibrary
posted by WholeHouseLibrary at 12:43 pm (EST) on Dec 5, 2006
You were commenting about the user name I chose. I guess I got inspired. The concept for making each room dedicated to a major division was adapted from our having stayed at the Library Hotel in NYC. They've got whole floors dedicated to each major division, and each room has a bookshelf in specific contexts -- our room -- 001.0006 was "Journalism". We wanted the "Astronomy" room, or the "Zoology" room, but they were already booked. Check it out online -- LibraryHotel.com (if I remember correctly).
I can't believe you've got almost 11,000 books! We've got just shy of 500 and we don't know what to do with them! My father-in-law (92 in February) has an 8x10 room that he's crammed almost 900 books into. I cataloged them for him just 2 months ago because he'd never be able to find one if he was trying. He's read all of them, except for maybe the 4 or 5 most recent acquisitions. He even wrote 2 of them.
Approximately how far "upstate" in NY are you. I grew up in Ramsey, NJ, and "upstate" was just 4 miles away. "Upstate" for us was the nearest bars across the border because the drinking age in New York State was 18 back then. That's a collective "us", by the way; I don't drink -- never did. I went to college north of Saranac Lake. It was never referred to as "upstate", despite being only 40 miles from the Canadian border. It was referred to as "Nowhere".
Regards,
WholeHouseLibrary (but you can call me "Mike")
posted by WholeHouseLibrary at 1:51 am (EST) on Dec 4, 2006
Aha, so that's why I couldn't find the correct word in the online dictionary I was using. Completist is not a word I often use (it still sounds like a modern contrived slang word to me) so that the word that popped into my head as I was writing (completionist) sounded just as correct to my internal ear. When I used the dictionary to check its spelling and meaning and couldn't equate the latter to my intended meaning, I added my caveat.
... not buying the same damn book again.
I have to admit, I have the same problem with the authors that you would call my "Enthusiasms" and particularly while I had many of my books stacked in boxes rather than out on bookshelves. I still have a big chunk in boxes in my closets but it's much less than it was and those books are not the important stuff. Whenever I go into a used bookstore (particularly one out of town that I probably won't ever return to) and I see a copy of a title of one of my "Enthusiasms" that I know I have been seeking for years, I tend to buy it because there is no second chance. In these situations it is better to have two copies of the book than kick yourself for having had it your hands and let it go (because you weren't certain you already had it) and then you never see it again. I'm usually pretty good at remembering what I already have but I err on the side if duplication rather than regret - though of course you end up regretting that you now have two damn copies of the same book anyway!
But I am at the point where I realize I probably already own more books than I can possibly read before I die, so I am already getting choosy about what I buy now. I find it very difficult to shed books I have read and enjoyed (unless they were bad, in which case I never finished them so they are either still with me but technically still unread, or I did shed them), thus I own very few bad books. So a strategy of shedding an existing book for every new book I buy, although it sounds just fine and dandy in theory, is almost impossible to execute in practice! Therein lies the essential dilemma of being a friggin' bibliophile ... :(
posted by Rule42 at 11:05 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2006
(But when I DO enter it, then we'll no longer have 42 titles in common...)
You know, I had gone to my profile and was in the process of updating that part of my profile when I noticed I had a message from you (your first one). I had just scanned through my library (i.e., the catalogued portion of it here) to see if the number of books that only I owned (which was 10 a week ago) was still the same. If it wasn't then that would probably mean that some LT member(s) had just joined (or only got around to entering that title) during the past week. I thought it would be interesting to find which books these were and which person I now shared this book in common with.
The number of solely-owned books was now 8. I had assumed that I could easily spot which ones got promoted because they would have gone from having a single head-and-shoulders icon with no number underneath to having a double head-and-shoulders icon with a low number (most likely 2). I remember being rather surprised after entering Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine that it had shown up with no shared owners - surprised enough to do a double-take to make sure and then add that comment to my profile.
Now it was showing with 43/1 - viz. 42 other shared owners and a review. It is highly unlikely that all these owners entered this book title in the last week or so (and also that I didn't notice that it had been reviewed in coming to the conclusion that only I owned it on LT)! So I can only assume that I must have isolated my edition from all the others already catalogued in the LT database (I have a hardcover first edition and I may have been the first to enter that edition) by the manner in which I entered it into LT (except that my entry says I used the Amazon default and didn't enter this one manually) and that someone has since combined my orphan. Either that, or I was smoking summat good last week, or whenever I entered it!
I am quite baffled by this change. I also thought I had a second Koestler title that was unique to me but I didn't mention that one in my profile because it was a pretty eclectic title to own and it seemed more reasonable that no one else would bother with it. But all my Koestlers now have multiple ownership, so maybe someone just tidied up that area of the LT database recently.
But the whole point of this message is to tell you that you have already catalogued two copies of this title in LT. As I said, I had just started to edit my profile and changed the '10' to an '8' and was about to entirely delete the Koestler comment (which is probably why the final 'e' was missing) when I saw your message and instead I saved my edit and went and read your message then profile. Interestingly, when I saw I had 45 works/42 books in common, two of the duplicate works (i.e., books you own two copies of in LT) were The Ghost in the Machine (with the other two being Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Orwell's Animal Farm).
Having just come from being baffled by why I had ever believed I was the sole owner on LT of the Koestler title, I thought that immediately finding someone else on LT that had not one, but two, copies of it catalogued quite ironic (which appeals to my sense of humor). Or are you just part of a great LT conspiracy to totally screw with my mind? The concept of that kind of appeals to my humorous side too - it would make me have to go through some kind of modern-day Cartesian process of skepticism to determine what sense data I could trust and what was all a big trick perpetrated by God (or in this case, LT members working in cahoots!). Let me see now, I blog therefore I am what I am, I'm Popeye the sailor man ...
WRT to no longer owning 42 titles in common, as I originally stated, that is a completely temporary serendipity (which merely gave me a good segue into the origins of my LT moniker). Based on what I see shown as random selections of titles from your own library we are already way over that number. I tend to be a 'completionist' (that word probably doesn't exist, and if it does it probably means someone who likes to finish what he started, but what the heck) and buy almost everything by authors that I admire on the principle that one can never get enough of a good thing. Hence I have tons of Vonnegut (multiple copies of everything he wrote including first editions of all his later works; unfortunately I can't afford to drop four or five grand on The Sirens of Titan, etc.), Amis, Eco, Burgess, Golding, Greene, Roth, Heller, Bellow, Irving, Levin, Vidal, Orwell, Huxley, Camus, Fromm ... well, you get the picture (and those are just the more modern authors).
I started to enter into LT some of the history titles I own but stopped when I realized I was the only person owning most of them (they account for 7 of my 8 unique titles, I think). I haven't yet decided what the best strategy is for using the social aspects of LT - I think that entering a few choice titles of representative stuff is probably more useful than cataloguing vast reams of the same author (e.g., in my case Twain, Wodehouse, Vonnegut). I think breadth of reading is as important as depth (meaning lots of the same author) and I have to admit that I am as guilty as the next person of not being as broad as I would like because time is limited and I do pursue my completionist agenda with many of my favorite authors in the time I do make for reading.
My strategy for what I have entered into LT to date has been a bit of both - somewhat selective and representative, but also completionist in the cases of Douglas Adams, Evelyn Waugh, Garrison Keillor, etc. simply because those latter authors' books all sit on the bookcase nearest my PC. The one thing I have discovered during my short time on LT is that it's much easier to be more selective with authors that reside on shelves in rooms downstairs away from your computer! :(
posted by Rule42 at 6:41 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2006
The name needs to be arcane enough that only true Plum fans are attracted there (and not everybody that knows someone who has an aunt that was splashed by a car driving through a puddle driven by someone who once had to do a book report on a Jeeves & Wooster novel) but not so esoteric that no one knows WTF the group is about. Perhaps I should post my thoughts on this topic on the "Renaming Thread" since no one else appears to be posting there ... :(
WRT to the origins of "Rule42", yes it IS something you SHOULD know, but it's not programming arcana, although logic is involved. FYI, I did give a clue to its origins on the "grammar Nazi / Martha Stewart" thread. OMG, now I feel like I'm Dan Brown!
posted by Rule42 at 2:31 am (EST) on Dec 3, 2006
posted by bookstopshere at 2:03 pm (EST) on Nov 17, 2006
posted by bass1193 at 3:41 am (EST) on Nov 16, 2006
BEST,
NICK
posted by nickhoonaloon at 5:41 am (EST) on Nov 14, 2006
Actually,you`re not just a "fine man", you`re a "cracking lad" as we say round here.
Very, very grateful for the Du Bois thing, and for your kindness. Have some kind of flu bug thing or would be more eloquent.
Will resume conversation in due course.
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 2:57 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2006
posted by nickhoonaloon at 8:36 am (EST) on Nov 8, 2006
Thanks very much, you are a fime man.
I won`t bore you with the details, but we needed our faith in human nature restoring today.
Our address is Nick + Ann-Marie Osmond
17 Chapman Court
Beechdale Mews
Nottingham
NG8 3FQ
United Kingdom
e-mail : hoonaloon@ntlworld.com
It goes without saying, if you`re looking in our EBay shop any time, you`ll no doubt get a favourable deal.
All the Best + Thanks Again,
Ann-Marie + Nick
Hoonaloon Books and Bits
Hoon170 E-Bay UK
Nott`m UK
posted by nickhoonaloon at 8:35 am (EST) on Nov 8, 2006
posted by DeusExLibrus at 8:04 pm (EST) on Nov 7, 2006
posted by DeusExLibrus at 1:59 pm (EST) on Nov 7, 2006
posted by Hermgirl at 2:26 am (EST) on Nov 7, 2006
Also, thank you for your quote heading up your profile. I love it!
PS: I emailed my BF to tell him AsYouKnow_Bob, one of the LT Greats -in my opinion- had commented on my LT profile. I think the phrase I used was, "I could pee myself with glee!"
Hmmm...perhaps a little too much information?? sigh.
posted by cckelly at 12:53 am (EST) on Nov 7, 2006
I'm fortunate that I no longer live so close to The Strand. Time was, I had to get past The Strand and Forbidden Planet to get home from work every day. You can just imagine the carnage. At least you're marginally safer upstate!
If you ever come down to NYC and would like to come to the Met (or maybe hit MoMA without forking over twenty freakin' dollars a head), please let me know!
Best,
Tavia
P.S.: I made my first trip to BookMooch thanks to the link on your profile page. I don't know how you live with yourself. ; )
posted by Instigatrix at 5:02 pm (EST) on Nov 2, 2006
mamachunk
posted by mamachunk at 8:27 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2006
Question: How come you are listed # 1 on the largest libraries on the Zeitgeist, but show up as # 2 if you click on more to see the top 100 (i.e. 500) ? Another LT bug?
posted by alibrarian at 8:47 am (EST) on Oct 26, 2006
mamachunk
posted by mamachunk at 11:32 pm (EST) on Oct 25, 2006
Kelly
posted by Nanaimo at 12:18 am (EST) on Oct 19, 2006
posted by lkish2 at 7:17 pm (EST) on Oct 16, 2006
Going to back to one of my many pet obsessions, have you heard of writer from Great Barrington named Bernard A Drew, author of Dr Du Bois Rebuilds His Dream Home and many, many other books ?
I`ve never heard of him before.
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 12:28 pm (EST) on Oct 16, 2006
And the names! These people needed unusual handles: Cordwainer Smith (Godson of Chiang Kai Shek), James Tiptree (shot her husband and herself to death), and the unassailably weird P. Kindred D.
So, whenever you take knife to box, inhale, then put your fingers to the keyboard and tap out what you've experienced here please.
posted by Nanaimo at 2:38 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2006
Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 8:26 am (EST) on Oct 9, 2006
Yes, you CAN have too many books. My book shelves, including the ones built into the house, are full. My husband, who likes computers more than books, doesn't understand the barbarity behind double stacking.
Anyhow, I just started putting my library up here. It was somewhat shocking to find out that I had 200+ books in only one bookshelf in one room. When I saw your library listed, I had to take a peek.
posted by tygermoonfoxx at 7:58 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2006
posted by nickhoonaloon at 12:36 pm (EST) on Oct 5, 2006
As for socialism - from personal experience, I would say the old idea of change from the `bottom up`, largely through the efforts of grassroots activists, has pretty much gone here.
For a long time, I didn`t want to know about `the good old cause` any more - it`s a long story.Strangely, since my wife and I have been running our own business as booksellers, I find my interest in such matters has returned. I am in touch with one or two friends of my mis-spent youth, and my wife and I are planning to incorporate an element of progressive literature into what is basically a fairly conventional antiquarian book business.
Anyway, I didn`t mean to waffle on about myself this much - getting a bit tired as you might be able to tell. Like you, I`ll have to cut down the Librarything time.
All the Best,
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 7:48 am (EST) on Oct 4, 2006
Are you enjoying the Prog/Lib group ? I really like it.
Very Best Wishes
Nick
posted by nickhoonaloon at 7:20 am (EST) on Oct 3, 2006
Thanks a bunch for your help. I managed to get some help from Abby and was surprised (pleasantly) by the attention to detail from her. This site really is da bees knees!
I think I may have visited Albany when i was 17/18. My late uncle drove a truck for a wine merchants, and he took me with him a coupla times and I got to see Rochester, Binghampton and a few other places I have sadly forgotten. Happy memories of a bygone age! (I sound about 100 years old sometimes)
Thanks for the kind welcome and the good advice.
posted by gerrymcdonald at 8:58 pm (EST) on Sep 27, 2006
I am sorry to trouble you, but since we seem to have similar reading tastes, I was wondering if you could perhaps help me.
I discovered the site yesterday, and was immediately enthralled with the idea of listing all my books online. However when I got to 200 it wanted some dough from me. Fair enough, I thought, and paid for a lifetime membership. However, despite paying the money through paypal and being promised immediate "upgrading", I can't list any more books, and despite sending four e-mails to "abby" I have had no reply.
I was wondering if you could shed some light and perhaps point me in the direction of someone who could sort the mess out.
I'd much appreciate any help or advice you could offer.
Many Thanks in advance
Gerry McDonald (gerrymcdonald) Glasgow, Scotland.
I notice you live in upstate, NY. When I was younger I spent some wonderful summers in Syracuse. Do you live near there?
posted by gerrymcdonald at 12:56 pm (EST) on Sep 26, 2006
posted by bookishbunny at 10:46 am (EST) on Sep 22, 2006
posted by Nanaimo at 9:25 pm (EST) on Sep 17, 2006
posted by bookstopshere at 3:28 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2006
posted by bookstopshere at 12:24 am (EST) on Sep 16, 2006
posted by bookstopshere at 12:21 am (EST) on Sep 12, 2006
posted by romsfuulynn at 11:49 pm (EST) on Sep 10, 2006
posted by Clemens at 9:54 am (EST) on Sep 7, 2006
posted by kencf0618 at 3:11 am (EST) on Aug 29, 2006
posted by alibrarian at 1:30 am (EST) on Aug 5, 2006
posted by Linkmeister at 8:29 pm (EST) on Jul 26, 2006
On the subject of duplicates -
Yes, part of it is from 'acquiring books cheaply and not being ruthless in weeding'.
More of it, though, is having variant editions -- hard- and soft- covers, British and American, ex-library copies that I keep on hand as a loaner after I find a better copy - there's really little resale value in most ex-library book,s after all) - that sort of thing; and a bit of it is overlap from annexing my wife's old sf into 'my' collection.
Some of it - say, Philip K. Dick - is from my being sentimental about ratty old paperbacks that I read as a kid, books that I've since replaced with less fragile reprints. (Sometimes the BETTER copy gets treated as the Reading Copy...).
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 6:32 pm (EST) on Jul 22, 2006
I agree that Amazon has an amazing amount of errors. I think I had to edit almost everything I entered for that source. I may be thought picky for insisting on only a single version of each authors name, and on seeing the title as it apears on the book without bracketed comments after it.
Still you have quite a few things to sort out, just looking at the first few pages:
Dorsai, Radio Free Albemuth, Traitor to the Living, Ensign Flandry etc should have authors. Books by Paul Anderson, Pies Anthony, Brian W. And Kenneth Bulmer Aldiss. There are authors who manage to come before Aaron alphabetically.
Still entering five and a half thousand books in three weeks is pretty good going and it's probably best to get all your books in on a first pass before doing a sweep for Amazon errors.
posted by ringman at 2:51 pm (EST) on Jul 21, 2006
posted by andyl at 5:25 am (EST) on Jul 21, 2006
posted by bluetyson at 1:02 pm (EST) on Jul 14, 2006
It was only a few years ago that I read The Paradox Men and I was blow away by how timeless the story was: there was nothing in it to tell me this was written in 1947. I was also impressed with the very strong female lead. This is one of the top ten books I re-read on a regular basis, as it just never gets boring.
Thanks for your input: maybe more people will have this title as LibraryThing.com grows.
posted by Coruca at 10:22 am (EST) on Jul 9, 2006
posted by Coruca at 5:46 pm (EST) on Jul 7, 2006
( June 14, 1999) by Fred Kaplan:
" Zorn’s apartment consists of an entrance foyer flanked by
two small rooms, in which every inch of wall space is covered by
shelves, sagging with the artifacts of everything that has influenced
him as a composer: twenty-five thousand LPs and seven thousand CDs;
two thousand books of art, philosophy, history, and literature; and two
thousand movies on video or laser disk. The only pieces of furniture
are a mattress on the floor and a small desk, where he composes.
Once upon a time, there was a kitchen, but it was ripped out to make
room for more books and recordings. Lacking a refrigerator, Zorn
either eats out with friends or has his meals delivered."
posted by AsYouKnow_Bob at 10:29 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2006