First World Problem

[Toddy]

I do.
I don't watch tv though, and though my laptop is on my desk, right now I'm reading a book that Tom bear recommended last week..."Traditional food in Northumbria", by Peter Brears...it's excellent, interesting and I recommend it too
I'm also reading
"Folded Flowers", by Kumiko Sudo (I am regularly accused of leaving bits of folded paper everywhere I go) and, "The noticeably stouter book of general ignorance", by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. (Qi)

I think it's normal to have multiple books on the go Half the fun of visiting friends is to have a looksee at their books

M

 

[TeeDee]

I do.
I don't watch tv though, and though my laptop is on my desk, right now I'm reading a book that Tom bear recommended last week..."Traditional food in Northumbria", by Peter Brears...it's excellent, interesting and I recommend it too
I'm also reading
"Folded Flowers", by Kumiko Sudo (I am regularly accused of leaving bits of folded paper everywhere I go) and, "The noticeably stouter book of general ignorance", by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. (Qi)

I think it's normal to have multiple books on the go Half the fun of visiting friends is to have a looksee at their books

M

But will you keep and then read the books a 2nd or 3rd time?

 

[Toddy]

Yes. Books are like friends one visits through the years. I might not read a book again for a while, but it's there, and it's physical reality on the shelf stirs my memory. Having a borrowed one returned is like having an old friend come home

The book of general ignorance is my son's, and I only have a loan of it. Books pass around the family.
Some, like many of the gluten free cookbooks I've bought, end up passed along to friends and neighbours with the quiet mention to just find a good home for it. Some of those books are more like magazines, of surface interest, one or two nuggets, and rather a lot of blah.

Good books though those I keep, and I do read again.

I have a Sony reader thingie, but I really cannot be bothered with it. My husband says he has thousands of books on his, but admits he never reads the majority of them.
The books I keep, those I read.

 

[TeeDee]

I have a Sony reader thingie, but I really cannot be bothered with it. My husband says he has thousands of books on his, but admits he never reads the majority of them.
The books I keep, those I read.

I agree on the Ebooks - To my ethical green brain makes perfect sense and everything about it makes me want to ' buy in ' to it.

But I find them soulless and dead to my eyes..

Even audio books that i listen to I find turn into background noise if my mind drifts from the moment.

 

[Toddy]

I thought it'd be wonderful. An entire library in a thinner than a book shaped thing. The reality is that I'm not a robot or a computer, and the entire thing is a cold and somehow unappealing to use.

I'd rather have a book. I know when working away from home and limited in what I could take, then I did use it, but it's a pain to mind and see that it's charged, etc.,

Each to their own, the youngsters among us think of them as normal.

 

[Nice65]

I agree on the Ebooks - To my ethical green brain makes perfect sense and everything about it makes me want to ' buy in ' to it.

But I find them soulless and dead to my eyes..

Even audio books that i listen to I find turn into background noise if my mind drifts from the moment.

Same for me. A Kindle is handy for holidays or a few chapters of a novel before bed, but books are books.

I have some lovely ones, The Apple Book, Bark, The Eternal Yew, that could never transfer to a digital format. Writing and images on paper that’s easy to find on the bookshelf is as important as being able to Google a quick bit of info that takes you further. It’s not a case of one or the other.

 

[forrestdweller]

I have a question for those with seemingly small libraries

Do you intend to read these books again?

i drove two years around Oz, cycled a year around Nz and lived on a farm without electricity -- reading by the light of my head torch was one way to pass the evening, even if it meant reading the same books over and over

 

[Billy-o]

Put it next to your Bible along with the Norse Sagas

I wouldn't seperate it out as literature - there is a ton of really well written mythology/religion and commentary on it which could be parsed as literature, but what's the point - J. G. Frazer, Evelyn Underhill, Gersholm Scholem, Robert Graves, William James etc.

Bathroom shelf is usually the most learned

 

[Robson Valley]

I have collected works and multivolume sets (fictions) on the top-most shelves. The rest of my little "library" consists of documentaries and reference books. Popular ones don't share shelves with honest text books. One shelf is melody line music books. A meter of them ( I measured). The rest of that shelf is/are the "classics". Homer, Darwin and others I've long since forgotten.

One shelf is the dross of 30+ years at the same desk in the same office. All the weird **** that kicks about in the drawers. Even a Pickett magnesium alloy slide rule and an early but dead Hewlett-Packard calculator. Some bottles of pickled specimens. The great spider web of autumn 2002 silk samples.

Another shelf is a growing collection of popular and obscure writings about the First Nations peoples here in the Pacific Northwest. More in the post at the moment, actually.
I do use many of the reference books. For details of things I did at work that slipped away.
Altogether? Less than 3,000 titles. No more than 50 titles in the cookbook collection in the kitchen book case. Maybe another 100 in a book case beside me.

 

[Paul_B]

"Illiad" should go into the "military history" section, "Odyssee" into "travel literature"
o.k., kidding aside... recently i stumbled across the theory that the Trojan War happened in England and not in Turkey..

I read that the founders of Briton were from the trojan war iirc. I believe it was a collection of Briton myths collected by Gaiman who aiui is a big Tolkien fan. Tolkien being an expert in various northern European myths and cultures such as old English and norse. The earliest settlers were giants led by Albion iirc.

 

[Paul_B]

"Illiad" should go into the "military history" section, "Odyssee" into "travel literature"
o.k., kidding aside... recently i stumbled across the theory that the Trojan War happened in England and not in Turkey..

I read that the founders of Briton were from the trojan war iirc. I believe it was a collection of Briton myths collected by Gaiman who aiui is a big Tolkien fan. Tolkien being an expert in various northern European myths and cultures such as old English and norse. The earliest settlers were giants led by Albion iirc

The 'Military History' shelf* (as opposed to the 'History' (non-military) shelf) is full.
There's no room left in the inn.
That was part of the motivation behind having a bit of a sort out. By re-categorising some books I have made space in other sections.
I have, alas, reached book critical mass. The next step would be to get rid of some books, and that's just not going to ruddy well happen.

*Otherwise known as the 'Dad Book Shelf'.

How's your woodworking skills? Can't you knock up a few more bookshelves. Do the existing shelves go up to your ceiling? If not there's more wall space to take shelves. More shelves delay the critical mass of books. Problem solved, more shelf space and expand the full sections further. You need to think outside the box or shelf for a solution.

Illiad and odyssey are poetry first and foremost. To forget that oral origin of them is to do disservice to them imho. They were always meant to be spoken more than just read if that makes sense. All good poetry should be read out loud imho. Not that I do.

If we don't know of the war is myth or true can you really put it in myths or history? That leaves literature because that can be based on real events or completely made up. Looks like you need to free space up in literature section by other means.

BTW I recently went to the largest secondhand book store in the UK. I went looking for ancient Greek classics in the loeb series imprint. Nothing! Got sent to myths, then mythical literature, then classics (which were all modern classics not old classics). Absolutely not one book from the classical Greek or roman era of literature, philosophy and histories. I was thoroughly disgusted! Even my old small town used to stock them. A lot of them at one time.

 

[Tengu]

How does Dewey classify it?

 

[Toddy]

Somewhere in the 880's.
Which is back to the original problem. Is it classical prose, fiction, or classical history.....and that's only if it's in English.

I've just had a look on Wikipedia, as one does .....

• 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures
  • 880 Classical Greek literature and literatures of related Hellenic languages
  • 881 Classical Greek poetry
  • 882 Classical Greek drama
  • 883 Classical Greek epic poetry and fiction
  • 884 Classical Greek lyric poetry
  • 885 Classical Greek speeches
  • 886 Classical Greek letters
  • 887 Classical Greek humor and satire
  • 888 Classical Greek miscellaneous writings
  • 889 Modern Greek literature

 

[oldtimer]

We have attempted to solve the problem of too many books in two ways.

1 Move house. This entails selecting only those books we really want to keep and donating the rest to Oxfam. The fact that our son was deputy director of Oxfam trading with a direct involvement in the bookshops is irrelevant. For years after every move we search vainly for books we need urgently but no longer own. It has been known for us to buy back books we have donated from Oxfam.

2 Read books on Kindle. This alleviates the bookshelf space problem but not the classification problem. Homer is under myths and legends and Sophocles with drama. Also my Kindle reader is now telling me it "does not have enough space to download your latest purchase" .

 

[Paul_B]

Reduce your classification system. Fiction, non fiction and maps. Anything else is being fussy!

I have few classifications. My books, her books, his books, maps, maps I think I'll use more often and books in various stages of being read.

The last classification is otherwise known as dumped where we were last time we picked it up to read. My son is very good at locating this classification all over the house and it's a pain picking up after him. He's only 8/9 but he's a cracking reader. The biggest volume of Harry Potter was read over 2 days for example and that's aimed at 13 upwards I think. That's even with catering for his minecraft obsession!

Me I'm a struggling reader. I've not got the patience to read but if I ever get into a book I'm there for the long haul! Hyper focus and nothing else exists! I think my family is glad I don't read as much since they came along. I do however own rather too many books. First lockdown was great once the library round the corner opened for lucky 6 book bags. I found so many writers I enjoyed. I hesitate say good writers though as one was Lee childs a pulp book author that churns them out.

 

[Billy-o]

Yes fiction or non fiction but would you do with Roberto Calasso or Mary Renault or David Caute

 

[Toddy]

Novels.
All with a heavy undercurrent of violence, sexual exploitation and a derivative narrative that uses past writings and twists them to suit their own......just my tuppence ha'penny worth, iimmc ?

 

[Toddy]

Isn't synchronicity a wonder ?

I finised on BcUK and went to read the news on the BBC site....and they have this article

What does reading on screens do to our brains?

We’re reading more than ever before – but much of it is on screens rather than physical books. Is it changing the way our brains work?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tengu]

My books these days are always for research; its great I have a study I enjoy.

Other things are from the book exchange; and may go back there when finished.

But I seldom pick up a book I only want to read once

Do you have a book exchange? all our telephone boxes have a new lease of life as one.

 

[Paul_B]

Isn't synchronicity a wonder ?

I finised on BcUK and went to read the news on the BBC site....and they have this article

What does reading on screens do to our brains?

We’re reading more than ever before – but much of it is on screens rather than physical books. Is it changing the way our brains work?

www.bbc.co.uk

What did it say. I got bored after 21 seconds.