Sun 11 Dec 2005
The process of moving to a new home has gotten me thinking about a subject that I’m guessing is near and dear to many salonniers’ hearts: Living with books. Having been soundly mocked by my new housemates for the sheer quantity of books I live with and my method of organizing them, I decided to pose the following questions to my fellow bibliophiles. Please answer one or some or all, as you like!
1. Do you organize your books? If so, what’s your system?
2. Are you more likely to buy a book or try to get it from the library?
3. Do you ever get rid of books? If so, where?
4. How do you decide which new books to choose? Recommendations from friends? Reviews in the newspaper? Other?
5. Do you lend your books out? To just anyone?
6. Hardback or paperback?
I’m looking forward to comparing notes!
5 Responses to “Living With Books”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
December 18th, 2005 at 4:03 am
I organize my books, but I’m less consistent about it than I would have expected. I group them by genre, where Kiri-genres include “books I absolutely adore and cannot live without”, “general fiction”, “sci-fi/fantasy”, “science/philosophy”, “geology”, “computer science”, “humor/childhood”, and “books I don’t care for but haven’t yet discarded”. Then, within a genre I generally alphabetize. So far this has worked pretty well for me.
I buy books if I’m feeling impulsive or want to support a bookstore, or if it’s a book by anyone on my author hot-list (which is short). Otherwise, I try to get it at the library, to see if I like it. I’m generally more likely to buy books than to buy DVDs, though: I’m trying to keep my DVD collection very sparse, with only movies that I really adore.
I get rid of books by donating them to the library. I lend books to people I trust :) And finally, I have a paperback bias — they’re so much easier physically to work with (lighter, flexible).
And how would you answer each question?
December 22nd, 2005 at 1:40 am
This train of thought began with a conversation with Boyfriend while I was unpacking my books. He said, “what would you do if one day I just rearranged all the books and put them all out of order?” (For the record, he has never done this). I just stood there, blinking uncomprehendingly for a minute before replying, “why would anyone do that?” It would be like…like…wearing someone else’s underwear. (For the record, he does not do that, either).
Be that as it may, I arrange my books into these categories: Novels, short fiction, poetry, law-related nonfiction, other nonfiction, books in French, books in Italian, and the most prestigious category of all, books that are too tall to fit. Novels are by far the most abundant, filling multiple bookcases, followed by legal nonfiction, which consists mostly of fat, lovely books on the history and jurisprudence of civil rights and human rights. Needless to say, if a work of legal nonfiction were to wander into, say, the poetry section, I would be Quite Distressed.
I must confess I haven’t been to the library for any purpose other than research for years and years. I buy my books because I get attached to them. My books are like friends – even if I’m not actively looking at them, it’s comforting to know they are there if I need them. That said, I am extremely finicky about which ones I will buy, so I pretty rarely get a lemon (”rarely” is not “never”…ask me sometime about Home Land by Sam Lipsyte, a novel so bad it made me wish I were illiterate).
Because I am finicky about what I buy, I rarely get rid of books. When I do, I give them to Goodwill or another charity. I love to share the books I like the best, so I will lend my books to pretty much anyone off the street, but if they don’t return my book they don’t get another one, ever.
Like Kiri, I prefer paperbacks, mostly because I am poor. I have a few special favorites and books that I reference frequently in hardback.
So, I have to know, Kiri: What’s your “author hot-list?”
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:16 am
I must say that my books fall into six categories:
1) Books I am reading
2) Books on my floor next to my bookcase.
3) Computing Reference (In my office)
4) Science Fiction paperbacks
5) Mathematics and Science
6) Religion
I get rid of books about as often as I get rid of friends (I leave them somewhere, forget about them, and spend the rest of my life wishing I could remember where I left them).
Personally, I like trade paperback. Mass-market are slightly less comfortable to read, but I would not really pay much extra for the privilege of fewer page turns. Hardbacks are heavy, and I prefer them only for reference material.
My hot list definitely includes Robin McKinley! So good!
December 31st, 2005 at 7:41 am
My book categorizations fall into a few categories: Boxes, Floor, Shelf and Work books.
Boxed books are ones that haven’t been dug out of their boxes since moving. They usually end on as Floor books, if they get read.
Floor books are partially sorted in chronological stacks in reverse order of purchase, or reverse order of reading.
Shelf books are probably still the majority (I hope!)
These are sorted by topic, then alphabetically by author, then by height (or suitable order for series).
Feminist writers, gender/queer studies, literary criticism, philosophy of science/math, etc.
History, diplomacy and politics
Comics/graphic novels
Role-playing game rulebooks
Fiction (several shelves)
Natural languages (linguistics, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Tamil, Swedish, Dutch, Hebrew, Arabic, English)
Computers
Mathematics
High school papers
Work books are books I take to work (and rarely, books that belong to work). Usually these are either related to what I am currently doing, interesting to read while doing something that doesn’t require constant attention, or books that I’d like people to see. (Reading in public is a different, possibly interesting, topic.)
Since college, I haven’t used libraries for anything. I am tempted to see if there are any interesting programs to volunteer for (like reading to kids, adults, etc.) at my local library.
I never get rid of books: if a book is good, I may want to reread it. If one is bad, I don’t want to inflict it on anyone else. If it is mediocre, I may still want to reread it.
Recommendations from friends and reviews both have influenced my reading list (the book reviews were why I first started reading Foreign Affairs, say). For genre fiction, seeing who authors I like recommend, and who people who like authors I like recommend, is a major method. Interviews, conventions, etc., are good for this. Browsing at stores has been a major source. E.g., I first read Paul Russell while in California because his “The Salt Point” caught my eye with its mid-Hudson Valley title. I also make pretty ample use of Amazon’s recommendation systems.
Lending books I like makes me nervous, as it’s too often tantamount to giving them away. And I hate it when people crease my paperback spines. Hate hate hate. (This is not as relevant for books I’ve bought used.)
Hardback or paperback? Yes, please! I’m not too fond of e-books, though.
December 31st, 2005 at 12:13 pm
Natarajan, I’m intrigued by your suggestion of “reading in public” as a discussion topic. Will you get us started?
I can’t help but notice that both the guys who have responded consider “On the floor” to be an organizational category. Hmm… ;)