your home library

[Jonah K]

Re: your home library

How important is book storage in your home? How important are books in your life? What is your "policy" about reading/keeping/distributing books?

Book storage is somewhat important to me and most of my homes have a library. However, considering the humidity/mold/mildew issues in Puna, I tend to store my more valuable books off-island. Unfortunately, the bulk of my Hawaiiana books end up being stored in California, while my places in Puna are full of paperbacks purchased at an airport somewhere.

As for lending books, I often loan some of my books to colleges and universities. When I was a student, I often borrowed books from them, so I'm happy that I'm able to return the favor.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: your home library

The Alpha Female & I are packrats - which means that our little one-bedroom condo is very...shall we say, "lived in"? But when we bought the place after renting it for several years, one of the very first homeowner projects was to discard the mishmash of various and sundry bookshelves that had been with us (individually and collectively) for many years, and to install one entire nicely-matching wall of bookshelves in the living room.

They were 80% filled as soon as we put them up, beyond 100% within two years. I have finally reached the point where I have to do the occasional book-purge to the used-book store --- but only so I have space to add NEW books. (Don't get me started on the record and CD library, which is presently nearing 7000 items...)

One thing I do if I learn that a favorite book has gone out-of-print, is to watch the used-book stores for copies, and I snap up every one I find, just so I can give it away to someone.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: your home library

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

~~~Groucho Marx~~~

[Linkmeister]

Re: your home library

Gee, Pzarq, you might have let me brag my ownself.

Here's a pic of what the main library/bedroom area looked like while in the midst of cataloging books for LT.

Mine's not organized at all on the shelves, except that most books by the same author are together.

[blueyecicle]

Re: your home library

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

~~~Groucho Marx~~~

What no one has heard of a diamond?? Oh, wait that's a woman's best friend!

[Bard]

Re: your home library

Everytime I make it to Portland for any length of time, I drop a benjamin at Powell's books. The best bookstore in the entire world.

Yes!! I am (un)fortunate enough to have my office about 3 blocks from Powell's... that place is both a joy and a bane.

To answer Pz's catalog question, I used to have a custom web app I wrote to do it, with a check-out system and everything. I got too lazy to update it to work with the large numbers of items though, so it fell out of use... now I just manually search through the shelves if I want something, and use a Sticky on the desktop with who has what "checked out". I looked into Delicious Library for a while after getting an iMac with a webcam built in, but the barcode recognition was atrocious. Maybe it works better on the non-integrated iSights.

[Linkmeister]

Re: your home library

Library Thing has a supply of :CueCats which will read barcodes and scan them into its system.

http://www.librarything.com/blog/200...k-in-stock.php

[lihingmui]

Re: your home library

I love books and have more books than bookshelves. I long for the day when I have enough shelf space for all of them. I love the look of books on shelves.

I do have a problem getting rid of books. Confession: I once donated a bunch of books to the local library for their annual sale. There I was, bright and early Saturday morning to buy my books back! OK, in my defense, I didn't buy them all back.

[Honoruru]

Re: your home library

Confession: I once donated a bunch of books to the local library for their annual sale. There I was, bright and early Saturday morning to buy my books back! OK, in my defense, I didn't buy them all back.

That’s funny! I can relate to that.

As for me, I love books, but have a serious space problem. Over the years I’ve been forced to get rid of most of my books for one reason or another. That was painful. Now, I’m left with a single ready-to-assemble bookshelf (where once there were four), and stacks and stacks of books next to my bed, and on my bed as well. I would love to have a room that I could dedicate to books, and buy back all that I got rid of ... and more, of course!

[Bard]

Re: your home library

Library Thing has a supply of :CueCats which will read barcodes and scan them into its system.

Interesting. I have a cousin who worked for Digital Convergence for a while.

[U'ilani]

Re: your home library

Two of my dear friends have built beautiful homes. What they share in common are: they are married with children. Their homes have tile floors and fancy countertops. They live in good neighborhoods and followed smart houseplans. Each woman has an eye for decorating; she knows what she wants her home to become.

And neither house has a single bookcase or shelves for books.



At each of their housewarmings, I noticed this and asked where they were going to store their books. Both women told me that they aren't into books. Books are to be read and passed on. The first housewarming took place over the summer, and I mulled it over at the time. But last night was the second gathering, and I sit here stuck in my thoughts about it.

How important is book storage in your home? How important are books in your life? What is your "policy" about reading/keeping/distributing books?

I think regardless of income level, some people are drawn to books and others simply aren't. I grew up in a very modest house, and yet my parents were avid readers. I have friends here who live in luxury homes but enjoy filling their nights watching reality t.v. shows rather than reading. Also, I think having young children makes reading very difficult--especially if you work outside the home and are still nursing, zapping you of all your energy (a situation I was in for several years, during which time I was definitely "not into books"). Now that my kids are older, I am making up for lost time by reading 1 to 2 books per week.

Regarding book storage, I have a built-in bookcase in the walk-in closet of my home office (one of the main reasons why I wanted to buy this house). I must admit, though, that I am very unorganized, and so my books are primarily stored in scattered places--the top of the dryer in the laundry room, clumped up behind my laptop on my desk, on top of the weight scale in the bathroom, and even tucked into the railing of my son's bed. I also always carry a book with me in my purse.

[amethyst9]

Re: your home library

I'm hopelessly addicted to books. After I've moved (twice in the past 6 years, after living in the same place for 17 years) and have donated books, when I got to the new place I missed some of them and had to replace them. But they don't always have the same cover, they're reissues. *sigh* It shouldn't matter...

My family loves to receive author signed books. Why would you want to give those away ?

And then there are those gems I've found by serendipity - the first editions. I have to keep those. Maybe I'll sell them someday, but we'll see.

And I love some illustrators of children's books. I have no grandchildren, but I collect these and probably wouldn't want them to be handled by a young child.

I've given up on cookbooks, though. I used to like buying these, especially the ones with lots of writing about the ethnic background of various dishes. Now I just go online for recipes.

Many times I buy books at second-hand stores now (or library book sale.) I'm trying to keep them confined to the one large and two small bookcases I own. If I'm tempted to buy a new book, I try to weed out one or two first, but it's not easy.

I have a lot of travel guides, too. These I do recycle and update from time to time... not a lot of re-sale value in them, though.

[amethyst9]

Re: your home library

Pua`i, I swear we were meant for each other. When are you going to come to your senses and get over here?

For as long as I can remember, the location of my books has been a constant awareness, the way the location of my shoes is, or the location of my keys. ... My own limited book-space was a yearly concern: Because I knew I'd be getting books for Christmas (and for my birthday a few days after that), my mom required that every winter before the holidays, I pick out several for donation to the Salvation Army in order to make room for the next year.

When I'm invited into someone's home, one of the first things I look for is the bookshelf (the music shelf is the next). Every time I've had to move from one house to another, the biggest concern has been which books were going to make the move with me. I simply do not understand (and I try) people who do not read. ...

A very, very close friend of mine was engaged to one of my best friends, and in most ways I could think of, it seemed like a good match, except that the guy just doesn't read. I was sure the marriage either wouldn't last or wouldn't happen, and I was right. How much is attributable to that one difference I do not know, but it probably was symptomatic of a few other differences. That's what I think, anyway.

I dream of having a place to live where one whole room is just for books. ...

ps: Please don't steal this idea from me, anyone who might be reading this, but I'd like my wedding to be in the Hawaii State Library, in the courtyard. I know that as the guy in this eventual (maybe) relationship, I'll have very little say about things like this, but it would be so cool.

Hey, that's a beautiful setting for a wedding ! Good luck on bringing it to fruition. You may start a tradition!

My son had the same problem as your friend, with the girl he was dating. She wasn't a reader. She's a sweetheart, there are worse things in life than not being a reader, but our family always has reading material around and carries it with us... and it's a culture shock to meet people not like that.

[amethyst9]

Re: your home library

Our own Linkmeister has been quite enthusiastic about a site called Library Thing. He's blogged about it here and here and here and here... It helps you inventory, organize, and search your library, browse others' collections, and -- thanks to the cell phone interface -- check it while browsing the aisles of your library or bookstore to make sure you don't buy a second copy of something you already own.


Do you keep an inventory of your library? How do you keep it all organized?

Mahalo for the inventory link. I'm checking it out now.

I don't inventory my library, except one section (religious, since I may loan out something rare from this one and want it back.) I often end up shelving by size, since different shelves have different heights. I try to keep hardcover valuables out of direct light. Most children's books are together. Most travel guides are together. Paperbacks are often stuck behind others to save space.
If I have books on a similar topic, they are roughly next to each other. Topics I have (mentally) are Polynesia, Asia, China, Civil Rights, Harlem Rennaissance, Jazz, Crafts, Gardening, various National Geographic (publisher), Self-Help, Poetry. I rarely have more than 2 books by the same author. Fiction gets the leftover spaces.

I do inventory my music and try to cross-reference by artist and side artists and genre and date and instrument. (et al) When I've moved and weeded out books, I know which ones I miss after I get settled and usually am able to replace them. But for music I miss terribly all my old LPs. Achingly miss them. They can rarely be replaced. And sometimes I miss the jacket of the LP as much as the album. A CD facsimile just doesn't convey the same thing as the LP jacket did. And sometimes they are changed and the liner notes are tiny and hard to read!

So, a bit of advice. When you have to choose, choose to shed your books before you do your music. Even if the album was a cassette or CD, if it is rare, you may have to wait years to replace it, if at all. One time, a new CD came out with the same title as the old album, but the songs were in a different order and it wasn't the same! I had to wait years for it to be re-released as it was originally. Even if you make CDs with various favorite songs from many artists, there may come a day when you want to burn a new CD including an obscure song from one of your discarded albums. And no one will have it, because it wasn't a 'hit' song.

Occasionally, I try to rate my 'things' by favorites and put away some of the others. If I don't miss the ones stored away, or want to get one out to reference it, then I know that I can part with it.

I love all you book lovers!

[scrivener]

Re: your home library

Pua`i, I thought of you when I saw this:

30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs.