Show Off Your Bookshelf
 

So it's a pretty slow day for me and I've had this idea for a little while. Show off your bookshelf either by pictures, descriptions, poorly drawn images in mspaint, interpretive dance, etc.

Here's mine in all its glory.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415053PM.jpg

Now here it is shelf-by-shelf

My top shelf, containing all my Role-playing game rule books and supplement books.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415119PM.jpg

Next is my comic shelf, which is sadly pretty empty as most of my collections are loaned out to various people. Also, a shot of Cards Against Humanity, the greatest game to play when you're drunk with horrible people.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415124PM.jpg

Next is a collection of non-fiction and a few fiction books. I've found that a shelf organized by size is quite pleasing to look at.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415131PM.jpg

More non-fiction/ fiction.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415146PM.jpg

Here's my bottom shelf, which is pretty much just a mix of my used fiction and non-fiction. I had to stack it this way so I could fit it all on this shelf.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0415213PM.jpg

And here's the stuff behind the last picture. Again, mostly junky pulp novels, the odd sci-fi title, or really good book.

http://i986.photobucket.com/albums/a...n0430259PM.jpg

My desk "bookshelf"

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMAG0607.jpg

My bedroom bookshelf - full mostly of YA galleys I've accrued from work over the years.

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMAG0608.jpg

My display bookshelves - On the bottom shelf to the left is my collection of Dickens with inscriptions dating between 1898-1902 :D (No, they're not real leather)

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMAG0610.jpg

My living room bookshelf

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMAG0611.jpg

And my other living room (communal) bookshelf - the repeats are due to my roommate and I having similar taste. :)

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...h_IMAG0613.jpg

Your collection reminds me a lot of mine before I moved back to the US in 2009 and subsequently had to sell A LOT of books to make room for the car. That Dali clock you have is awesome too, totally something I would expect from someone who owns a Rubik's cube coffee mug.

Wish I'd taken pictures of my bookshelves before I moved.

( https://www.musicbanter.com/games-li...litz-game.html)

What a pity that only two people have posted their bookshelves so far. I find these snapshots interesting because they don't just show what people read, they show in what kind of squalor people live, haha. !

Funny timing, since I just did a major purge yesterday and traded a whole bunch of books away. Too much stuff that I know I'm never going to read or re-read.

Here's what's left. I only started reading more seriously a few years ago, hence the slim pickings.

Pictured: My main bookshelf. Right side and left side, close enough that you can read the titles.


My brother has borrowed one of my Foster Wallace essay collections, so that's missing.

Not pictured: My art books and comic books.
Also not pictured: Christopher Hitchens - Mortality, since it's outside of the frame to the right :laughing:

I don’t keep books after Ive read them. Instead I frequently verbally remind people that I’m by far the most well read person in the room. It doesn’t take up any space and it’s even more obnoxious and pretentious. And when I’m talking to someone with money, I really shove it down their ****ing throats.

Wow! that is some serious reading, MicShazam! David Foster Wallace seems to be a favourite of yours, and I've never heard of him! At least with Sontag I do better because I've read her novel The Volcano Lover a couple of times. It's a very interesting read; a historical novel, packed, as you may imagine, with ideas about life, art, etc.

My living room bookcase: biogs on the top shelf, novels under. For some reason the image has got turned round, but I'm sure you get the idea:-

I love reading essays about interesting topics and I want to read the thoughts of creative, smart people like Wallace and Sontag. The problem is that they sometimes operate at the limits of my intellectual capacity. Sometimes well over :laughing:
Wallace's books on philosophy and math especially put my poor brain through the wringer. Progress is slow, but I'm patting myself on the back for having read well over a 100 pages of each... phew...
Still, despite this, Wallace and Sontag's essay collections are probably my favorite books so far.

Hitchen's can also be hard to read, but that's more because he's needlessly obtuse in his writing style, than due to his ideas being complex. I'm getting a bit tired of him, actually. Although his short book on cancer and mortality is very much worth reading.

I see a lot of novels, the titles and/or authors of which I recognize, but I have read absolutely none of them! I don't know what is wrong with me, but try as I might, novels just aren't clicking with me. I don't own a single novel anymore, shameful as that is.

I've got plenty of comic books though :shycouch:

^ I've done my share of reading stuff that was difficult to digest, but these days I don't have much patience with authors that are too challenging. But yes, I also like the essay form; it's a sober, under-the-radar form that never gets much attention. I have to say, though, that my favourite essay collections are by journalists, not academics.

^ I wouldn't worry about that MicShazam: you sound like my dad, who once justified not reading novels by saying, "Well, they're not real, are they?"
Today I probably read two non-fiction for each novel I read, although in the past novels absolutely dominated. My attitude used to be, "Non fiction = school text book, so I'm not reading it unless a teacher tells me to"!

^ Well, you deserve a break after all those difficult essayists. :D

I don't have a real bookshelf or anything, but here's what's left after the last round of book donations. Sadly all my non-fiction is packed away (minus God No, which was a gift I haven't read yet).

https://i.imgur.com/aTsxStLh.jpg

That's not your book shelf. You'd never own that kind of water.

^ I think Tolkien is the only name I recognize there, DWV! But I'm guessing the other books are mainly fantasy too. BTW, I used to have exactly the same DIY shelving system in the closet of my previous bedroom. I also like the little teaser in your photo; we can just see the clothes hangers, but not the clothes!

^ Can't make out many titles, Mindfulness, but they seem to be pretty eclectic: Gnostic Bible, Our Universe, Ayn Rand, Basic Electronics, Dan Brown. The topics, like the books, seem to be all over the place ;). You have the untidiest bookcase so far and you seem to be pursuing some arcane alchemical research in your spare time. So kudos on both counts :thumb:

Sontag is difficult, but Wallace is all over the place. Many of his essays, like the one titled "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (in which he goes on a cruise for Harper Magazine and writes about the experience), are light enough and downright funny. He can write both as an academic and as more of a journalist. He's also written several books of fiction, but I've read none of them yet.

I watch plenty of movies and my comics are fiction too, so I don't actually understand why I so strongly prefer non-fiction when it comes to books. So did your dad also not enjoy movies? ... Or comics? :laughing:

That Sandman omnibus is giving me a boner.

Cards Against Humanity is the Greatest. Game. Ever. Linda, Sherri, Scott, Mike, and I, played for hours last Xmas eve and we were all pissing ourselves.

You don't know Neil Gaiman? He's pretty popular right now.Actually the majority of that shelf is fairy tale stuff. The Fables comic series is a fairy tale retelling of all the classic characters living in disguise in the city, and the 5 books Cinder-Winter, is a scifi young adult series retelling the stories of a Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, and a couple others.


OMG, clean yo damn bookshelf. Also, that's blasphemy, you're a fraud. :D

The Last Humans was okay. Young adult dystopian scifi. I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but I had fun reading it. I really like where the story started, but it quickly became predictable. Lots of filler "action" scenes that I didn't really liked compared to the politics.

Have you ever read Orson Scott Card's Enchantment? A modernized version of Sleeping Beauty but oddly tongue-in-cheek and charming about it.

No! Ive never heard of that one but ill def look into it. Sounds like something id really enjoy.

Main shelves:
https://i.imgur.com/HX9agYH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/K7bogke.jpg

Overflow:
https://i.imgur.com/00q9J7m.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7AaWesQ.jpg

Currently reading stack:
https://i.imgur.com/YPQ6l21.jpg

Close ups:

https://i.imgur.com/Uhh1ccu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dhfG2FW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KeOJAwT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/97EsNXC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/i97COfb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rOAwW1M.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yt3u4EW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/b57J7Gp.jpg

So how difficult is Das Kapital? I've heard things.

I'm only a couple hundred pages in, but if you've read any continental philosophy before, you should be able to handle it. It definitely takes focus and could use brevity in places, but his poeticism and the diversity of materials he references make it worth it. I've heard similar things and while there is some dry economics, it's not nearly as rough as I was expecting. I'm also reading David Harvey's companion to Capital, which helps. I prefer it to the manifesto so far, Marx is better when he has space to breathe.

nice book collection, Frown
I don't have much here; I always leeched off my mom's really large collection, basically using it as a library, until corona came and I got stuck here in England without being able to refresh my book pile more than twice a year. So it's only recently that I've had the need to accumulate more books of my own. Also my housing situation is a bit unstable and I don't have a bookcase, so they lie around in chaotic stacks

Geh. I really should start reading all that theory ****. Politically I'm lost and nihilistic aside from being firmly anti-capitalist and grounding my brain with socialist nerd **** might be productive.

Dickinson <3

Are the Bennink and Misha Mengelberg books written by them or about them? My friend and I were just listening to this album yesterday


That Proust set looks really nice. I have an almost 100 year old copy of Swann's Way that I need to get to.

Fanon's very readable, might be a good place to start.

the Mengelberg and Bennink books are about them, gifts from a Dutch jazz friend I made. I spent HOURS tracking down the cheapest copies of these specific Proust editions lol, worth it. Swann's Way is not among them because it's what I'm currently reading (I ordered them weeks ago but one of them got delayed and of course it was book 1)

edit: wait actually no, the Mengelberg book is his own writings! I haven't gotten around to that one yet, now I'm excited

That's awesome, he was a pure soul and I bet his writings capture that.

Photos:
https://i.imgur.com/PrEzcXK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rnP4u9e.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sfGIoM1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/TWoCBaz.jpg

I would be concerned about ruining it by reading it, but I got it for cheap at a bookstore that specializes in antique books which usually means that it's mass produced and easyish to find.

oh that's a beautiful copy!
I guess there's no translation available so I'll report on the Mengelberg book for everyone here who's a fan of his

Nice Tomie too.

Maybe I should read Das Kapital, I thought the manifesto was a bit underwhelming with how short it was and all. I guess it was supposed to be a call to arms rather than a template to base political ideologies off of.

Thanks for reviving this thread and showing us your bookshelves. I found them fascinating to look at.

Shared with Marie:
I've also read Capote, Collins (if it's The Moonstone peaking out from behind your speaker), Kafka, Burroughs, Camus, T.Mann, Joyce, Vonnegut, Dostoyevski and Lovecraft.
Shared with Frownland:
...er, well, I also keep my books on shelves, so we definitely have that in common!

Yeah but Kapital is supposed to be an in depth economic description of how capitalism works. They're two different works with two different purposes with Kapital being an economic science work where socialism beforehand had been a philosophical movement without the receipts to properly call out capitalism as an economic system. At least that's my understanding.

I just ordered volume 1 of Kapital so if anyone wants to start a Kapital reading group I'd be down.

lol

The bolded are all hiding somewhere on my shelves so there'd at least be something for you there. We do have some crossover with Umberto Eco, but I remember you not being a fan of his. I feel like Joseph Heller would be up your alley and I'm working on getting all of his works.

yep, it's the Moonstone. I read it shortly after I commented on Wilkie Collins' female characters in my riot grrrl journal and now I kind of need to revise my conclusions. It led me down a Wilkie-Collins-accidentally(?)-wrote-gay-characters rabbit hole, turns out I'm not the only one having such theories

Also I should clarify that the books called 'Voorouders' are my grandfather's account of my family history and Het Groene Eiland is basically a commie children's book

definitely, let's just include it in the MB book club. That thread needs a bump anyway

Let's make Lenin proud.

I think you might be in for a surprise, Batlord. Frownland mentions that there isn't much "dry economics" in it. Some years back I read this Life of Marx:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...mnrAw&usqp=CAU

Repected Brit author, Francis Wheen said it was bizarre that any country would use Das Kapital as a basis for an economic model, on account of its lack of accurate analysis. If I remember right, he says it'd be like using Lord of The Rings as the basis of a country's foreign policy.
I hope that's not a spoiler, and that you'll find it more interesting, while being less definitive, than you expect.

Haha! Good to know there is some overlap between us, Frownland, and t hanks for remembering my opinion of Umberto Eco. :thumb:
I'm sorry to say that Joseph Heller disappointed me as well; not altogether surprising given the quantity of hype that there used to be around Catch 22.
At least there is some more common ground that I bet we share: biographies of Zappa and Beefheart. In case you want proof, exhibit A is a photo of my bookshelf :post #8 in this thread.

I remember The Moonstone as being a very agreeable, sedate read, but I haven't read anything else by him.
I should also clarify that you have way more Dutch language books than me. ;)

About 30 years ago, I used to try to learn Dutch by reading Marten Toonder.
Wasn’t all that successful.