Your Personal Library

[Orlion Blight]

@Extesian How's the Gordon Ramsey book? 

[+Extesian]

16 minutes ago, Orlion On a Cob said:

@Extesian How's the Gordon Ramsey book? 

I love it! Gordon is my favorite chef inn the world (going to his flagship restaurant is my favorite culinary experience) because of his balance with flavors. His home cooking book is one you use if you want to follow recipes exactly but guarantee you'll have something perfectly balanced. A fair bit of French influence but without being regional French

[Leiasqz]

4 hours ago, Draginon said:

@Leiasqz that's an interesting way to sort your books. Do you prefer the U.K. or US version of the covers you have both versions of? I like that you have the U.K. version of Discworld. I like the simple look done here, but I hate how they decide to translate from British to US English so the first book here is Color of Magic instead of the actual title of Colour of Magic. Also what books are in the back on the third shelf? I see Eye of the World and Dragon Reborn.

I assume you mean the "sort by height" and not the "sort by genre" ? I don't know, I find it gives the whole thing a tidier look, and it's also more effective for not having too much empty space in the shelves. Sometimes it's annoying, because you would think books in the same series have the same height, but no. Then height trumps it, although I do try to keep the books on the same shelf at least, which works until you get to the series you have both in paperback and hardcover. So yeah, maybe harder for finding everything, but the living room still looks tidy.

As for the covers. For the Sandersoon books I actually prefer the US covers, basically because it has the same style as the Recluce books and the Wheel of Time books, for the most part. Or everything Tor.

The back of the third shelf are just books I bought the latest or for some reason removed to make more room (and the shelf is already full so they're there until I can do a new critical sweep and possibly bring something upstairs). That shouldn't include the Wheel of Time, but it does, because I recently met a friend I hadn't seen in 15 years, and realized that the first six books of that series weren't mine, but his . So I gave them back and started buying the hardcover version (I'm in the middle of the Great Hunt which is why it isn't there). There's also the Lightbringer series, two copies of The Way of Shadows, Feast of Souls, the first two Malazen books, and one of my WoR copies.

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Leiasqz
Typo

[Draginon]

8 hours ago, Leiasqz said:

I assume you mean the "sort by height" and not the "sort by genre" ? I don't know, I find it gives the whole thing a tidier look, and it's also more effective for not having too much empty space in the shelves. Sometimes it's annoying, because you would think books in the same series have the same height, but no. Then height trumps it, although I do try to keep the books on the same shelf at least, which works until you get to the series you have both in paperback and hardcover. So yeah, maybe harder for finding everything, but the living room still looks tidy.

As for the covers. For the Sandersoon books I actually prefer the US covers, basically because it has the same style as the Recluce books and the Wheel of Time books, for the most part. Or everything Tor.

The back of the third shelf are just books I bought the latest or for some reason removed to make more room (and the shelf is already full so they're there until I can do a new critical sweep and possibly bring something upstairs). That shouldn't include the Wheel of Time, but it does, because I recently met a friend I hadn't seen in 15 years, and realized that the first six books of that series weren't mine, but his . So I gave them back and started buying the hardcover version (I'm in the middle of the Great Hunt which is why it isn't there). There's also the Lightbringer series, two copies of The Way of Shadows, Feast of Souls, the first two Malazen books, and one of my WoR copies.

 

I meant it was interesting because you have A Dance of Dragons at the top but the others towards the bottom. Same with other series being split up. Didn't even notice the height thing.

I prefer the US covers for Brandon as well. They just look more like illustrations and paintings, or just plain cool!, while the U.K. ones are really abstract and two tone which just doesn't click for me. Heck I like the US version of covers more but there are exceptions like the UK cover for The Book of Dust 1 and the U.K. covers for Discworld.

How embarrassing to have a set of books for that long and not realize they weren't yours. XD I liked WOT and have it all in paperback, except for AMOL since I got that just after release in hardcover. I prefer hardcover or the medium to large paperbacks since the smaller one feels too small to read and is a pain to read when you're towards the beginning or very end because those ends are 'stiffer' or whatever the term is.

[Leiasqz]

2 hours ago, Draginon said:

I meant it was interesting because you have A Dance of Dragons at the top but the others towards the bottom. Same with other series being split up. Didn't even notice the height thing.

Yep, that's the drawback of sorting by height, like mentioned earlier. The rest of my Martin books are in paperback, so heightwise they fit on a completely different shelf. It would possibly have made more sense to have Dance at the bottom shelf (closer to the others), but that shelf is reserved for Modesitt and Sanderson HC books (although the Modesitt ones are starting to bleed over into the top shelf already because there's just so many of them). The top shelf is more for "standalone" or "small series" so Dance went there. I actually moved some Modesitt books around now that you mentioned it though (to fit the next two Imager books where they belong).

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Leiasqz
typo

[Draginon]

1 hour ago, Leiasqz said:

Yep, that's the drawback of sorting by height, like mentioned earlier. The rest of my Martin books are in paperback, so heightwise they fit on a completely different shelf. It would possibly have made more sense to have Dance at the bottom shelf (closer to the others), but that shelf is reserved for Modesitt and Sanderson HC books (although the Modesitt ones are starting to bleed over into the top shelf already because there's just so many of them). The top shelf is more for "standalone" or "small series" so Dance went there. I actually moved some Modesitt books around now that you mentioned it though (to fit the next two Imager books where they belong).

 

Must be pretty interesting if you get a book that doesn't fit on the shelf. That's why in my pictures AMOL isn't with the rest of WOT, that shelf is smaller so I put it with my random hardcovers.

I'm starting to get into organizing my shelves, not by genre, but more by series and if they are similar in feel. Some I'm putting by author if I have a bunch from them, like Sanderson where I'm designating a shelf just for him.

[Erandeni]

Mine is pretty small and chaotic:

Sorry for the low quality, my phone does what it can.

[Draginon]

@Idealistic So you're Spanish? I can't read Spanish that well but I can make a good guess at your Sanderson books: Elantris (pretty obvious why), Mistborn The Final Empire, The Well of Ascention, The Hero of Ages, in guessing Alloy of Law, in guessing Shadows of Self, I have no clue, The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance.

[Erandeni]

@Draginon you are right guessing AoL and SoS, only missed Warbreaker.

[Draginon]

Just now, Idealistic said:

@Draginon you are right guessing AoL and SoS, only missed Warbreaker.

That's a pretty long title for Warbreaker

[Erandeni]

10 minutes ago, Draginon said:

That's a pretty long title for Warbreaker

It's one of those times when they change completely the title, in Spanish the title of Warbreaker is "El Aliento De Los Dioses" (the breath of the gods), for these kind of things I complain about spanish traslations.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Idealistic

[rmmateus]

5 hours ago, Idealistic said:

Mine is pretty small and chaotic:

Sorry for the low quality, my phone does what it can.

The Tolkien book, is it the Lord of the Rings trilogy? What is the cover like? Is it in Spanish?

[Erandeni]

6 minutes ago, rmmateus said:

The Tolkien book, is it the Lord of the Rings trilogy? What is the cover like? Is it in Spanish?

Yes, it's the whole trilogy in a single book, it is in Spanish, the cover is like this:

[rmmateus]

1 minute ago, Idealistic said:

Yes, it's the whole trilogy in a single book, it is in Spanish, the cover is like this:

Thanks. It's beautiful. I have the three books in Portuguese and the covers are also by the same artist. But I managed to find an edition in English with the three books in it. I was just wondering if the cover was the same. Mine has Gandalf on it.

[Draginon]

4 hours ago, Idealistic said:

It's one of those times when they change completely the title, in Spanish the title of Warbreaker is "El Aliento De Los Dioses" (the breath of the gods), for these kind of things I complain about spanish traslations.

It's always weird when titles get changed. A Dane I know once told me how Disney's Rapunzel, hate the name Tangled, was called Two on the Run! Japanese is really weird when translators do the English version. The sounds can sometimes have two spellings, like do you use ō or ou to show its elongated for example, so the translator is always taking a risk over what fans use, the accent elongation, or what they think makes sense, the non-accent elongation or just do the one letter so ō might just become an o.

1 hour ago, Idealistic said:

Yes, it's the whole trilogy in a single book, it is in Spanish, the cover is like this:

Had to look that up because it didn't sound right, because of the senor part, but google translate showed it was 100% accurate.

[Iarwainiel I]

Finally had the time to get this image together.

It shows everything I have except arts & crafts books and what I'm reading now. Decades of amassed Book Wealth!

Almost all the shelves are 2-books-deep (you can't see the back rows so I labelled them).

Absolutely all the shelves are somewhat disorganized.  

This is a great thread! Thanks to the OP and everyone who's contributed!!

 

[Draginon]

@old aggie wow, you've certainly got multiple copies stuck in there. It was interesting trying to find where all the Sanderson books were, like a game of hide and seek.

[Iarwainiel I]

1 minute ago, Draginon said:

@old aggie wow, you've certainly got multiple copies stuck in there. It was interesting trying to find where all the Sanderson books were, like a game of hide and seek.

LOL - wow, I didn't intend to create a game, but I guess I did. I just re-read TWoK & WoR, so they're out of place. Alcatraz is hiding behind them at the moment.

Yes, I've got multiple copies of books that I give away to folks who show interest - I almost never loan books anymore. I'm running a little low on "Dog On It" just now; I bet I've given 20 copies of that away. (I pick them up for cheap at Half Price, etc., whenever I can.)

[Leiasqz]

@old aggie Looking at all your shelves labelled "Christian". Are those because you're religious or because you're interested in the history of religion and what they actually say (or both)?

Just wondering because my bookshelf has a huge section with a book series called "All the worlds holy texts" which I'm trying to read because I'm interested in what they say, all their stories of religions around the world. And then I'm also interested in old mythologies and other "dead" religions. But I'm not religious, so sometimes people get confused of my shelves.

[Ammanas]

@Leiasqz Since you seem interested by world religions have you ever heard of Mithraism? Not much is known about it and, although I am very happy with my current religion, I always thought I would fit in well with Mithraism. One of my favorite things is the seven degrees of initiation: Raven, Bridegroom, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Sun-Runner, and Father.

Also have you ever read any books by Karen Armstrong? I think she brings a unique perspective to religion.

[Leiasqz]

15 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Since you seem interested by world religions have you ever heard of Mithraism?

I hadn't! Now I have It looks interesting. Rome is on our list of places we haven't been to yet that you have to see at least once in your life, so now I guess I have some more things to look for when we get there.

17 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Also have you ever read any books by Karen Armstrong?

Not that either, it seems But I already saw the name in your "non fiction" post and got interested, so I'll look into finding something to use my 2 current Audible credits for. Any recommended starting point?

[Ammanas]

1 minute ago, Leiasqz said:

I hadn't! Now I have It looks interesting. Rome is on our list of places we haven't been to yet that you have to see at least once in your life, so now I guess I have some more things to look for when we get there.

Not that either, it seems But I already saw the name in your "non fiction" post and got interested, so I'll look into finding something to use my 2 current Audible credits for. Any recommended starting point?

Well, I don't know if I can recommend the audiobooks bc the author reads most of her works and she doesn't have the most exciting voice. Maybe you can look past it? I really liked: 1. A History of God  (her most famous book) 2. Fields of Blood  (I am not quite sure if I believe in all of her ideas in this one, but I think her ideas were well presented and gave a unique outlook I haven't really heard expressed much elsewhere)

[Draginon]

10 hours ago, old aggie said:

LOL - wow, I didn't intend to create a game, but I guess I did. I just re-read TWoK & WoR, so they're out of place. Alcatraz is hiding behind them at the moment.

Yes, I've got multiple copies of books that I give away to folks who show interest - I almost never loan books anymore. I'm running a little low on "Dog On It" just now; I bet I've given 20 copies of that away. (I pick them up for cheap at Half Price, etc., whenever I can.)

In anticipation of Oathbringer i bet

I'm with you there. I don't like loaning books because I know how other people behave with books that aren't theirs. Heck at my job, I work in the curriculum department for a school, you have no idea how many books come back looking like we've had them for 20 years, covers ripped off or in two pieces! The length of time they read for required reading is ridiculous though. Sarah Plain and Tall is a pretty short book, less than 100 pages, so that should be a read for a couple weeks at most right? Nope, the teacher returns them 5 months later! I did the calculations and the only way that would be possible is if they were reading a paragraph a day. My mom thinks I'm out of line there because I'm a fast reader and some kids are illiterate, these are high school students not young elementary students or foreigners who don't know English, but no one could spend 5 months on a book that's shorter than most short stories unless they were deliberately not reading it.

Sorry, that devolved into something else entirely 

[Leiasqz]

10 hours ago, Ammanas said:

Well, I don't know if I can recommend the audiobooks bc the author reads most of her works and she doesn't have the most exciting voice. Maybe you can look past it?

I tried a sample on Audible and see what you mean Textbook and/or kindle version it is then

Now what should I use those Audible credits for. The recommendation system is a bit off, since it keeps recommending me books I have in other formats (for example, it keeps insisting i get all the Sanderson books for some reason... But I own them already!).

[Ammanas]

20 minutes ago, Leiasqz said:

Now what should I use those Audible credits for. The recommendation system is a bit off, since it keeps recommending me books I have in other formats (for example, it keeps insisting i get all the Sanderson books for some reason... But I own them already!).

I really like The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu read by Michael Krammer. If you go the audiobook route you need to download a map for free online. The author jumps around the continent a lot but it is a excellent book. Nick Poedehl does a amazing job making the king killer chronicles come alive. I also love The Dresden Files audiobooks narrated by James Marsters  (the first three books are ok, but from 4 onwards it is amazing)

Edited July 31, 2017 by Ammanas