Your Personal Library

[little wilson]

My book collection is pretty small. My Sanderson books:

I loaned the YA copy of Mistborn to my sister, so it's not in there. The Firefight lenticular is hiding behind the Steelheart lenticular. And the two papers along the back of the bookshelf are the broadsheets that were given out at the SoS and BoM release parties.

The rest:

I like knick knacks if you couldn't tell. And that piggy-bank contains all of my foreign money.

[Draginon]

@little wilson Any reason you only have 5 out of 6 on the City of Bones? I so want to read those books by Clare. I might start with either the Clockwork trilogy or Lady Midnight.

[little wilson]

1 hour ago, Draginon said:

@little wilson Any reason you only have 5 out of 6 on the City of Bones? I so want to read those books by Clare. I might start with either the Clockwork trilogy or Lady Midnight.

Just haven't purchased (or read) Heavenly Fire. Fallen Angels and Lost Souls didn't pull me in as much as the first three did, so while I want to finish the series, it's more just to see how it ends than because I have any real drive to. I really enjoyed Infernal Devices though (Clockwork trilogy). Also haven't read Lady Midnight, but from what I've heard of that, it sounds just as good.

Really, I just haven't been reading much fantasy/urban fantasy the last 3 years (depression is a great killer of things one is interested in ), so unless I needed to read something (like Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning or Secret History)...yeah. I still haven't even read Firefight or Calamity.... Or Arcanum Unbounded...and I had to force myself to finish Bands, and it took me forever after that to read Secret History. Anyway. Yeah. I'll get around to finishing Clare's published works eventually. I like her and I really like that world.

[Ammanas]

13 minutes ago, little wilson said:

Really, I just haven't been reading much fantasy/urban fantasy the last 3 years (depression is a great killer of things one is interested in ), so unless I needed to read something (like Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning or Secret History)...yeah. 

So you don't have to answer if the question is to personal or p.m. if you want, but if one suffers from depression isn't it more incentive to read? It is one of the things that helps me; just the ability to escape into a entirely new world for a time and escape from real life. Perhaps everyone copes differently...sorry if this is too nosy of a question.

[little wilson]

22 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

So you don't have to answer if the question is to personal or p.m. if you want, but if one suffers from depression isn't it more incentive to read? It is one of the things that helps me; just the ability to escape into a entirely new world for a time and escape from real life. Perhaps everyone copes differently...sorry if this is too nosy of a question.

Depends. When I was a teenager, that's what happened. But one of the symptoms of depression (doesn't happen for everyone, obviously) is a loss of interest in things that used to bring you enjoyment. I think the type of depression might also be a factor here as well. I've had two different types: one stemming from bad situations/thoughts and one stemming from chemical imbalances in my body. It makes sense that if you have bad situations in real life, to seek to escape, and books are great for an escape. I always had a book on me then.

But when the depression is coming from within your own body, escaping isn't really an option because you can't escape your body. It's just there. Sometimes, you don't even realize you're depressed, because if life is going great, why would you be? That's how it was for me. I liked my life. I had no reason to be depressed, yet I was horribly drained of energy all the time, had no interest in being around people (I'm an extrovert), and couldn't even dredge up the desire to read books I knew I'd been waiting for for years. Turns out I not only had a thyroid autoimmune disease, but I was also terribly iron deficient, which is basically a double-whammy for depression. They compound. It's bad news.

So, yeah. There are certainly types of depression that make you less likely to do what you enjoy. And it's brutal. I would take the kind I can escape with any day over the other. Hands down, no hesitation.

[Draginon]

8 hours ago, little wilson said:

Just haven't purchased (or read) Heavenly Fire. Fallen Angels and Lost Souls didn't pull me in as much as the first three did, so while I want to finish the series, it's more just to see how it ends than because I have any real drive to. I really enjoyed Infernal Devices though (Clockwork trilogy). Also haven't read Lady Midnight, but from what I've heard of that, it sounds just as good.

Really, I just haven't been reading much fantasy/urban fantasy the last 3 years (depression is a great killer of things one is interested in ), so unless I needed to read something (like Shadows of Self, Bands of Mourning or Secret History)...yeah. I still haven't even read Firefight or Calamity.... Or Arcanum Unbounded...and I had to force myself to finish Bands, and it took me forever after that to read Secret History. Anyway. Yeah. I'll get around to finishing Clare's published works eventually. I like her and I really like that world.

I did the same when the final Eragon book came out. I was getting sick of Eragon, was perfectly fine with most of the cast like Roran and Nasuada, and just wanted to see how the bloody story ended.

Man that's rough. The closest I've come to that was when work was so tiring and relentless that I was stuck reading the same book for almost 5 months.

[Khyrindor]

My Sanderson Shelf (+ a few). A few of my books are missing in this picture, including White Sand Vol 1, one of my Emperor's Souls, and Snapshot. (Also, notice the Advance Reading Copy of Way of Kings that we won from Tor)

Book 8 of Wheel of Time is signed by Robert Jordan, and most of the Sanderson books are signed/signed and numbered. My best number is #26 (Shadows Beneath) followed by my Elantris 10th anniversary edition (#91).

A few trinkets up there as well, some coin books, a little tree, bookends from the British Museum, signed RAFO card, etc.

 

I have another bookshelf, but it's disorganized and small so I don't think I'll post it just yet.

[Iarwainiel I]

@Leiasqz - It looks like a lot, but I've been accumulating them since 1969 when I became a Christian so I guess it doesn't seem to me like as many as it is. (17th Shard - a great place for expanding one's perspective on oneself!) I've read almost all of them, though a couple books are still TBR. Also, I do some writing for a Christian ministry, so some of them are reference books; that's the case for some of the various versions/translations of the Bible as well.

Studying the beliefs held by people through the centuries and around the world is valuable - I expect you've seen many patterns and also pattern-breakers. Have you ever read The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis? It's a scholarly work, not one of his religious texts. Its purpose it to describe the cosmology that underlies the literature from Greece and Rome up until the Renaissance - i.e., when we read an ancient poem about "the Sun," we need to keep in mind that its author and initial audience would not have been imagining a sphere of burning helium, in a galaxy of billions of other stars, and around which the earth orbits; the original meaning would have been quite different because of the cosmology of the times. IMO it's a fascinating study of beliefs about nature and the physical universe, though it's not so much about religion. And it's very approachable by a layperson - the best kind of scholarly work.

 

@little wilson I am SO jealous of those broadsheets!!

 

@Draginon No apololgies needed! It kinda baffles me why so many people don't enjoy reading. I try to tell some of my co-workers that it's a lot more fun to imagine characters and settings yourself, rather than letting a movie or TV producer do it for you, but their imaginations don't seem up to the task - it seems easier to them to just watch, not co-create as Brandon describes his readers as doing. Reading is freedom!

[Leiasqz]

@old aggie Yet another book I haven't read! It seems hanging out here is really expanding my "to read" list.

I have thought along those lines before though, but that's mostly when dealing with the early philosophers like Thales. Also, each of the books in the series I have come with an extensive foreword explaining where the texts have originated and what kind of world we had at that point.

@Khyrindor What are those drawings on the wall? They look nice!

[Draginon]

9 hours ago, old aggie said:

@Draginon No apololgies needed! It kinda baffles me why so many people don't enjoy reading. I try to tell some of my co-workers that it's a lot more fun to imagine characters and settings yourself, rather than letting a movie or TV producer do it for you, but their imaginations don't seem up to the task - it seems easier to them to just watch, not co-create as Brandon describes his readers as doing. Reading is freedom!

I don't get it either. It's weirder when you meet people who only enjoy one book or series and those are usually Harry Potter, Hunger Games or Twilight. I like imagining what the characters look and sound like, though I sometimes have a problem with teens sounding either too young or too old.

[Khyrindor]

15 hours ago, Leiasqz said:

@Khyrindor What are those drawings on the wall? They look nice!

The top one is a (signed) photograph of Brandon pouring glowstick liquid into a weird puddle. It was for a convention/fundraiser thing a few years back (possibly part of a calendar). The bottom one is a painting of Patrick Rothfuss with a sonic screwdriver that I believe you can find at tinker's packs.

I also have Steve Argyle's print of Vin on the wall to the left of those, and the cosmere star charts to the right of the book shelf.

[Prince of Ravens]

Isn't this all that matters?

 

Most importantly this:

[MistbornAlpaca]

Wow, just wow. My collection is a drop in the ocean compared to these. 

[Syghts]

Not sure if I can call my collection a library compared to some of these but here it is

Was anyone else disappointed in Anthony Ryan's third book Queen of Fire, I actually did not even finish reading it which I've rarely ever done. I thought the first book Blood Song was great.

 

 

Missing some of the Rangers Apprentice series here as I lent them out along with the whole Eragon series in HardBack. Those Deltora quest books off to the bottom right(quiet a few missing) were some of the first fantasy books I read and got me into the genre and reading in general because of them. There are some Tolkien and Ted Decker books concealed behind the first row.

Only ones I have not read yet on these shelves are the Asimovs which I'll get around to at some point. I have two more selves full that are mostly Terry Goodkind, a few Tom Clancy and more Forgotten Realms from various authors but hard to take a picture of at the moment. I also have about 20 audible books which is generally what I buy now instead of physical books although there is defiantly a spot for the upcoming Oathbringer. Also the Mistborn series is mysteriously missing must have lent it out at some point. I'll get around to actually ordering all of these some day.