2 posts tagged “general information”

I know I've not posted in here for a while but that's because I've now got a new home for my reading journal and I've been busy copying all the posts from here into it. 

This reading journal is now over at Dreamwidth.org and you can access it at ganimede.dreamwidth.org.  You can also access the RSS feed or Atom feed through a feed reader.

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Thanks for reading, and hope to see you on Dreamwidth!   

1. How many of your books do you part with after reading?  (Other than books which were dreadful.)
Generally, none of them.  When I've finished a book, I always keep hold of it, unless it is especially dreadful.  I'm usually very careful about buying books and make sure that I know I'm not going to waste my money on them, so they're either books by an author I like, or ones that I've borrowed from the library and I like enough to want my own copy.

2. What makes you keep or discard a book?
Most books I keep because I enjoy them a lot and want to read them again.  Like I said above, most books I buy are ones that I know I'm going to want to keep anyway.  The ones that I get rid of are mostly not my style or just plain dreadful.  In general, if I can, I'll return the book to where it was purchased and exchange if for something else or I'll sell it on eBay or Amazon Marketplace.  If it's not in good enough quality to sell, I'll pass it on with BookCrossing. I recently got rid of a few 'chick lit' books that way although most of them I did get free from magazines!

3. Do you ever purge your shelves?  Does that only happen when you move to another country?

I think the only time I've purged my shelves was when all my kiddy books went up into the attic.  Apart from those, all the books I've got all still in my bookcase, on in my cupboard for my Beatles books.

4. Is there anything weird about having a large-ish personal library?

I think if that means a library of 1000+ books for a 'normal' sort of person then it maybe a little unusual but not really weird.  I can imagine that for the next generation and the ones after, having any amount of books at all will be weird as they'll all be either online or on computers and be read that way. 

5. Do you re-read the books you have?  Often?
I do re-read them, that's the main reason for keeping them.  There are some that I re-read more often than others though, generally some of the more recent YA books seem to be getting read again and again.  There are times where I suddenly feel like reading a certain book and I tend to go with that, but there are also times when I want to read something new. 
6. Is it freakish and self-indulgent to have entire rooms shelved with tasty, tasty text?
It is if you're eating the books rather than reading them.  I don't think it's freakish at all, in fact I'd love to have a specific library room set aside just to keep all my books in.  I think it tends to be something that's more accepted with rich people in large houses, or authors - although they probably are rich people in larger houses! - so these days for a modern person in a standard semi, it can seem a little bizarre.
7. Do you head straight for the shelves when you visit someone's house for the first time, to find out who they really are?  And are you slightly alarmed when you find yourself in a bookless house?
I've never done that as far as I'm aware.  I think if I was visiting someone's house, I'd generally know who they are anyway so I'd already be aware of their reading habits.  I've never been in anyone's house that doesn't have books, I'm not really sure I'd believe such people exist!
8. What's the rough balance of your library in terms of genres or other splits?
The vast majority of my books are fiction, at least a good 3/4.  Most of the non-fiction ones are about Judaism, Trans subjects, magic or astrology.  I also have a large amount of books on The Beatles and John Lennon.  The fiction ones are mainly fantasy, humour or YA, not including all the children's books I have which are mainly classics, Beano annuals or Enid Blyton.
9. Any strange clusters?
Possibly my collection of Chalet School books which I've been accumulating since I was about 12.  I also have a large amount of Dean Koontz books, up until he started recycling older books with new titles and I stopped reading them.  Considering I'm not a fan of horror at all, I'll admit that having his books and all the Anne Rice ones is a little bizarre.  The afore mentioned collection of books about the Beatles or John Lennon might seem a little strange to some people too!
10. How many books would you say you are usually reading at any given time?
I'd say it's usually about 3.  I quite often take a book to work to read at dinnertime, particularly if I end up eating on my own, and there are times that the book I'm reading at home isn't one I want to read at work for various reasons - not a suitable topic, not wanting to get the book damaged - so I'll take one that is which means I'm reading two books.  Also, I find that I'm not in the mood to read the book I'm currently reading so I'll start another one.  I think I have been reading up to 5 books at times.
11. Has the internet significantly cut into your reading of printed text?
Actually, I don't think it has.  I used to read a hell of a lot when I was younger and then for various reasons, I was reading less but with the internet, I can search for new books, get recommendations from friends, and reserve things at the library.  Which is what I'm actually going to do when I've finished this post.  So thanks to the internet, I'm reading more.
12. Do you also have yards of music or films?
My collection of films is probably quite small, mainly because of videos and DVDs originally being so expensive so I tend to only get them as presents.  My music collection is fairly large, although I'd be surprised if it was larger than usual.  I have been amassing it in various forms for a long while though, so I have about 100 records on vinyl, 50 cassettes and about 150 CDs.