Member: UncleBear

How funny that someone I know (albeit from the internet) is #3 in my listed of shared books.

posted by MountZionRyan at 9:15 am (EST) on Jan 6, 2009

Gave up on: Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow. After 100 pages, I realized that this is a good book but the writing style is just not to my tastes. I found it annoying, actually. Maybe someday I'll try again, but not now.

Currently reading: The Pirate Coast, by Zack. So far a cracking good adventure tale, and it's non-fiction. History ROCKS.

Still plugging away on: The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. I'm reading one short story every few days, so this one might last me half a year. It has inspired me to write, however, and I've got a new short story outlined. Now to just find the time to write.

posted by UncleBear at 7:44 pm (EST) on Dec 19, 2007

Currently reading: The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps. At 1107 pages of relatively small type, this will take a while. 50 short stories and a novel in this fat omnibus.

Thoroughly enjoyed: The Two Georges, by Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove. I hate it when I like a book, then discover afterward that it was reviewed relatively poorly. It makes me feel like I'm an idiot with no taste. It's definitely a bit of fluff, but it was entertaining and fast-paced.

posted by UncleBear at 12:53 am (EST) on Dec 14, 2007

Just gave up on after 200 pages:
Harbingers, F. Paul Wilson (review forthcoming)

Currently reading:
Crimson Shadows: Best of Robert E. Howard Vol. 1
The Two Georges, Richard Dreyfus and Harry Turtledove

posted by UncleBear at 5:43 pm (EST) on Dec 8, 2007

Amazon Wishlist is my Friend
As books come to my attention, as they inevitably do, that strike me as something I want to read, I'm adding them to my Amazon Wishlist. Someone told me you can have multiple wishlists, so I may eventually separate "books" and "DVDs" and "everything else" into separate piles.

Then I go back to reading the pile of books I already own, of course.

I've told myself that I want to write some reviews here on LibraryThing, as I chew through the pile. To facilitate that I've replaced my bookmarks with index cards. This way, I can take notes as I go along.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold has sympathetic characters making incredibly racist statements. I know this is Britain in 1963, but it still floors me that otherwise decent people ever thought like that.

posted by UncleBear at 11:58 pm (EST) on Nov 28, 2007

My big New Year's Resolution for 2008 will be to purchase no books for a year. None, zip, zilch, nada. I understand it's kind of a weird goal to chase, but I've got my reasons. The "simple living" meme I've been trying to live by is a big part of it. My wife and I have an ongoing debate as to whether we need more space (a bigger house) or less stuff; I come up on the side of "let's start with having less stuff, then we can determine if we need more space and how much of it". Putting my money where my mouth is, I'm cleaning house of my own extraneous stuff, most of which is books.

Let's look at some statistics: I read about a page a minute, and I read about an hour a day on average. Sixty pages a day over seven days is about 420 pages a week, the size of a novel. So a book a week, or 52 books over the course of a year.

Earlier today I added my 300th book to my LibraryThing account. All of these are books I intend to keep -- reference material, books I expect to reread, or books I haven't read yet. I haven't even finished going through all the boxes in the garage yet, so that number will continue to swell. At my current reading rate, that's enough books to last me for six years. When you consider that many books have a much higher page count -- the last two books I bought are The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (my birthday present to myself), 50 short stories and two novels inside on cover weighing in at 1168 pages, and a used hardcover copy of Michael Moorcock's Von Bek, a 704-page omnibus -- those books could last me much longer.

From that perspective, the question shouldn't even be "Why do I need more books?", but "Why do I even have all of this stuff?".

So what are the rules? I can accept gifts of books, that's kosher, but I have to read them soon after receipt (i.e. after I finish the book I'm in). A lot of my unread books are "first in series" that I picked up to try, so if I get really enthused I can seek out subsequent volumes at the library or redeem my trade credit at the used bookstore. Reference books will be replaced by the internet and trips to the library. Required books get an exception, obviously; if I need something for work that I can't borrow or trade for, if I take a class in the summer or fall like I'm shooting for, or even if I get into a long-term roleplaying campaign as a player where owning the core rulebook is beneficial, a compelling argument for a variance can be made.

The real object is to cut out frivolous book purchases. Working in the book trade, all sorts of things catch my eye on a daily basis. In changing jobs and careers, I won't have those temptations and can focus on using what I've got.

Sidebar: Tracking my stuff with LibraryThing
Knowing that I'll only read 50 or so books in the coming year, I'm going to box the majority of them up and shove them in the back of the closet. The paradox of choice kills me; if I've got 300 books in plain sight I'll have a harder time deciding what to read nexy than if I've got 20 or 30. Most of the stuff I've already read, and any reference book I don't foresee needing immediately, will likewise go into storage. I'll still want to be able to find these books quickly and easily, though, and that's where LibraryThing comes in.

LibraryThing allows you to add tags to books in your library. As I box things up, I'll number the boxes and add tags to those books: "Box 4", "Box 8", and so on. If I need to fin a book, I can check its tags and know where to look. I can also generate a title list for the boxes, but pulling up the tags. If I search on "Box 42" it will give me a list of all the titles tagged "Box 42" and allow my to print that list. Depending on how involved I want to get with this, I can print these lists and tape them to the outside of the boxes.

posted by UncleBear at 7:12 pm (EST) on Nov 27, 2007

Currently reading:
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, John le Carre
Descent of Angels, Mitchel Scanlon

posted by UncleBear at 5:37 pm (EST) on Nov 24, 2007

One feature I wish this site had was a blog. In addition to reviews, I'd like to be able to write about adventures in collecting, make updates about what I'm currently reading, and so forth. Then I realized that I could probably use this comment wall for that purpose. It's kludgy, but it could work.

posted by UncleBear at 2:12 pm (EST) on Nov 21, 2007