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Member: UniversityofNumenor

CollectionsYour library (1,565), Currently reading (3), Read but unowned (266), All collections (1,831)

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TagsAstronomy (98), Science Fiction (45), Fiction (29), History of Science (23), Religion (22), History (19), Poetry (18), Biology (13), Biography (12), Philosophy (9) — see all tags

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About meI'm an academic scientist who also has strong interests in literature, history, and almost everything else.

The motto of my "university" is written (in Quenya) on the book in the university seal. Transliterated, this is “melne tinta ar istya calya i mána coile,” literally “Love kindles and knowledge illuminates the good life”, a translation of Bertrand Russell’s aphorism “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

About my libraryIt will take a long time to get the > 3,500 books in my library cataloged here, so be patient!

I've kept a list of every book I've read since 1990. Since 1982, I've selected a "best fiction" and "best nonfiction" of the year, and at the end of 1990, 2000, and 2010, I've selected three works that didn't win the annual prize for a "decade award." I may have missed a few, but all the books in these categories are now entered.

For books I read before 1990, I compiled a pretty good list of these books retrospectively (in 1996). That list is certainly incomplete, and for most of these books there's a 1-3 year uncertainty as to when I read them. I can date some of them more precisely (for example, I may have read them for a specific course in college). These books have now been entered.

I'm now (slowly!) entering the books I own but haven't read. I suspect it will take well into 2010 to get them all in. Tags will also be added slowly.

For books I've read, the comments will indicate when I read them. There are a number of cartoon books (Dilbert, Doonesbury, etc.) that I've read that I didn't list in my records, so the comment will only mention that they have in fact been read.

Books I currently own are being placed in the "Your Library" collection, whereas books I've read but do not currently own are going into the "Read but unowned" collection (rather obvious, I would think). Since the total number of books that I know have read is about equal to 1/3 of the number I own, I have long assumed that I have read about 1/3 of the books I own. LirbaryThing has made me realize how many of the books I've read are things I don't own anymore, though - the percentage of unread books in my library is higher than I realized. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but it is a side effect of being able to purchase books faster than I can read them.

For books that are compilations of works that were originally published separately, I'll comment on which of the constituent works I've read.

I tend to keep books after I've read them and rarely discard them, but there have been a few purges in my life. The purges have been mostly of science fiction and fantasy, which I read almost exclusively in high school, but rather less often and more selectively since then. Occasionally I will discard a book if I obtain a better copy or a more complete compilation that includes it. Those books will appear in the "read but unowned" collection.

I'm not trying very hard to get the exact edition, with two exceptions: I try to have the right cover and I try to get the translator right for translated works.

Some of the books on this list technically belong to my wife, although I think of books in a fashion similar to the traditional Maasai belief about cattle - they all belong to me. Don't worry - you may continue to borrow the ones in your care indefinitely!

LocationArmenelos, Numenor

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Account typepublic, lifetime

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URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/UniversityofNumenor (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/UniversityofNumenor (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (283), Awards (308), Characters (4742), Places (1012)

Member sinceJul 9, 2009

Currently readingThe Diary of Samuel Pepys: 1666 (Vol. 7) by Samuel Pepys
The Feynman Lectures on Physics: Commemorative Issue, Three Volume Set by Richard P. Feynman
In the Hand of Dante: A Novel by Nick Tosches