Member: redknightalex

CollectionsYour library (396), Favorites (2), Currently reading (5), To read (3), Read (17), Read but unowned (3), Unfinished (4), Wishlist (3), Recommended to Me (5), Military History (1), Childhood Favorites (12), Comic Books (12), Manga (4), From Mom (2), Textbooks (36), Mom's Library (1), Video Game Guides (15), All collections (404)

Reviews1 review

Tagsfiction (173), non-fiction (121), series (93), history (79), science fiction (76), sci-fi (72), classical studies (47), bestseller (47), new york times bestseller (47), historical fiction (45) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Groups20-Something LibraryThingers, Ancient History, Bloggers, BookMooching, FantasyFans, Feminist SF, Happy Heathens, Librarians who LibraryThing, Livejournalers, Science Fiction Fans — show all groups , The Green Dragon, What Are You Reading Now?

Favorite authorsColleen McCullough, David Weber (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresBarnes & Noble Booksellers - Burlington, Borders - Burlington

Favorite librariesUniversity of Vermont Libraries

About meUniversity of Vermont graduate where I studied classical history and psychology. I keep to myself mostly, preferring the company of a computer, a video game, or a good book instead of the rambunctious parties I knew were happening on campus. Now I live at home and wait for the next evolution in my life.

While I was studying at UVM (and a little beyond) I worked at the campus library, total of four and a half years. There were very few places in that library I didn't either work or live in, and sometimes both.

Playing video games is the one past time that even eclipses reading. I play games of essentially all types, including JRPGs (ie Final Fantasy), regular RPGs (Oblivion, Fallout 3) FPSs (Unreal Tournament and F.E.A.R.), strategy (Total War Series), and others (Diablo, MGS). I'm open for any video game discussion you may have.

For Fun

About my libraryBy far, the greatest majority of books in my library are history or science fiction of some kind. For history, I gravitate towards classical history and World War II. Many of the classical history books are textbooks I used in college. They seemed to multiply and, after a few years, my ancient history collection spanned quite a few book shelves. For science fiction and fantasy I do have a soft spot for strong female leads.

I also read historical fiction (revolving around ancient events or places), fantasy, and a few classics. On occasion I read science, current events, and other non-fiction related books.

I don't pretend to think that my library is in any way special (I find it rather average if not lacking in a few areas) except what I do try to accomplish is a completeness in organization. This is further explained below.

I have yet to include a wishlist in my library. I might get around to it someday although, at this point in time, I prefer to use LibraryThing as a few to sort out the books I do have and not the ones I want (I use Amazon.com's wishlists for that).

Conventions Used

Tags
I'm rather obsessive-compulsive about tags. I am quite aware that I probably use to many, half of which are redundant, yet I can't stop myself. In my quest for the ultimate tagging system I use too many. Should it be non-fiction or nonfiction? Sci-fi or science fiction? Should regular fiction also tag fantasy and science fiction novels? It's a work in progress that may just be never ending. I do take suggestions and poke around in other's libraries for clever ideas on how to best use LT's great cataloging system.

Tags are also used to denote awards won, bestsellers, or notable reviews (see quick links below).

History
I divide my history books by time period and are pretty easy to figure out. The biggest era of history is the classical/ancient world, spanning from Homer to the fall of the Roman Empire. I use the two interchangeably and tag all relevant books with both (hence the redundancy mentioned above). As one gets closer to modern history, I break it down by century and conflict. For instance, I separate 19th century history with 20th century history, which is then further subdivided by the major conflict of interest (ie World War I, World War II, etc.). If I develop my library even more, I may further split each century by principle year/decade talked about. So far this isn't needed (and may not be for the foreseeable future).

Primary Sources
Related to history, I have created tags to show which books are primary sources for quick reference. It's easier than wading through all the ancient history books to find my collection of Caesar and Cicero's works.

Fiction
My system is so far from perfect it bothers me. After considerable thought I've decided to separate the regular fiction from fantasy/science fiction fiction with the tag "literature". This is not entirely incorrect but it works well enough for my purposes (and the fact that I have very few fiction fiction novels).

Confusing enough? When I think of a better way to do this I'll let you know.

Comments
I use comment fields to state a plethora of different things related to the book. It might relate to how I used this particular version as a textbook in college, that it includes these three stories as a complete trilogy, or that it's a collection of these short stories. Overall, pretty self-explanatory.

Quick Library Links
New York Times Bestsellers
New York Times Book Reviews
Award Winners

History
All Fiction
Non-Fiction

Also ondeviantART, deviantART, Last.fm, LiveJournal

LocationBurlington, VT

Emailredknightalexgmail.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

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

Common KnowledgeSeries (142), Awards (161), Characters (1860), Places (383)

Member sinceJul 26, 2007

Currently readingCaesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy
Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC by Adrian Goldsworthy
Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1) by Kim Harrison
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall