Member RoboSchro(he/him)

Collections: All collections (3,474), Your library (3,256), Currently reading (6), Read but unowned (18), Formerly owned (201), Art (33), Cartoons & captions (62), Fiction (1,618), Games (550), Graphic fiction (491), How-to (112), Mythology (13), Non-fiction (539), Poetry (27), Reference (41)
Tags
Clouds: Tag Cloud, Author Cloud, Tag Mirror
Media
Groups: Board for Extreme Thing Advances, Book Recommendations Requests, Brits, Bug Collectors, Combiners!, Comics, It's a LondonThing, Librarything Local, Philosophy and Theory, Progressive & Liberal!, Purely Programmers, Science Fiction Fans, Science!
Joined: Nov 7, 2007

Real Name

Robert Schroeder

About My Library

Everything I own is listed here. Tags are being added as I read things, but the older stuff isn't tagged very well. I'm scanning all covers as I acquire new books, but many of the older ones are from whatever was available on-site when I joined. Ratings are pretty much complete. I did some reviews, but my dedication to them is poor (I want to do more, though, because they did seem to help me remember what the hell the books were like.)

I left behind quite a lot when I crossed the pond, so most of my academic stuff (philosophy and theatre, mainly, since you ask), as well as the fiction I found early on, is no longer with me.

When reading for pleasure, I'll most often choose science fiction. I don't think of myself as much of a fan of fantasy writing, but there's a fair bit of it in my library -- I guess I do rather like it so long as it's not too stereotypical. I also enjoy mainstream literature, science writing, and humour. A while ago, I got back into the comic-book characters I loved in my youth, and added a lot of graphic novels, but then I mainly stopped buying those in favour of buying digital single issues, which take up a lot less space. I've recently been adding rather a lot of role-playing game books; I don't actually play these games any more, but I get the books through Humble Bundle (so I'm supporting charities), and I maintain a vague detached interest in what's good in the field.

In 2011, I got a Kindle. I'm on my second now, and still ambivalent about it. For books where beautiful binding and illustration matter, it's obviously not a good substitute. For cheap casual reads, it's great. For most books, there's a whole tangle of conflicting preferences, and I'm never sure whether I'm buying the version that I'll wish later that I'd bought. Generally I'm finding that I can be quite selective about the books I read, and the best one are ones I want to keep on my shelves, so the Kindle doesn't get brought out very often. When I do get e-books, I'll at least buy them DRM-free when I can, and strip the DRM from the rest if possible.

About Me

I'm a software development professional, born and raised in the US, now resident in London.

LibraryThing appeals to me in a number of ways. For one thing, I'm simply enough of a geek to be pleased by well-ordered databases full of stuff. When that's stuff I appreciate as much as I do books, I'm sold. I am also appreciative of the amount of power which LT devolves to the end user -- allowing you to tweak titles, covers, and the rest of it. Lastly, I'm impressed by the responsiveness and openness of the LT team. They listen to the community, and they explain what they're doing and why, and they're enthusiastic. I like it.

Location

London, England

Also On