LibraryThing is evil

Every single time I log into one of these threads, I run off to Amazon, or add something to my must find list.

And you ALL know what Amazon and bookstores are like, you go in for one little thing and spend next weeks lunch money.

Then there is Bookmooch, which I became acquainted with through here, and that is a whole new addiction

BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS! BUY BOOKS!

Oh no, there's something wrong with the subliminal code.

LOL muzzie

Great picture!!!! That's the best laugh I've had in days. Definately how I feel about my TBR pile.

I think LT is bevil because I have noticed that I don't read as much as I used to!

I have to agree. I give this post a 5-cheezburger rating.

Goddess help me, two more books showed up on my front porch today. I have more coming.. Anyone feel like helping me build an addition?

Sure, Mckait! I just ordered $850 worth of bookshelves. What does that tell you??

That you need some help putting them up?

Maybe more shelves is the way to go rather than an addition..

Ikea .. thats the ticket!

I just ordered 3 more from Amazon. Maybe more shelves and a twelve step program?

You know, just this morning, in about an hour of being on LT, I added something like 25 books to the already-much-too-long TBR list I'm keeping. Somebody stop me!

LT is evil indeed. Everytime I get on I find more books I have to read. So I switch tabs to the local library and enter a title. And it has the book! And all I have to do to get it is click the request button. And the few occasions it does not have the book I switch to the tab that has Amazon open and they always have it and with three clicks it is ordered.

It is a vast and wicked conspiracy to keep me impoverished and antisocial.

Our county libraries have no system. I jump directly to Amazon. Impoverished is too right.

Oh that's just sad, mckait. I'm so spoiled with our good libraries here.

Xenchu, funny you should say that. That's precisely what I was doing before I clicked the "Talk" button.

Fortunately the library system is pretty good here, and even better, there's a branch three blocks further down the road from Borders, so I feel righteous passing the commercial place to go to the free one. ;)

Sad indeed teelgee,

We are connected to a larger system, but my town library has pissy, cranky women running the show, and trying to get them to request for you is nearly impossible. If you manage it, they won't let you know when it arrives, and if you call too often to check they rant at you.

The library in the next town is somewhat better... but there is zero, and I mean zero place to park for BLOCKS... which doesn't matter so much when it is during break, and the time isn't as pressing. But after work, I just can't seem to manage spending more time walking to the place than in it. I just want to go home.

PLUS due to funding, their hours are very limited. They have been holding on by an eyelash since the 80's when the steel mills closed. They had just started picking up steam, and money again when USAIR was a big employer here in the pittsburgh area.. but now.. they are back clinging to that eyelash.

They are endowed, but it is small.. and it hampers their fund raising for reasons I don't understand. Also.. the librarian in charge is 112 years old as are most members of the board and they simply have run out of steam and caring.

Anyway.. so it goes.. everyone gives me Amazon cards for gifts so I can often fall back on those and I buy used most often.

But

LibraryThing is still evil.. too many good discussions on good books!

mckait, what a great picture!!! thanks for that! have we introduced you to booksalefinder.com yet? :-)

?!?!?!?!? booksalefinder.com ?

On my way to have a look!

woot! signing up now!

Isn't avaland evil as well! Evil in a good way, the way LibraryThing is evil. :)

#16 You sure have caused a problem. Now I have to go look at booksalefinder.com.
Bye

I don't know how 'good' booksalefinder is in other parts of the country, but in the Northeast US, the coverage is pretty good (I've got three area book sales marked on my calendar for June).

sigh... I have to go and buy another bookshelf~~~~~~~~~~~

Great...just great....

Now we have recommendations...

I am going to need to get a second job and build an addition.. not a shelp

:-/

>22 mckait:: No kidding. Now with the books I'm finding on the Recommendations (and the unrecommendations), I'm going to have to start listening to audiobooks and reading at the same time just to keep my TBR pile under control.

23 - Yup, I've already started doing that :oS
The library has some audiobooks of books in my physical tbr pile which I've borrowed, like Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things read by himself, in the hopes I'll start getting ahead of Mt TBR (insert doubtful guffaw).

You guys are too funny.
Huh, what am I laughing at, I just spent $800 on new bookshelves.

nods seriously at tg, in denial I see... there is help for that..

( Ikea.... sturdy shelves cheap)

six more books today... no space on the shelves....

*weep**weep**weep*

I just figured out the new suggester feature. That's a dangerous sort of toy to be letting us run around with!

I can't go there.. not yet...

I did look at recommendations, and listed some books that had slipped past me..

I asked my dh for a bookshelf for my birthday.. he just glared and asked where I would put it.

good point..

I could find a spot, I know I could!!!

Hmm..maybe I shouldn't get rid of the shelves I just took out of my studio/library (we built bookcases--floor to ceiling). Maybe I should just find new rooms for them in the house....

That's a good idea!!

mckait, you could always take the dishes out of the kitchen cupboards to make room for books. You really don't have time to cook anyway, right?

My LT Recommendations are pretty good...well, with the exception of Garfield: Life in the Fat Lane, suggested because I have all of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics.

And who needs the couch and chairs in the living room?

#14: my town library has pissy, cranky women running the show

Mckait, as a librarian I beg your forgiveness. We're not all like that. It's an outrage that you have to put up with it.

And a more general comment: We needn't spend money on shelving when we could spend it on books, because a large enough quantity of books, you see, makes its own furniture. Think of them as building blocks.

Heh. I was just going to say, I use piles of books to raise up short lamps to the perfect height for me to read by. I also have piles of books beside the couch and the bed. Also beside the chair in the reading corner of my bedroom. It comes in handy to set a teacup and saucer (protected by a small sheet of plastic, of course) when I'm reading in the evening.

We have a nice little small-town library (actually one huge room) and the staff is very helpful but the one staff member is such a gossip. She talks (loudly) on the phone the entire time you are there. If she has no one to talk to on the phone, she will talk to anyone in the library, from the front desk, loudly. I actually go to a library in another town (near where I work) so I don't have to listen to it.

Right at the moment, while I'm having my studio painted, I have many boxes of books stored in the little bathroom in there; many of them are in the shower stall. I live in fear that somehow that shower is going to come on and drench my books. (Like something out of Stephen King.)

Because we heard Michael Chabon on the radio. . . Today's mail brought 3 of his in paperback: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. (Should keep me busy for a while!)

>20 avaland: - Booksalefinder works _just_fine_ in Northern California. And if you go to the map page, it keeps marking as you wander...you aren't actually limited to your 25 mile zone...

I tried to get my sister in Reno to go to their big one last year but she got sick. So this year I went to visit her during the sale!

teelgee.....great idea ... who needs dishes.. but darn it woman! Get those books out of the shower.. now I am going to have nightmares over it!!!! eek!

Message 34: Scratch--LOL I do know that! I spent hours in a library as a child.. and an adult too in the next town.. believe it or not the librarian , the head librarian is still the same woman.. I think she is about 100 yrs old. THEN my daughter got hired there at age 15 and worked there until she went to college...
where she worked in the school library for four years..

I love libraries.. just not those two cranky women.. lol

My perfect job is in a library.. I wish I could get hired in one as a retirement job when I am too old to keep going in and getting beat up where I work.

Anyway..

Jolene... never ever throw away a book shelf.. or give it away.. or even put it too far from where it used to be... mark my words... you will need them again..

and Cal.. I do need the comfy furniture!!! where else would I read when it rains?

I am going to go out today and look for new bookshelves and buy myself a birthday present...

I have stacks behind stacks and on tables and on the top shelves of my bookshelf in the LR.

VERY bad feng shui

I just found this in a children's poetry book - it says it all!!

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

Arnold Lobel

I remember that poem!

>40 mckait:-You think a job in a library is great until you get one! Every month, I get a huge stack of MaRC records to go through, and every month, I find at least 10 books in that stack that I just have to read. I think when I started at this job, I had a mere 50 books on my TBR list. I think now I'm edging in on 300. Oh well, it could be worse-there could be 0 on that list. :D

>41 Teazle: I've seen that poem on a poster. See:

http://www.privatjokr.com/media/btoc.jpg

#34 Scratch, I used to use my books as furniture and they stack well, but they get ruined too easily that way!

#37 teelgee, It sounds less like Stephen King and more like Twilight Zone to me! Like that HORRIBLE episode where all the gentleman wants to do is read all the time and then everyone in the world disappears and he starts piling up the books. He revels in the fact that he has all the time in the world to read and then he breaks his glasses! I cry every time I see that episode. Every single time. It makes me physically ill!

#40 See, the problem is I borrowed 3 bookshelves that I need to return. One is going to school (to help the books I have there) and the other two need to go back to my mother!

>44 Joles: I remember that episode. Burgess Meredith AKA The Penguin played that role. Oh the irony!

#44 and 45 ~ You aren't alone in remembering that Twilight Zone episode. There's even an LT Group dedicated to Henry Bemis: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=10705

My parents noticed my library counter on LT... and they were a bit frightened.

Every time I'm on LT, it takes every ounce of willpower (and the reminder of an empty wallet) to keep me from sprinting to the bookstore, opening the trunk of my car, and just screaming, "FILL IT TILL IT BURSTS!"

Oooo..now there's an idea for a shopping spree. Instead of "fill your cart" in so much time...but fill your car/trunk!!!! I can just imagine how many books I'd come home with!

I wouldn't even have to be picky about which books to get. And then whatever I get that I'm really not interested in I could give to people on here!!!

*searches tirelessly for a book shopping spree to fill her car*

Woe is me.... I bought a bookshelf today...
Put the piles of books from here and there in the living room on the shelves..
and they are FULL!

How could that be?

So I purged the shelves a bit, and pulled out some books to mooch and some books to donate.. that helped a little..but ?

I also bought a papasan chair and footstool.. I have been looking for something to tuck in the corner for a reading nook.

Pier One had a sale... and so I took some money out of my run away from home fund and a gift card I had and and bought it.Then I went to Target and got a shelf.. then put the corner together. On the top shelf of the book case I put a small fountain that has tiny little lights.. and filled it up with some crystals..

So... now If I can stay away from book sites for a day or two.....
Someone pass the duct tape..

It was a very good day!

and Jolene ... I can't see giving up a bookshelf.. never mind three.. what to do what to do ?

mckait: Your corner reading getaway sounds wonderful! I used to have a papasan chair in my old apartment and it was *perfect* for reading - I hope you enjoy it!

#47 & #48--can you imagine...you have 5 mins. to grab as many books as you can from this bookstore and put them in your car--whatever you have at the end of 5 mins, you can keep--free. Oh the possibilities!

5 minutes is all I need. I'll drive my focus INTO the bookstore and pile in from there!

I'm the master at carrying piles and piles of books. I have lots of experience between going to the library and working at a library and then working at a college bookstore!

My only question is what section of the book store do I start in? Do I hit up the new releases because I'd get a random selection of books? Or do I go for a section of the bookstore that I love? (Like Civil War or YA or Sci-Fi, Horror, Music, Children's, Drama, Movies...)

Hmm...I think I'll drag an entire table of the books that are usually buy one get one 1/2 off at B&N or Borders. There are always a ton of books I want to read there. After that I'll hit up the new releases and staff picks. Next YA.

I wouldn't be picky about the titles, just whatever is on the shelves... I'd be happy with just about anything, anyway!

I have stacks behind stacks and on tables and on the top shelves of my bookshelf in the LR.

VERY bad feng shui

No, it's PERFECT feng shui.

Yes #9, I've done the same thing. I always find something here to look for or put on my wishlist. So now I'm on the hunt for some old books by Thomas B. Costain so I can own them myself. I keep checking the Recommendations list almost everyday and adding a few more and then a few more. I'll never read them all......ooops!!.....never say 'never.'

#55 justmeRosalie - One of my greatest joys was finding The Tontine while going through books in my friend Gilda's garage a couple of years ago. She was going to donate them to some local book sale but said I could look through first. Joy, rapture. I paid her $1 each, which she donated to the book sale.

I've just about got myself psyched to the point of being able to go through shelf by shelf and pull books that don't make sense to keep anymore (The Alchemist, Richard Russo, The Virgin Suicides as examples)..... maybe this weekend after tennis..... wish me luck!

When I originally catalogued my books (starting last fall) I only pulled a few that I KNEW I didn't want to keep. Now it's time to be a little bit ruthless to make room for all the new book recommendations I'm getting here at LT.

Plus, the new shelves my husband had built for me at Christmas are getting seriously full.

I"ll save the books for the local library's Fall Sale. In a box. In the garage. In a dark corner. So I don't have second thoughts. Maybe I'll find someone who wants to look through them first. Just like Gilda did for me.

A few months ago I took a bunch of books to Half Price Books and sold them. Bags and bags and bags full. My shelves are now fuller than they were before that purge, and I've been sending stuff out on BookMooch too!

"
I"ll save the books for the local library's Fall Sale. In a box. In the garage. In a dark corner. So I don't have second thoughts. Maybe I'll find someone who wants to look through them first. Just like Gilda did for me."

LOL

I know what you mean... I give mine to the shelter though, its perfect!If I take any books out of the boxes, I feel guilty~ so I put them in and walk away~

Guilt works like a charm for me.

I've donated books to the library in town, and sold some ...but then I start regretting getting rid of some of them and go buy to buy them back, sometimes for more than I sold them for!

Don't forget http://www.Bookcloseouts.com for books too. Cheeeeeep and new (well, remaindered I think).

anysia, you have triggered me to ask a question that I've been wondering about for a while? What exactly does remaindered mean? And that's the black line across the edge, right?

Here in the US, emaestra, when a paperback is published, the hardcovers (which was published approximately a year prior) - the unsold ones, that is - are sent back by the bookstores to the publishers for credit. Sometimes excessive hardcovers are sent back earlier if a book isn't selling well; there are rules regulating when bookstores can send them back. Anyway, the publisher ends up with perhaps gobs of unsold hardcovers in their warehouse (generally, once the paperback is out, the hardcover no longer sells). To avoid having these hardcovers hanging around taking up space (and paying taxes on the inventory), the publishers sell them back to the bookstores for a pittance and these are how they come to be on various 'sale' and 'remaindered' tables and in catalogs which sells such things.

They are often marked in black on the page edges so people can not try to return them for full cover prices refunds...etc. Basically, it's so everyone knows it was a remaindered book.

I'm in Canada, but it is more or less the same thing. After about a year, if books aren't selling, the publisher sells what is left in the warehouse cheap--the publisher's last chance to get some money back before the books are shredded.

As far as I know, authors don't get royalties or their royalties are severely reduced on remaindered books--another reason the books are marked. Usually the royalties are a percentage of list price (though some will try to pin royalties to something other than list), so there is a clause that if the books are sold for below cost the royalty is reduced or eliminated. The publisher isn't making money at this point so why should the author. That's why I feel a little guilty when I buy remaindered books.

The front page of BookCloseouts has an old favorite of mine! I Married Advendture by Luci Swindoll is a fabulous book - I'm going to have to order that one. And a few other things.

>60 anysia: ACK-I didn't need to see that. My willpower is just too low. ;) Thanks for the link.

Heh. You're welcome. ;) Too bad I'm not allowed to post an affiliate link with that ... I'd have more money to, uh, well, I'd probably just buy more books actually.

This online book buying thing is dangerous. At least before I was limited by the number of books I could carry out of the store. (Now I'm just limited by the dirty looks of the postie).

I am with you on the postman.......

I heard a rumor at the post office today that he was putting in his retirement paperwork. They said it was due to my books. I guess the postal bin o books did him in.

I work in a bookstore, end up going to other bookstores on the weekends, and am hopelessly addicted to LT ...and I just started a reading blog. I think I'm doomed. My TBR pile grows daily, and not a week goes by without a book-related charge on my credit card bill...but I wouldn't really blame it all on LT.

bnb

I manage never to use a credit card. Only debit. I admit to occasionally having to transfer a bit to cover the books.

I think its an illness.

You know you have an illness when you've gone to the bookstore 3 times in the same week, and come out with a pile of books each time.

Especially when you've ostensibly gone into said bookstore to look for 1 particular book. ;-)

I think they change out the sale bins at the stores when they see my car pull up in the parking lot just so I get tempted by new sale titles when I stroll in.

Ha,ha, worked the postman too hard, huh,mckait? That gave me a laugh big time. I bet you suffocated him with all the books you want ;-)

Well the postman is a bit cranky, to put it mildly. I have heard from the girl at the counter how he whines and complains about the books that come to my house. Sadly, Every time I mooch or order a book, he comes to mind....
I just cross fingers that they actually get delivered to my house instead of some random place.

I got another package from Ebay a few days ago, which was nice. It wasn't mine, but packages are nice. Anyway.. I took it to its real home.

Well ,that's good. Sometimes that happens to me. There was this one time when I was walking down my driveway to my mailbox and found a package that was supposed to go to some old guy in California. I live in Colorado, so that was a shocker.

I used to live in a more rural area where we all had large mailboxes. Last year I replaced our tiny mailbox here in suburbia with a large black one. It's a bit odd here in the land of perfect lawns and SUVS (I have neither) but it serves us well with the constant book packages, fabric packages and mail order stuff we get. Now, if I could just come up with something to put on top of the mailbox so that robin would quitting using it as a toilet. . .

cameling, the bookstore is probably on an axis of some sort. When they see you coming they turn the store just enough so you are seeing everything entirely different!

HA, HA, HA, HA!!! That is just too funny. Maybe you could put some kind of force field around it to block off the robin's scat and bounce it back at him!

>73 wickedlovely:: package that was supposed to go to some old guy in California.

Eh, how do you know it was some old guy? Define old.

hehe teelgee... I was going to post the same thing!

You know, like at least 30.

Excuse me, I need to phone the old folks home. Apparently I'm waaaaaay overdue for my move-in date.