Rambling on about books
Jun. 3rd, 2005 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changeling1) Total number of books owned:
I am totally not counting. No seriously.
Oh, OK. I counted 448 that are mine, or are mine by default (maybe ten to twenty are rescued from general family collection & I believe would have been thrown out) in the bookshelves; I have another box of books ex P-W house in the car (maybe another twenty); probably another ten to fifteen are around the house, mostly being borrowed by siblings or father; and S probably has another five. There's probably at least another five to ten floating around in the aether of ex-friends (I can think of my copy of Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, which is in the possession of Daniel, and my first Jeeves Omnibus, which is in the possession of Chris). So I probably have about five hundred. It's an iffy number, because I counted graphic novels, but not individual issues of comics. I didn't count readers, but I counted some textbooks (but not others), and some of these may become mine by default when I move out (I wonder if I can make off with the complete Coleridge? I should probably just buy my own copy).
2) The last book I bought:
I have no idea. Wait! Yes I do! It was Rich Hall's Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society. No, I tell a lie, I bought one the other day when we were in the city. An omnibus edition of Kerry Greenwood: Whaleroad, Cave Rats & Feral, for $5, brand new. I'm pretty sure I borrowed Whaleroad from the library when I was younger & didn't get into it. Didn't like it much then. Bought this because I need to read more YA books for my Writing for Young Adults class. I ended up loving all three - all show the same post-apocalyptic world, but from different groups of survivors with very little overlap. I liked that because usually books in a series like that try to be too clever in their overlap & showing things from different perspectives, whereas this one different. I did feel that it suffered from a predictability in its romance pairings. By the third book I totally knew that x and y would get together, and I totally figured out x's secret, which should have been a big reveal at the end.
3) Five books that mean a lot to me:
Jee-zus. Don't ask for much, do you?
i) The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Clute & Grant.
I love the essays that hide in this under the guise of entries. I love reading the contributors' perspective on books I know. Mostly I love the terms it's coined (or popularised), as it gives me a way of analysing and describing the genre. Go look up wainscot, polder or plot coupon. It's worth it. I bet you can't stop yourself from looking at all the cross-referenced entries. I can't.
ii) The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, ed. Martin Gardner.
I love annotations. No really. Love, love, love them. I got addicted through L-Space. I went looking the other night to see if there were annotations for Gaiman's Stardust, to see if the referenced person Garamond (was it a Duke? a Lord? I forget) was named after the font (or its creator). This book contains both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the Tenniel illustrations, and it tells you all sorts of random information, such as which popular poems of the day Carroll was parodying.
iii) Schödinger's Cat Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson.
This is a novel that pulled my brain out through my ears and tied them under my chin. It's clever, and it taught me more about quantum mechanics than I'll ever remember.
iv) Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud.
Just ... wow. It's a comic that talks about comics, their language (both words and pictures), symbols & their meaning, & the way we read them ... everything. I don't think you even need to like comics to enjoy this book. Another mind-bender. It's great.
v) Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.
I was bought this by my parents in about grade four (or maybe grade five - time plays tricks), when a second-hand book dealer said I'd like it. I didn't read it for about a month that holiday (I am very stubborn - nay, idiotic - like that), but when I did, I was hooked. This makes the list, because if it wasn't for this, I'd have never read Pratchett (well ... maybe I would once I hit Mac.Rob. Who knows), and if I'd never read Pratchett, I'd've never read Night Watch (my favourite of his) or Good Omens, where I first discovered Neil Gaiman. And seeing as Pratchett, Gaiman and Adams are probably the most influential on my style (go on ... tell me you couldn't pick it from a mile away), this makes this a very, very important book in my collection.
4) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
I'm not going to do this, because I get annoyed by these sort of memes. But if you fill this out, feel free to link me to it in the comments.
I am totally not counting. No seriously.
Oh, OK. I counted 448 that are mine, or are mine by default (maybe ten to twenty are rescued from general family collection & I believe would have been thrown out) in the bookshelves; I have another box of books ex P-W house in the car (maybe another twenty); probably another ten to fifteen are around the house, mostly being borrowed by siblings or father; and S probably has another five. There's probably at least another five to ten floating around in the aether of ex-friends (I can think of my copy of Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, which is in the possession of Daniel, and my first Jeeves Omnibus, which is in the possession of Chris). So I probably have about five hundred. It's an iffy number, because I counted graphic novels, but not individual issues of comics. I didn't count readers, but I counted some textbooks (but not others), and some of these may become mine by default when I move out (I wonder if I can make off with the complete Coleridge? I should probably just buy my own copy).
2) The last book I bought:
I have no idea. Wait! Yes I do! It was Rich Hall's Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society. No, I tell a lie, I bought one the other day when we were in the city. An omnibus edition of Kerry Greenwood: Whaleroad, Cave Rats & Feral, for $5, brand new. I'm pretty sure I borrowed Whaleroad from the library when I was younger & didn't get into it. Didn't like it much then. Bought this because I need to read more YA books for my Writing for Young Adults class. I ended up loving all three - all show the same post-apocalyptic world, but from different groups of survivors with very little overlap. I liked that because usually books in a series like that try to be too clever in their overlap & showing things from different perspectives, whereas this one different. I did feel that it suffered from a predictability in its romance pairings. By the third book I totally knew that x and y would get together, and I totally figured out x's secret, which should have been a big reveal at the end.
3) Five books that mean a lot to me:
Jee-zus. Don't ask for much, do you?
i) The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, Clute & Grant.
I love the essays that hide in this under the guise of entries. I love reading the contributors' perspective on books I know. Mostly I love the terms it's coined (or popularised), as it gives me a way of analysing and describing the genre. Go look up wainscot, polder or plot coupon. It's worth it. I bet you can't stop yourself from looking at all the cross-referenced entries. I can't.
ii) The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, ed. Martin Gardner.
I love annotations. No really. Love, love, love them. I got addicted through L-Space. I went looking the other night to see if there were annotations for Gaiman's Stardust, to see if the referenced person Garamond (was it a Duke? a Lord? I forget) was named after the font (or its creator). This book contains both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the Tenniel illustrations, and it tells you all sorts of random information, such as which popular poems of the day Carroll was parodying.
iii) Schödinger's Cat Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson.
This is a novel that pulled my brain out through my ears and tied them under my chin. It's clever, and it taught me more about quantum mechanics than I'll ever remember.
iv) Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud.
Just ... wow. It's a comic that talks about comics, their language (both words and pictures), symbols & their meaning, & the way we read them ... everything. I don't think you even need to like comics to enjoy this book. Another mind-bender. It's great.
v) Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.
I was bought this by my parents in about grade four (or maybe grade five - time plays tricks), when a second-hand book dealer said I'd like it. I didn't read it for about a month that holiday (I am very stubborn - nay, idiotic - like that), but when I did, I was hooked. This makes the list, because if it wasn't for this, I'd have never read Pratchett (well ... maybe I would once I hit Mac.Rob. Who knows), and if I'd never read Pratchett, I'd've never read Night Watch (my favourite of his) or Good Omens, where I first discovered Neil Gaiman. And seeing as Pratchett, Gaiman and Adams are probably the most influential on my style (go on ... tell me you couldn't pick it from a mile away), this makes this a very, very important book in my collection.
4) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
I'm not going to do this, because I get annoyed by these sort of memes. But if you fill this out, feel free to link me to it in the comments.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-03 03:46 pm (UTC)I am certainly still dark and ethereal! In summer, when I get noticeably darker, and in shadows, when the general obscurity makes me look somewhat ethereal, if you squint.
Hooray, you did my meme! The only one in years that I've felt is at all worthy of being passed around. I didn't even make fun of the questions, that is something.
I wish my parents had given me Pratchett in year four / five. I had to do with my sister's abandoned girly novels, Enid Blyton, and 'stuff I shouldn't have read' that I would find when secretly exploring my parent's or sibling's bedrooms.
I envy your book collection.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-04 12:26 am (UTC)*nods* I wouldn't have minded a few more questions.
Oh, I was reading all that, too. Big authors for me about that time: Blyton, woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables, Robert Ludlum, Colin Forbes, Clive Cussler, Agatha Christie, Douglas Adams. Also read some Robert Asprin.
Hmm. It could be better. Some of the best books on my bookshelves belong to my parents (and so I didn't count them). I mean, this is quantity, not quality, & I have been out of high school with at least a marginal income for five years now. Heh, I've just realised all my Anne of Green Gables books (which are MINE) aren't in my bookshelves. I sincerely hope Dad didn't throw them out when he did a big clean of the bookshelves (and got rid of books like The Adventures of Odd and Elsewhere, which is OUT OF PRINT, damn his eyes).
no subject
Date: 2005-06-05 08:46 am (UTC)I read lots of Blyton, I loved her adventure stuff. I still want to have sailboat adventures, to this day. Lots of Dean R Koontz, because my sister would read them (and still does), and really I shouldn't have read them so young, they probably did strange things to my head.
My parents know better than to clear out any books of mine, now. I was inconsolable for days when they told me they'd gotten rid of some old picture books of mine. They were all run-of-the mill fairy tales, but I had become so attached.
It's so strange, we read what family members do first, and then move onto our own things. But we are probably very influenced.