My library: A ramble

When we moved  to our new place, one of the biggest unpacking jobs was dealing with all the books. Because OMG SO MANY BOOKS

As I thought about it I was wondering exactly how many books. Particularly as I was unpacking and realized that between us Tom and I managed to acquire 4 different copies of the Odyssey.

That is too many copies. I wondered exactly what books do we have and since I heart spreadsheets I thought I'd catalogue all of the books we have.

The tally comes to:
522 paperbacks
116 ebooks
72 hardback
13 audiobooks
11 comics
6 graphic novels

Which sounds like the breakout I expected, if far more in each category than I would have guessed. Paperback is my preference, though ebooks are easy to tote around so that category has been growing. The comics are almost entirely Calvin & Hobbes collections, while more than half of the audiobooks are made up of the HP series, though I only have those as audiofiles instead of having an actual physical item, which makes moving nice.

because every other part of moving sucks

This list does not include some books we moved up to the attic, mostly old text books that we probably just should have gotten rid of except at the time we just wanted to get them out of the way and those boxes are heavy so they're probably going to stay right where they are.

Now that I have this in front of me, I was wondering who makes up the bulk of the work. Top authors (and authors is used sort of loosely, which will make sense given the list):

30 Shakespeare
19 The Mets
15 Christopher Moore
15 J.K. Rowling
13 Bill Bryson
13 Bill James
13 Stephen King
12 Jasper Fforde
11 Bill Watterson

Shakespeare wins and this just counts the plays by him and not all the books I have about him. There are a couple "Complete Works" here, along with a number of duplicates. I believe we have 3 individual copies of Hamlet and Richard III, and that doesn't count the fact that I have 4 different versions of Midsummer.

The Mets come in next but the team isn't actually penning all of these books, so much as Tom has a bunch of yearbooks for the team.

I have 15 each of Rowling and Moore books, and I'm pretty sure those 2 authors cover the widest range of categories. I have both authors stuff in paperback, hardback, and audiobooks, and one of my Moore books is an ebook.

There are a lot of Bills on this list. Who knew that was such a poplar name? Bill James does sports almanacs, one of each comes out each year (so much sports), hence his large number.

The biggest thing I've learned from putting this list together is I really need to cut down my books. I love books, obviously. And a lot of the books I have I do like to revisit and reread, either in part or the whole thing. But there are a lot of books here that I'm never going to touch again. Or there are a lot of books that we have duplicates of. And I don't even mean different prints or translations; we have a bunch of books where Tom and I brought the exact same version to the table. Or just Tom, cos somehow he managed to collect a few duplicates all on his own.

The question is now what to do with the books. I'll probably do some giveaways with the books I think people might actually like. But what to do with the others? I know there are options out there: donating to a library, or a school, or a prison or selling to a used bookstore. Have any of you gone any of these routes and if so what was your experience?

Bookshelf tour!

Now that we're all moved in and settled, you guys want a bookshelf tour?* Of course you do. Or if you don't, whatever, my blog. Here we go, bottom up

BUILT INS!

 I'm not going to say we bought the house because of the built ins because that would be ridiculous. We also bought it for the fireplace.

But seriously, look at this thing. I can fit in it.

Anyway bookshelves. These built ins are in the basement and can you tell which side is mine? We agreed to split the shelves so Tom gets all his sports stuff down here and I get a selection of some of my favs.

Moving upstairs, we actually do have some more built ins on this floor, but so far they have not been taken over by books. Well, except for Calvin and Hobbes but otherwise, it's pictures and mementos and Mets bobble heads and a brick** and Nightmare Before Christmas music boxes. As you do.

But back to the books.

This is where the bulk of the books live. They are marginally organized. Shakespeare is mostly together. Horror (minus the Stephen King and a few other picks) are together. Vonnegut and Morrison are together and I don't really know why they always end up next to one another but they do. The rest of it might get organized at some point. Maybe.

This table behind the couch is not technically a bookshelf but yeah, it's only a matter of time before it fills up.

Upstairs!

Our bookshelves/night tables. Tom's side (on the right) is random books that didn't end up somewhere else. His sports books all made their way downstairs, hence the lack of theme here. Oh also and there are random DVDs that ended up upstairs instead of with all of the other movies.

My shelf (left) includes my favs: Fforde, Bryson, Moore and then a few other key books.

There's shelf in the spare room and right now it's spillover. Which is sort of what the room itself is though we're working on cleaning that up. I don't have a picture of it cos I forgot to take one when I was upstairs and now I'm downstairs and, well, I think you see the problem.

So there you go. My bookshelves.

*Also I want to post something that isn't a review and this is what I came up with. Technically I wrote a draft post where the only thing in the post was "Bookshelf tour!" Thanks, past me, for the idea.
**If you are curious, the brick says "Trapped in a brick factory get help" and is a replica of the one at CitiField when they built the new stadium because every once in awhile I give great gifts.

Bookshelves! How I (don't at all) organize them

I feel like a lot of people, especially book bloggers, have specific methods for organizing their books. By genre, by author, by era, by color (which looks the best but seems like the least practical for when you actually want to find a book), I'm always impressed. Because my books? Not so much

My books are organized in what I'd like to call an "organic" method. You might call it as "entirely random". We're both correct. I'm more correct because it's my blog and my bookshelves but that's OK. Our bookshelves are spread throughout the house, against any open wall. At one point there was some logic to how they were organized. "One point" = a few apartments ago. Any organization now is because when we packed up from that apartment books from one shelf were put in the same box, and thus twice unpacked in roughly the same order. Roughly.

So there is a little bit of order. Most of the Shakespeare is together. The Harry Potter books are together. Christopher Moore, Jasper Fforde, and Bill Bryson are all together on a special shelf in my room along with some of my other favorites. Everything else? Wherever the book will fit. Even if that means making extra piles on the shelves. We're sort of out of walls though so I'm not sure where we can fit another bookshelf.

I COULD get rid of books. I mean, I'm not GOING to, but I do possess the ability to get rid of books. Like physically I can move books from my shelves to a box and then bring that box elsewhere. I'm just not planning on that anytime soon. Even if Boyfriend+ thinks that wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Oh what's that? You want to see a picture of my shelves. Oh, well, if you insist

Left Boyfriend+'s books, mine on the right

Shelf O' Shakespeare

Did you sign up for the HP readalong yet? Did you?

Xmas tree blocks this shelf. Oops

You may have noticed that some shelves still have some space on them, like Boyfriend+'s for example. There are actually 2 other shelves in the hallway that also have space on them and therefore in theory I shouldn't need to pile books on the shelves. But see, that would require me to organize the books instead of just putting the new ones on whatever shelf is closest to me.

Non-books things that are on the shelf, but not for decoration but because it was a shelf near me: a candle, Fluxx*, slinkies, 2 polar bear Pez dispensers, a Mets subway car pencil case, sunglasses, a camera charger. In case you were curious. You probably weren't, but you know anyway. Cos it's my blog.

*Have you played Fluxx? Cos it's the best.