'No More Buying Books Until I've Read the Ones I've Already Bought' Thread

black_cat

Thrifty_Pixie wrote: »

I realised a few years back that if I were to have a house fire (heaven forbid) I would never remember all of the books I had owned, and would possibly never be able to afford to replace them all anyway! So when I could eventually afford to take out contents insurance I decided to tackle the mammoth task of cataloguing them all. I must admit it also pandered to my slight OCD tendencies too



This is how I know, at a glance, that I have far too many books :rotfl:


:coffee:

Go on... how many?!

mrs-moneypenny

black_cat wrote: »

Go on... how many?!

i was wondering that too, please tell:)

blindtoast

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

Now on to When God Was a Rabbit. Liking it so far!

I loved When God Was a Rabbit - think I bought it for the title and was very presently surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Thrifty_Pixie wrote: »

I was wondering how many of you have a database/spreadsheet/paper list of your book collections?

I realised a few years back that if I were to have a house fire (heaven forbid) I would never remember all of the books I had owned, and would possibly never be able to afford to replace them all anyway! So when I could eventually afford to take out contents insurance I decided to tackle the mammoth task of cataloguing them all. I must admit it also pandered to my slight OCD tendencies too

So now I have a (fairly) simple Excel worksheet list with the following fields:

Status - currently reading/next reads/readNrid

Approx Purchase Date - this was a little harder to remember, but is meant to prompt me to read more that have been languishing on the shelves for the longest time

ISBN - in progress, but it's very time consuming...
Title
Author
Genre
Cover Type

Notes - first editions/special editions/details of co-writers or illustrators/note of gifters

In Progress
Read
Date Read
To Read
Reference
Need to Restart

- the last 6 fields to aid me with my stats.

This is how I know, at a glance, that I have far too many books :rotfl:

I also have other sheets in the file for my DVDs and CDs.

Anyone else keep such a database...oh....and...who *ahem*...just LOVES keeping it updated?

TP
:coffee:

I don't have a list of books but I'm worried about how much I like the idea of having them catalogued like this!! Think I have a touch of OCD as well!

DVDs and CDs are in alphabetical order but I've never done this with books - they are in their sets and with similar genres - if I have a lot of the same author they will be together but thats where my logic ends - mainly because I rarely know who the author is of a book! I do have a list from memory of DVD TV boxsets that are colour coded into watched and not watched -tho I've never checked that they are all on there! Makes it obvious how many I've not watched tho, I probably don't want to do this with my books! :rotfl:

mrs-moneypenny

blindtoast wrote: »

I don't have a list of books but I'm worried about how much I like the idea of having them catalogued like this!! Think I have a touch of OCD as well!

DVDs and CDs are in alphabetical order but I've never done this with books - they are in their sets and with similar genres - if I have a lot of the same author they will be together but thats where my logic ends

i think all of us horders have a slight inclining towards ocd if we didnt wed be in chaos

i tried putting lists inside the cupboard doors of what dvds were in there and had them in the same alphabetical order in the shelves, but no one puts them back like that and it drives me mad trrying to retidy them when someone suddenly decides they want to watch something that on the list but not in the cupboard.
i try and store 'likes' together boxsets on one bookcase, films in a series together etc, same with books biogs are on one shelf, self helps together, my fiction has a whole bookcase, DH warhammer and chris ryan have their shelf, but it all merges.:o

ruby_eskimo

Thrifty_Pixie wrote: »

I was wondering how many of you have a database/spreadsheet/paper list of your book collections?

I realised a few years back that if I were to have a house fire (heaven forbid) I would never remember all of the books I had owned, and would possibly never be able to afford to replace them all anyway! So when I could eventually afford to take out contents insurance I decided to tackle the mammoth task of cataloguing them all. I must admit it also pandered to my slight OCD tendencies too

So now I have a (fairly) simple Excel worksheet list with the following fields:

Status - currently reading/next reads/readNrid

Approx Purchase Date - this was a little harder to remember, but is meant to prompt me to read more that have been languishing on the shelves for the longest time

ISBN - in progress, but it's very time consuming...
Title
Author
Genre
Cover Type

Notes - first editions/special editions/details of co-writers or illustrators/note of gifters

In Progress
Read
Date Read
To Read
Reference
Need to Restart

- the last 6 fields to aid me with my stats.

This is how I know, at a glance, that I have far too many books :rotfl:

I also have other sheets in the file for my DVDs and CDs.

Anyone else keep such a database...oh....and...who *ahem*...just LOVES keeping it updated?

TP
:coffee:

This is what I use goodreads for!

Sessie

Hey all,

Haven't been here in AAAGES so I brought some coconut macaroons with me to ingratiate myself again!

Have managed to go through my shelves and give quite a few books away - either that I know I won't ever get round to reading or that I've read and put back on the shelf without realising (!).

I did get about 12 new books recently but those were bought with book tokens I got for Christmas as there were specific books I really wanted - some non-fiction, about the banking crisis and another about drug companies misleading the media/general public about how close we are to finding cures for things as they don't want to lose their nice money-drip of funding from governments, but also some fiction too.

This year I have read:

Caitlin Moran - How To Be A Woman - LOVED IT. Found it witty and heart-rending at the same time. Some really good points well made but the light-hearted quips and recollections just sweetening the pill a little. The problem with writing a book about "feminism" is that the word itself has such negative connotations now but for me she covers the relevant issues in a timely and humorous manner. I found myself laughing out loud (at my desk!) and then nodding my head in agreement a lot. Have passed to mum and will then be going to both my sisters before two people at work. So, whilst Ms Moran will only be making her money once, a good few people will be introduced to her writing!

Arnold Schwarzennegger - Total Recall. Rather obviously, this is his autobiography. I had picked it up at Tesco a while back and flicked - I figured if nothing else, he's had an interesting life and I do like an autobiography here and there to punctuate the fiction. I got it with my book tokens for £10 which is what it was going for in Tesco anyhow. Whilst I find him a bit... "up himself"... I guess if you're going to make it in the worlds (bodybuilding, cinema and politics no less!) then you kinda have to have a very strong sense of self-belief and confidence so... *shrug*... horses for courses. I have found it really interesting and he has a lot to say for himself. I'm sure most people see him as the King of one-liners with not much up top but I can report this is FAR from the case. Definitely worth the read.

Joe Hill - Horns. For anyone who doesn't know Joe is Stephen King's son. Unsurprisingly some of his work is horror type fiction, as this is. It's about a guy who, one morning after the mother of all benders, wakes up with... well... horns beginning to grow on his head. Sounds far-fetched? Not at all... devoured this in two nights straight. Brings up some good discussion points (good vs evil, what IS evil?, if you've been wronged is it ever OK to get "revenge" even if your revenge is what's considered "bad" by society?") and I really believed in the characters. So much so in fact that the one thing that had initially put me off the book - the main character's name is Ignatius and I just felt that as it was so odd it would stop me from getting into the book (does that sound odd? I find the Scandinavian books that get so much attention lately hard to read because of the names.. maybe it's just me) - had no effect and after chapter two I barely noticed it.

Am currently reading some froth ... Zombie Apocalypse to be exact! Sometimes you want steak.. sometimes you want a burger (no pun intended!). Instead of being just a "story" it is made up of diary entries, emails, newspaper articles, police reports... building up the story from different peoples' viewpoints and it's rather gripping! Should be done with that by tonight as it's an easy read.

Next I'm planning on starting Bad Pharma which is the non-fiction medical one mentioned above. Have wanted to read it for ages so was nice to be able to pick it up without any personal financial outlay! Very MSE!

Right, I'm rambling so... grab a macaroon everyone. If no-one's sitting on that armchair over there I'll just...

....aaaaaaahhh....

x

ruby_eskimo

Welcome back Sessie! I love a macaroon! Ta very muchly! I also would love to read Bad Pharma, I have Bad Science in my mountain of 'to be read' books.

Thrifty_Pixie

Er. OK.

Current library stats:

In progress: 1
Read: 474
Reference: 67
To Read: 756
Total: 1298



And i do use Goodreads too, however that includes books i've read and given away, so not an accurate picture of my ongoing collection.

I haven't organised them by alphabet on the shelves, however i've kinda lumped them together in vague types:

old oak bookcase in dining room:
old collectable classics
'literary' fiction

two floor-to-ceiling bookcases in dining room:
non-fiction
art books
auto/biographies
spirituality/religion
'literary' fiction

pyramid bookcase in dining room:
'literary' fiction
poetry

three dodgy hand-built pine bookcases in upstairs study:
children's books
wiccan/pagan literature
Terry Pratchett collection (!)
graphic novels (aka comix!)
'light' fiction
...and those i will probably read and donate


it's an odd system, but i know roughly where everything is!

except of course the 4 piles of recent additions slumped in piles under the window in the dining room...
:rotfl:

Thrifty_Pixie

you know...the more i look at my stats the more i think that that's a RIDONCULOUS number of books to have in a tbr pile :eek: seriously :eek:

i think my aim of not buying any more until i've read 24 (the ones i've acquired from my lovely neighbour so far this year) is a little bit pathetic in light of the WAVE OF BOOKS TAKING OVER MY HOUSE.

*deep breaths*

still, i'll stick with my original goal and, if i manage that, i can always extend it from month to month. :A

kellbobs

so today I helped with a book sale. Books were 20p paperback 50p hardback!!!

I was very good and only increased my collection slightly, i couldn't resist Ooh what a lovely pair (ant & Dec) for 50p. My daughter's bookcase is now a lot fuller too, think i'm passing on my book addiction, trouble is she's not quite 4 yet!