Monday, July 14, 2014

Observations on my newly organized bookshelf

I took advantage of the recent need to pack and then unpack all my books to actually organize them for the first time ever. Fiction is now organized by author's last name, non-fiction by subject. Some observations:
  • I appear to have a bias toward authors whose names begin with "A" or "B." Fully 24% of my fiction shelf-space is taken up by those two letters. To be fair, those two letters include Adams, Asimov, Atwood, Baxter, Beagle, Bear, Benford, Borges, and Brin, among others. 
  • Frederik Pohl and Chaim Potok are next to each other, The Annals of the Heechee directly colliding with The Chosen. The fanfic potential is dazzling.
  • H.P. Lovecraft and Lois Lowry are quite possibly the weirdest ship I have ever contemplated.
  • Letters for which I have no authors: Q, U, V, X. I am open for recommendations.
  • The alphabetically last author in my collection is Roger Zelazny.
  • Probably the nerdiest shelf: The Riverside Milton, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, two different, illustrated Star Trek guidebooks, The Elements of Harmony, A Tolkien Bestiary, and The History of Middle-Earth. In that order.
  • I own a lot of RPG sourcebooks I've never used. Even more I've only used once, though of that latter group Slayers d20 at least was COMPLETELY worth it.

4 comments:

  1. Whew, I feel you on the RPG issue. "Ralph Bakshi's Wizards: the RPG" is the creme of the crop of my collection of "RPGs I'll never get to use."

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  2. V provides the obvious answer of Kurt Vonnegut. Sirens of Titan is a particular favourite.

    The only U's I've got are Mardock Scramble by Tow Ubukata (to which I give a rousing "It's alright, if you like that sort of thing"), and ebook fan-translations of Fate/Zero by Gen Urobutchi.

    When I reorganised my bookshelf by the Dewey Decimal System, it made me realise how... "nationally focused", let's say, Dewey was. Literature by Americans and Englishmen each get their own section, meanwhile all of Asia is lumped together, and there's nothing at all for Canada.

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    Replies
    1. I hated Vonnegut in high school, but maybe it's time to give him another chance.

      I have watched enough of the Fate/Zero anime (the first half of the first episode) to know that I have absolutely no interest in anything that starts "Fate/" I'm afraid.

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    2. I adored Vonnegut in high school, but I was a teeny bit sarcastic and angry. A lot of people love Cat's Cradle, but it left me cold. I would try Slaughterhouse Five if you haven't read it yet - that's my favorite.

      As for the Lowry / Lovecraft crossover, it would explain a lot about The Giver.

      And for Atwood, have you read the Maddaddam trilogy yet? I just finished it and would love to discuss it.

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