Re: [Meta] Wait, you sort your books how???

On 7/30/24 10:15, Robert Woodward wrote:

In article <mcuhaj58qr5tnd7691a21n8on4b6b553gk@4ax.com>,
  Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
 

I sort my books by category:  Antique & rare books, old books, history
and books kept for historical reasons, medicine & health & gardening &
cycling & stuff like that there, astronomy, whatever is behind the
wooden doors on the bottom barristers, children's books, and, on the
mezzanine shelf in the halway, paperbacks, mostly F&SF, mostly
alphabetical by author.
>
Who knows how many books I have, but it isn't a lot.

 I have been accumulating books since May 1973 (when I became employed,
moved to another state and set up house). I started out buying free
standing shelves (until Sears stop carrying the type I wanted) and then
bought bookcases (BTW, I moved 3 times during this, into ever bigger
places). At the start, new books were in various stacks until read, then
placed onto shelves. SF magazines went on shelves as well (until I start
putting old ones in boxes). Besides new stuff, I was buying back issues
of various SF magazines at used bookstores (all the way back to the pulp
days in the 30s and 40s - lots of early 1950s digests as well); these
mostly were stored in boxes (and are still there).
 Currently, I have thousands of books, the unread ones are in bookcases
(3 for hardcovers, 2 for paperbacks and 1 for trade paperbacks - novels
and collections sorted by author, with anthologies at the end). As for
books I have read, the hardcover novels and collections are sorted by
author and title (except for series which are in series order).
Hardcover anthologies are on the shelves after that. Paperbacks are
sorted into several groups: science fiction novels and collections,
sorted by author and title (series excepted again); fantasy novels and
collections by author and title (series excepted); paperback editions of
original anthologies by title; and paperback editions of reprint
anthologies by title.
 Most of my SF magazines are in boxes; only Asimov's and F&SF are
complete on shelves with Astounding/Analog from 1949 on.
 

Well I would have a more extensive collection is I lived in
other than a Studio apartment.  But i am pretty certain that I
have several thousands of books and few hundred of those
are manga which I got into after getting into anime about
26 years ago.  I do not think that I would have room for
all my books covering a great variety of subjects if I lined
my apartment with appropriate book cases.  I would have more
but for two things. While I served in the Military my dearest
mother put my LOTR original imports out in a leaky garage..
That was traumatic for me because she had books from her
childhood so I thought she knew better how to care for
such.
Later I sold them to get rid of the weight on my
3rd or 4th Apartment move in San Francisco.  Then I had
to save a lot of money to complete a project dear to my
heart and stopped all my subscriptions to SF magazines
and once free of the addiction did not pick it up until
the Covid-19 Restrictions in San Francisco went into place.
They had to close the public library and sanitize every
volume. I used my computer to reserve books and then
when I got an email that my reserved books were ready
go down and pick them up but at first they were just
totally closed.  For a while I could get Analog,
Fantasy & SF and Azimov's SF at a shop that
eventually closed due to loss of business due to the
Pandemic.
But i decide long ago to store most of the books I
would read at the at the SF Public Library-main.  I still
have a lot of books that I bought before my saving spree.
If I live long enough I will get the junk out
of my apartment and maybe build or have build plenty of
bookcases ana line them up by subject if non-fiction
or genre.  At one point in the Pandemic U was ub a
drug store and bought a Lynsay Sands book "Mile High
with a Vampire" which was the first paperback I bought
aside from manga in years.  I try to avoid buying
books because when I bring them home no shelf is open
for them. That is one of the better Sands books by
the way. And a sequel to a previous volume
bliss-
b l i s s - S F 4 e v e r at D S L E x t r e m e dot com