a very long and rambly entry about my books
I spent another afternoon at storage, although the weather today was not horrid. It was 70s, overcast, breezy, a little sun. And the wind blew the right way so I got to smell the fresh bread baking at the Stroehmann factory that is several hundred yards across the train tracks behind where the storage facility is. Mmmmmm.
I have a plastic see-through box, a large blue plastic storage tub, a large cardboard box, and two small cardboard boxes full of books. There are a few other small storage tubs (see through) and a half-torn cardboard box sitting empty in storage, as well as the small box with handles that I'm using to keep books in when they're around my room. It's not my house, and it's not my room, and I don't get bookshelves. I have seven or eight books in progress. I do not need another thirty or forty lying in piles around the room when it just looks bad and cluttered. So the five boxes of books in storage were opened, the books moved around, everything got written down in a notebook (except a few of the books in the box I just brought back from the house today -- I figured those had already been catalogued anyway). I brought back five or so books out of storage to (re)read. The rest of them are now written down and re-stored so that I know where to find them. Temeraire, Redwall, Philippa Gregory, and the His Dark Materials trilogy reside together with a couple Harry Potter hardcovers; the Discworld novels live with the Hyperion/Endymion series and the 20-book stack of paperbacks known collectively as the Aubreyad; bunches of hardcovers piled in the rest of the boxes willy-nilly with all the other books. The large cardboard box is so heavy that it cannot be lifted -- not only because I'm too weak to lift it myself, since it probably does weigh in excess of fifty pounds, but because if it was lifted the weight of all the books in it would probably destroy the cardboard of the box. Anyway, I got more books in the see-through plastic box than there were before, and I think I at least got the same number back in the large cardboard box even if they weren't stacked as judiciously -- but the only way there will be room for more books is if I carefully restack the big blue storage tub and the large box. I do have two small empty storage boxes (plastic), which are about big enough to hold a pair of winter boots each, and one more medium plastic see-through storage box akin to the one that's already full of books -- all empty -- but this basically tells me that I need to be, uh, rather more selective about buying armloads of books, whether at a used store, Borders' clearance rack, or eBay/Amazon.
I've recently purchased several more editions of the Divine Comedy, from 1909 on to modern editions, from various translators, from eBay. I think that netted me eight or ten new separate volumes, including the one that hasn't arrived yet which is a pretty omnibus edition of Works of Dante in English -- I figure since I have that in French (the Pléïade publication one, of course! Still the most expensive book I own, to be honest). Which puts me in mind that I need a separate box just for my Dante collection. I put my HUGE coffee-table sized edition Longfellow-translated Dante with the Doré illustrations (it was a Barnes & Noble special, okay) in a box with the parts to my collapsible floor lamp, because it was really the only place I could put both of those things at the time. So in order to make my Dante-Only Box o' Books, I will need another entire afternoon to dig out that particular book, and then restack the other three boxes where the other Dante books live. So... another not-disgustingly-hot Saturday afternoon might be given over to that; I mean I guess that's why I got the medium plastic box, ha. Actually, I got the plastic box originally so it could be used as the box wherein I carry books between house/car/storage, but I decided to use a smaller cardboard box with handles for that. At least until said small cardboard box gives out, because I don't want to ruin the plastic storage tub by using it that way until/unless I have to.
And if you think it's weird that I got eight or ten new volumes worth of Dante via eBay in the past few weeks, you just have to remember that while some people collect stamps or coins, I collect translations of Dante. It is My ThingTM. I don't care that I can't read Latvian or German or Italian or really much of anything besides English and Latin (and even that is iffy these days); it's the fact that it was Dante. I have probably two good-sized shelves worth of Dante by now, not including the books of discussion of his work or biographical works or books about Renaissance Florence. And I'm talking nice-sized bookcase shelves here. I like Dante--I adore Dante. I want to surround myself with various editions of Dante so I can say "hm I think I feel like Mandelbaum's translation today instead of Longfellow's" I can just reach into the right shelf (or, in my current case, box) for it. I just adore Dante. I'm reading the Mandelbaum Dante now, actually; I got it as a three-volume set which has some interesting illustrations in it and they're not enormously heavy, but they aren't small, and I just think they're awesome. :D
I did also buy a copy of Horace from an Amazon seller ... $0.01 + $3.99 shipping, which is the cheapest possible Amazon bill you can have. The only way to get a lower cost on shipping is to be eligible for a free shipping promo from them, whether Super-Saver shipping or whatever else. $3.99 is the standard credit Amazon gives to booksellers. It's a big-sized paperback with not-small writing, and in the 300-ish page range, so I'll probably finish it in the not-too-distant future.
But I did, like I said, also rescue several books from storage I wanted to reread, one of which is The Pillars of the Earth. I watched the fifth hour of the Starz miniseries last night, and the fourth hour was full of "OMGWTFBBQ THAT WAS NOT IN THE BOOK YOU ARE RAPING THE STORY," but the fifth hour was, with the exception of the damage control for the made-up shit of the previous hour, lifted almost entirely from the book with all applicable canon intact. But there are parts of the book I don't remember, so once I get through some of the other books I'm partway through -- as I may have mentioned, I have seven or so books that I'm partway through, including some that I started years ago (Judgment of Paris, I'm lookin' at you -- it's only like 30 more pages but I just haven't actually, y'know, read it) -- I'll be able to devote another week or two to Pillars. Mine's the mass-market paperback edition, but it is still 1000 pages with not-large text, so there you are. I adore that book. And even though I have my Issues with the Starz miniseries, I kind of hope they put out a DVD of it. I haven't actually downloaded any of it, since I've watched all of it thus far in Starz HD (benefits to living with family), and now I think I actually would shell out for the DVD if it's reasonably priced. I guess we'll see.
Anyway, there are significantly fewer books in my room, all the books in storage are easier to get to (and having handled them all again I know where they all are now, yay!), and hopefully I will finish some more books in the next few weeks/months! I know for sure I'll get past 50 books this year, something I haven't managed the last few years. I'll try for 75. :)
I have a plastic see-through box, a large blue plastic storage tub, a large cardboard box, and two small cardboard boxes full of books. There are a few other small storage tubs (see through) and a half-torn cardboard box sitting empty in storage, as well as the small box with handles that I'm using to keep books in when they're around my room. It's not my house, and it's not my room, and I don't get bookshelves. I have seven or eight books in progress. I do not need another thirty or forty lying in piles around the room when it just looks bad and cluttered. So the five boxes of books in storage were opened, the books moved around, everything got written down in a notebook (except a few of the books in the box I just brought back from the house today -- I figured those had already been catalogued anyway). I brought back five or so books out of storage to (re)read. The rest of them are now written down and re-stored so that I know where to find them. Temeraire, Redwall, Philippa Gregory, and the His Dark Materials trilogy reside together with a couple Harry Potter hardcovers; the Discworld novels live with the Hyperion/Endymion series and the 20-book stack of paperbacks known collectively as the Aubreyad; bunches of hardcovers piled in the rest of the boxes willy-nilly with all the other books. The large cardboard box is so heavy that it cannot be lifted -- not only because I'm too weak to lift it myself, since it probably does weigh in excess of fifty pounds, but because if it was lifted the weight of all the books in it would probably destroy the cardboard of the box. Anyway, I got more books in the see-through plastic box than there were before, and I think I at least got the same number back in the large cardboard box even if they weren't stacked as judiciously -- but the only way there will be room for more books is if I carefully restack the big blue storage tub and the large box. I do have two small empty storage boxes (plastic), which are about big enough to hold a pair of winter boots each, and one more medium plastic see-through storage box akin to the one that's already full of books -- all empty -- but this basically tells me that I need to be, uh, rather more selective about buying armloads of books, whether at a used store, Borders' clearance rack, or eBay/Amazon.
I've recently purchased several more editions of the Divine Comedy, from 1909 on to modern editions, from various translators, from eBay. I think that netted me eight or ten new separate volumes, including the one that hasn't arrived yet which is a pretty omnibus edition of Works of Dante in English -- I figure since I have that in French (the Pléïade publication one, of course! Still the most expensive book I own, to be honest). Which puts me in mind that I need a separate box just for my Dante collection. I put my HUGE coffee-table sized edition Longfellow-translated Dante with the Doré illustrations (it was a Barnes & Noble special, okay) in a box with the parts to my collapsible floor lamp, because it was really the only place I could put both of those things at the time. So in order to make my Dante-Only Box o' Books, I will need another entire afternoon to dig out that particular book, and then restack the other three boxes where the other Dante books live. So... another not-disgustingly-hot Saturday afternoon might be given over to that; I mean I guess that's why I got the medium plastic box, ha. Actually, I got the plastic box originally so it could be used as the box wherein I carry books between house/car/storage, but I decided to use a smaller cardboard box with handles for that. At least until said small cardboard box gives out, because I don't want to ruin the plastic storage tub by using it that way until/unless I have to.
And if you think it's weird that I got eight or ten new volumes worth of Dante via eBay in the past few weeks, you just have to remember that while some people collect stamps or coins, I collect translations of Dante. It is My ThingTM. I don't care that I can't read Latvian or German or Italian or really much of anything besides English and Latin (and even that is iffy these days); it's the fact that it was Dante. I have probably two good-sized shelves worth of Dante by now, not including the books of discussion of his work or biographical works or books about Renaissance Florence. And I'm talking nice-sized bookcase shelves here. I like Dante--I adore Dante. I want to surround myself with various editions of Dante so I can say "hm I think I feel like Mandelbaum's translation today instead of Longfellow's" I can just reach into the right shelf (or, in my current case, box) for it. I just adore Dante. I'm reading the Mandelbaum Dante now, actually; I got it as a three-volume set which has some interesting illustrations in it and they're not enormously heavy, but they aren't small, and I just think they're awesome. :D
I did also buy a copy of Horace from an Amazon seller ... $0.01 + $3.99 shipping, which is the cheapest possible Amazon bill you can have. The only way to get a lower cost on shipping is to be eligible for a free shipping promo from them, whether Super-Saver shipping or whatever else. $3.99 is the standard credit Amazon gives to booksellers. It's a big-sized paperback with not-small writing, and in the 300-ish page range, so I'll probably finish it in the not-too-distant future.
But I did, like I said, also rescue several books from storage I wanted to reread, one of which is The Pillars of the Earth. I watched the fifth hour of the Starz miniseries last night, and the fourth hour was full of "OMGWTFBBQ THAT WAS NOT IN THE BOOK YOU ARE RAPING THE STORY," but the fifth hour was, with the exception of the damage control for the made-up shit of the previous hour, lifted almost entirely from the book with all applicable canon intact. But there are parts of the book I don't remember, so once I get through some of the other books I'm partway through -- as I may have mentioned, I have seven or so books that I'm partway through, including some that I started years ago (Judgment of Paris, I'm lookin' at you -- it's only like 30 more pages but I just haven't actually, y'know, read it) -- I'll be able to devote another week or two to Pillars. Mine's the mass-market paperback edition, but it is still 1000 pages with not-large text, so there you are. I adore that book. And even though I have my Issues with the Starz miniseries, I kind of hope they put out a DVD of it. I haven't actually downloaded any of it, since I've watched all of it thus far in Starz HD (benefits to living with family), and now I think I actually would shell out for the DVD if it's reasonably priced. I guess we'll see.
Anyway, there are significantly fewer books in my room, all the books in storage are easier to get to (and having handled them all again I know where they all are now, yay!), and hopefully I will finish some more books in the next few weeks/months! I know for sure I'll get past 50 books this year, something I haven't managed the last few years. I'll try for 75. :)