My mind, like my house, is a very messy place sometimes.

[seanan_mcguire]

I am currently trying to transform my place of residence from a welter of stuff* into something halfway functional. I have a lot of motivation. I not only want to have a viable idea of what I have, thus telling me what I need to acquire if I want to finish various collections, I want to get rid of things that I don't really want. That way, I can

Comments

[tikiera]

I stopped lending best-beloved books when my Sword and Sorceress 3 - the one with the several first short stories that launched series went missing - and I couldn't remember who had it and no one stepped forward.

Eventually, they reprinted it, but I spent YEARS trying to find one that was less than $100.

I can fully understand the need to carefully extract one's books.

[seanan_mcguire]

...ouch.

Glad this had a happy ending.

[tikiera]

I am glad that I learned that lesson with a book that did go back into print.

But it did lead me to owning "loaner copies" of those books that it would hurt to lose, and that is both good for me, and the author.

[amberfox]

At one point I owned 3 copies of that, just in case something horrible happened. I kept finding them at the used bookstore down the street.

[biomekanic]

Every move is focused on that sweet eventual goal: Seattle... you know, Portland is on that path, and we would happily tolerate your presence here for a decade or so.

[seanan_mcguire]

But Portland hasn't got a Vixy.

[silvertwi]

**If you don't think this is something worth going to war over, you're either not a bibliophile or have never had someone try to take one of your best-beloved books away from you. Not being in the mood to start global thermonuclear destruction, I am doing my best to avoid this.

Slightly related: I had my brother tell me the other day that his roommate is replacing my loaner copy of Deadline because "If I had known it was your sister's book, I would have been more careful with it." Witness the reason I bought two copies and the only person besides me who has touched my personal copy is my mother. On the bright side, more cat food for your lovelies, assuming he actually buys it, and doesn't just put it off forever. ETA: If he puts it off until Blackout comes out, I will probably end up buying the replacement copy, along with two copies of Blackout. Either way, you (eventually) win! gffy<--Cat says hi!

[tikiera]

I also buy an extra book (for new books) to loan for those authors who books I love and want others to love, but am not willing to lose a book.

I started that when I started to get books signed... suddenly it wasn't easy to replace the lost book.

So far it's worked wonders, but I have no idea where my loaner copy of FEED is. Strangely, am fine with that, as I am hoping it is roaming far afield.

[keristor]

There are several authors from whom I regularly buy two copies of each book, one to keep and one to lend out. That's in addition to the ones where I buy the book in more than one format (eArc, hardcover, trade PB, MMPB, ...) and a few books where I buy several copies just in case they wear out and by then are out of print.

I've had 5 or more copies of Silverlock, at least three of which have found homes elsewhere (I only have one for myself at the moment, but at least one might come back to me sometime). And I have at least 4 copies of Stranger in a Strange Land (the originally published version, not the 'uncut' one which is the only one which seems to be sold now) as "backup copies". I think I still have two copies of Feed, unless I lent one of them and forgot about it...

[seanan_mcguire]

Um.

Wow.

Kill him.

[sheistheweather]

Oof. Good luck. That can be a rough process. I'd offer to help if I lived closer. If you want help unpacking when you eventually reach Seattle, I'd be happy to help.

[martianmooncrab]

wind up going to war over who owns

having had an assortment of roomies over the years, the funniest was when no one claimed the item, and the argument was over who we thought it belonged to. "NOT ME!" ... then the "where the hell did it come from then?" or "who left it here?" ...

[seanan_mcguire]

Those wars will probably also happen, it's true.