What's on your mind today?

[Ali]

Velma, you appear to have the same affliction as me. I have a mountain of books all of which I am attached to. Recently we were remodeling our house. That meant that the contents had to be assigned to the garage. Holy Cow Batman! I did not know how many books that I had. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

You wanna know what is shameful? The majority of we American do not read. We piss our time away on game of thrones or some other activity that does little or nothing for our intellectual achievement...............Oh Shit, I am at the beginning of a rant. Whew! I'm glad I recognized that probability. 

Love your books but know that some of them have to go.  My cherished books lean heavily toward physics, math, geography, anthro pology,  and history. Well OK there are books by trouble makers like Dawkins, Harris, Avalos, Gable, and those guys  So little time, so much to learn.

Some Americans read! (Our bookcases, we also have a smaller one in our bedroom, and the kids have a full bookcase of their own upstairs)

[Bad Penny II]

Do people still do libraries?
I like libraries.
Books aren't as smelly as cats to keep but they do a bit, and a shelf of atheist lit may fall upon you if today's god is likes ironic.

[xSilverPhinx]

Velma, you appear to have the same affliction as me. I have a mountain of books all of which I am attached to. Recently we were remodeling our house. That meant that the contents had to be assigned to the garage. Holy Cow Batman! I did not know how many books that I had. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

You wanna know what is shameful? The majority of we American do not read. We piss our time away on game of thrones or some other activity that does little or nothing for our intellectual achievement...............Oh Shit, I am at the beginning of a rant. Whew! I'm glad I recognized that probability. 

Love your books but know that some of them have to go.  My cherished books lean heavily toward physics, math, geography, anthro pology,  and history. Well OK there are books by trouble makers like Dawkins, Harris, Avalos, Gable, and those guys  So little time, so much to learn.

The idea I get is that Americans read more than Brazilians, books just seem to be cheaper there. Here the average non public domain book sells for about 30 to 50 bucks, which means that people who buy a lot of books usually are those with some disposable income.  Imported books are cheaper, the quality of paperback paper probably makes that possible.
Now it's been more and more difficult find imported books in mega bookstores.   You have to order them online and wait weeks for the books to arrive.

[Sandra Craft]

The idea I get is that Americans read more than Brazilians, books just seem to be cheaper there. Here the average non public domain book sells for about 30 to 50 bucks, which means that people who buy a lot of books usually are those with some disposable income.  Imported books are cheaper, the quality of paperback paper probably makes that possible.
Now it's been more and more difficult find imported books in mega bookstores.   You have to order them online and wait weeks for the books to arrive.

That's horrifying!  If I ever come to Brazil, I'm bringing plenty of books with me to pass around.

[Sandra Craft]

My main bookcase, I made an alcove just for it when I took the doors off a large closet in the front room (wasn't using it much as a closet anyway).  I used to have my books shelved by various categories but then I decided the heck with it, and shelved them alphabetically by author.  That created some funny pairings -- Dan Savage's "Skipping Towards Gomorrah" is now beside Laura Schlessinger's "How Could You Do That?!".

My dream would be to have a built-in bookcase covering at least one entire wall, but I suppose I'd have to give up renting for owning to get that.

[Essie Mae]

i have hundreds of books, but had hundreds more, all over the place.  I had a big clear-out and now can't remember a single one I got rid of.  I've had a Kindle, which I love, for a few years as Mr Mae was feeling a bit beleaguered by all those books but I still prefer the reading experience of a real book. The Kindle is no good for books of photos of the Universe, or science books with lots of diagrams and pictures.  I'm deeply attached to my books, and would not like to have them anywhere else but in the living room. I couldn't bear to get rid of those I read in my teens such as those by Paul Galico, Ernest Hemingway, Somerset Maugham, George Orwell and C P Snow among others.

[Velma]

My physical library has 768 books, 122 of them in the "to be read"category. I didn't realize I had that many until I cataloged them. I've decided to slow down on buying more books until I read some of the ones I have on hand. I am going to concentrate on filling in gaps in series and new books by my most favorite authors for a time. Once I've made a dent in my stack, I'll start looking for new authors again.

Unfortunately, years ago, when my apartment flooded, I did lose quite a few books, 150 or so. It still makes me sad.

[Icarus]

Xsp I'd be surprised to learn that Americans read more than Brazilians do.  We do have some very intelligent people here but I fear that they are outnumbered by those who are not much interested in expanding their horizons.

[Velma]

It easy for those of us who read to forget that not everyone does. A couple of years ago I read an article with decorating tips. It recommended using framed photos, knick-knacks, vases, and such, to break up solid line of books on your bookshelves to create more visual interest. If you didn't have any books, it suggested looking in second-hand shops for books with colorful spines. My first thought was astonishment as I remembered that there are people out there who don't even have a few books in their home and can seriously consider purchasing books for the purposes of decoration only. It is almost as if such folk are a different species. 

[xSilverPhinx]

^ While my father does (or did, I don't know) have quite a library, he would also spend a lot of money on buying books for decoration. While he never showed himself to be an art fan, there seemed to be every hardcover art and artistic photography book possible lining the shelves.   

[Icarus]

I took a book about the history of Sri Lanka back to the library today. Browsing the new issue shelf I found an intriguing title: The Jazz Of Physics. The author Stephen Alexander is a physicist and Jazz musician. The secret link between music and the universe. In this very creative work Alexander leads us through his remarkable journey from Jazz musician to theoretical physics.  From the music of the spheres to string theory.: Leon Cooper Nobel Laurate physics 1972.

Now where in hell else does one find such stimulating ideas, information, and commentary than in books of this and other sorts? 

[Ali]

All the swords.

As I think I've mentioned, we have 4 boys between us. What this means in a practical sense is that our house is overflowing with Star Wars paraphernalia, mixed in with some Batman and Five Nights at Freddy's stuff (plus all of the three year olds Transformers. He's obsessed.) We also have every wheeled vehicle known to man, including bikes, skateboards, scooters, a big wheel, a Flying Turtle (google it, I don't have the energy to explain,) this four wheeled bike thing, what is basically a large hot wheel that you can do tricks on, and a motorized mini truck that my parents bought and which is destroying the lawn. But fine, we have every wheeled vehicle known to man.

What caught my attention is that after the boys went to bed, I was tidying up, and I managed to round up 12 swords that were casually left around the house, 8 of which were light sabers (red, green, and blue!) Why the hell do 4 boys need so many goddamned light sabers?!? But they do. They freaking love light sabers. There are more up in their rooms. Aside from the light sabers, there are some pirate and ninja swords as well. All of the swords. I love them all, but seriously. Why do boys need so many swords?

[Tank]

Swords are fun. I see no issue here?

[hermes2015]

Those shelves look so much mine! I made mine myself:

As you can see I love books.

[Sandra Craft]

^^  Nice!