Books!

[Ziggy]

I never really kept up with this thread over the years, so I don't know if this was already discussed, but...

Does anyone have a large-ish book collection? If so, how are you organizing them?

It use to be that I didn't have very many books and so it didn't matter too much how I organized them. I would pretty much just split fiction and non fiction, then the rest was sort of whatever. But now that I've decided to grow my collection, I'm wondering how I'm going to organize things going forward. I mean, sure, I could go by genre and then by author for fiction, and arrange my non fiction by categories, but that doesn't always LOOK good. By that I mean, books come in all shapes and sizes and if I arrange them strictly by whatever system then the aesthetics may not be pleasing from across the room. For an actual library this doesn't matter, but for a home it sort of does.

So does anyone compromise their organization of books for the sake of a pleasing visual display of them?

[REPO Man]

I literally need a bigger shelf.

[Ack]

I do organize my books based on library standards, so broken into fiction vs non-fiction, then into genre or topic, genre further arranged alphabetically by author and then by title. Graphic novels receive their own section.

That said, you could arrange by hardcover vs paperback and do break downs from there. Depending on your presentation preferences, you could also have a collection of show pieces pulled out to arrange more openly. I have a set of Harvard classics from around 1920 that I bookended with some of my larger non-fiction books, mainly news or war photography from the 20th century.

[SamuraiMegas]

I just finished DJ Screw A Life in Slow Revolution last week. Great read, getting the truth about DJ Screw's history can be kinda tough, but the book compiles a pretty perfect history, especially if you watch the documentary that came out absolutely forever ago as well to paint the full picture.

Managed to get it signed by the author, as well as Key C and Demo from Screwed Up Click during a June 27th party (and a copy for my brother!) So I might be a little biased towards a good review haha.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm on a Michael Crichton kick. I like his books; they're fun reads. They're formulaic in a way that's pretty enjoyable: each book is dedicated to one specific topic the author was obsessed with at the time and the characters are typically stand-ins for various concepts and ideas.

I bought State of Fear this afternoon so that's next. The girl at Barnes & Noble really wanted me to buy a cookie too but I did not want the cookie.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I'm on a Michael Crichton kick. I like his books; they're fun reads. They're formulaic in a way that's pretty enjoyable: each book is dedicated to one specific topic the author was obsessed with at the time and the characters are typically stand-ins for various concepts and ideas.

I bought State of Fear this afternoon so that's next. The girl at Barnes & Noble really wanted me to buy a cookie too but I did not want the cookie.

I tore through a ton of those when I was younger. What’s your favorite so far?

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm on a Michael Crichton kick. I like his books; they're fun reads. They're formulaic in a way that's pretty enjoyable: each book is dedicated to one specific topic the author was obsessed with at the time and the characters are typically stand-ins for various concepts and ideas.

I bought State of Fear this afternoon so that's next. The girl at Barnes & Noble really wanted me to buy a cookie too but I did not want the cookie.

I tore through a ton of those when I was younger. What’s your favorite so far?

Jurassic Park

I have a ways to go though.

Oh and I was surprised that The Lost World is nothing like the movie.

[Ack]

I enjoyed Michael Crichton immensely and have read through most of his books at this point. The few that I haven't are from early in his career when he was using pen names or a couple from the last decade or so of his life. State of Fear and Next are pretty much all that I have left to read under his actual name.

[Markies]

Back when I started reading for fun, I read two of his books.

The Great Train Robbery was a great read. Eaters of the Dead was not.

[Limewater]

Back when I started reading for fun, I read two of his books.

The Great Train Robbery was a great read. Eaters of the Dead was not.

I liked "Eaters fo the Dead." I also enjoyed the film adaptation, which I watched later.

I liked Crichton's earlier books more than his later ones, but I read them roughly chronologically, and didn't read "The Great Train Robbery."

Starting with "The Lost World," I realized that it felt like he was writing a movie in novel form. The book even had descriptions of sweeping vistas with dinosaurs all together in a valley that works fine to convey a sense of wonder in a film but is really awkward in a novel.

I'm not sure if this is something I was finally old enough to notice when I read "The Lost World," or if it was present in his earlier books.

I think my favorite Crichton novel is "Sphere."