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slemslempikeBy far the majority of respondents (nearly 80%) grew up in homes where reading was common, and a smaller majority (68%) had many books in the home growing up. Again, people's partners and children are in general keen readers. Over ninety percent of respondents have more than 100 books, with just under half having more than 1000 books. Interestingly, none of the people who thought that they had too many books had more than 2000 books.
Those with "too few" books were actually most likely to have their collection spread over two or more venues, and the majority of those who think their collection "just right" have it all in one place.
I am desperately jealous of the eleven people who have a room dedicated to books. Aside from that, a bedroom is the most likely place to keep books, and a bathroom the least likely.
I don't understand why so few people have lists/catalogues of their books! Catalogues are a thing of beauty and let you do statisticy things, and show you how many books you have that were originally published in a certain decade, or set in a specific country. And you can cross-reference things and everything. But I concede that if you don't think that an evening spent entering data on books into spreadsheets is a rollicking good time, then your opinion might differ.
A few people shelve by colour! Do you just group yellows together, or do you have a rolling spectrum within each colour? Is it just for specific books? Did anyone do this before that art project in wherever it was? People who don't shelve their books in any order - how do you know where they are? Or do you enjoy finding something unexpectedly? I love shelving my books. And since this is my journal, I will now take a few moments to wax lyrical about my own shelving habits. The next paragraph should get interesting again, if you want to skip. As my collection grows, my shelving becomes more specialised. The bookcase that used to be all adult fiction is now classics and general fiction only. It's shelved alphabetically by author, broken down into hardbacks, larger paperbacks and smaller paperbacks. The hardbacks take up one shelf, and the rest have larger paperbacks at the back and smaller ones lined up at the front. I was unduly thrilled to discover that I had almost exactly the right amount of books of each size to make it work. Lit crit, poetry, plays and short stories are currently all crammed into one shelf, as are biography (alphabetical by subject, if more than one book on a person, autobiography first, then chronological by publication) and Women's Studies (stuffed in wherever they'll fit, but when they have proper space they'll be by subject (gender theory, body politics, sexuality etc). Historical fiction is also a pile at the moment, but I'm toying with the idea of organising that chronologically by date set. That raises problems about potential breaking up series (the Sharpe books slot into Master and Commander, for example) and also with books that span a long period of time. Women's fiction (Virago and Persephone reprints mostly) is alphabetical by author, sci-fi/fantasy is currently shelved by size but grouped into series and children's lit crit is all size because it's stuffed between annuals at either end. My beautiful girlsowny books are all alphabetical by author, major series first (in series order), then secondary series and then singletons by publication date. Streatfeilds in a box in the wardrobe, ballet stories in a different box, general children's fiction in roll-boxes under the bed. Soon I will have a place to live where my books can come too, and then I will have daily glorious crises about how and where to shelve everything. I'm sorry, I know this is dull, but it makes me very happy to talk about my shelving. You can always skip.
Knowing the make-up of my flist, I wasn't too surprised to see that there were so few people collecting sciences - three times as many people collect school stories. After adult fiction (which I guess is the default genre for many people), sci-fi and children's books tie for most collected, they're both collected by half of the respondents. I thought that most people wouldn't know the worth of their books, especially as fewer people considered themselves to be collectors. I think I only know because of working at Peakirk Books - I spent all day entering books and prices into the database, so I generally have a pretty good idea of what's valuable (price-wise).
One of the books I'm currently in the middle of is The Trial of Lady Chatterley published by Penguin Books (the defendant). It's very funny in places, not least whenever the prosecutor lists the words that occur (cunt fourteen times, cock four times), and almost every witness is asked right at the end of their examination to confirm the ages and sexes of their children. My favourite bit so far (I'm at the end of day two) is the small squabble between judge and barrister as to whether or not the jurors can be expected to read in the jury room on "hard uncomfortable chairs". In the end, the jurors aren't allowed to read at home, but a special room was provided with leather armchairs. I want to be a juror on that kind of trial!
Those with "too few" books were actually most likely to have their collection spread over two or more venues, and the majority of those who think their collection "just right" have it all in one place.
I am desperately jealous of the eleven people who have a room dedicated to books. Aside from that, a bedroom is the most likely place to keep books, and a bathroom the least likely.
I don't understand why so few people have lists/catalogues of their books! Catalogues are a thing of beauty and let you do statisticy things, and show you how many books you have that were originally published in a certain decade, or set in a specific country. And you can cross-reference things and everything. But I concede that if you don't think that an evening spent entering data on books into spreadsheets is a rollicking good time, then your opinion might differ.
A few people shelve by colour! Do you just group yellows together, or do you have a rolling spectrum within each colour? Is it just for specific books? Did anyone do this before that art project in wherever it was? People who don't shelve their books in any order - how do you know where they are? Or do you enjoy finding something unexpectedly? I love shelving my books. And since this is my journal, I will now take a few moments to wax lyrical about my own shelving habits. The next paragraph should get interesting again, if you want to skip. As my collection grows, my shelving becomes more specialised. The bookcase that used to be all adult fiction is now classics and general fiction only. It's shelved alphabetically by author, broken down into hardbacks, larger paperbacks and smaller paperbacks. The hardbacks take up one shelf, and the rest have larger paperbacks at the back and smaller ones lined up at the front. I was unduly thrilled to discover that I had almost exactly the right amount of books of each size to make it work. Lit crit, poetry, plays and short stories are currently all crammed into one shelf, as are biography (alphabetical by subject, if more than one book on a person, autobiography first, then chronological by publication) and Women's Studies (stuffed in wherever they'll fit, but when they have proper space they'll be by subject (gender theory, body politics, sexuality etc). Historical fiction is also a pile at the moment, but I'm toying with the idea of organising that chronologically by date set. That raises problems about potential breaking up series (the Sharpe books slot into Master and Commander, for example) and also with books that span a long period of time. Women's fiction (Virago and Persephone reprints mostly) is alphabetical by author, sci-fi/fantasy is currently shelved by size but grouped into series and children's lit crit is all size because it's stuffed between annuals at either end. My beautiful girlsowny books are all alphabetical by author, major series first (in series order), then secondary series and then singletons by publication date. Streatfeilds in a box in the wardrobe, ballet stories in a different box, general children's fiction in roll-boxes under the bed. Soon I will have a place to live where my books can come too, and then I will have daily glorious crises about how and where to shelve everything. I'm sorry, I know this is dull, but it makes me very happy to talk about my shelving. You can always skip.
Knowing the make-up of my flist, I wasn't too surprised to see that there were so few people collecting sciences - three times as many people collect school stories. After adult fiction (which I guess is the default genre for many people), sci-fi and children's books tie for most collected, they're both collected by half of the respondents. I thought that most people wouldn't know the worth of their books, especially as fewer people considered themselves to be collectors. I think I only know because of working at Peakirk Books - I spent all day entering books and prices into the database, so I generally have a pretty good idea of what's valuable (price-wise).
One of the books I'm currently in the middle of is The Trial of Lady Chatterley published by Penguin Books (the defendant). It's very funny in places, not least whenever the prosecutor lists the words that occur (cunt fourteen times, cock four times), and almost every witness is asked right at the end of their examination to confirm the ages and sexes of their children. My favourite bit so far (I'm at the end of day two) is the small squabble between judge and barrister as to whether or not the jurors can be expected to read in the jury room on "hard uncomfortable chairs". In the end, the jurors aren't allowed to read at home, but a special room was provided with leather armchairs. I want to be a juror on that kind of trial!
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:06 am (UTC)And I am *so* coming back later to comment....
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:27 am (UTC)Or not. Now I'm off to see what your answers are.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:04 am (UTC)My biggest dream in life is to buy an old church and make it into a house, and make the steeple into a library with a staircase that goes around and around and around, all the way up. IMAGINE.
The irony of me living in a church has not escaped you, I'm sure, but also, i love old church buildings. You could build a spa in the baptistry! And a library in a steeple! I'd die.
What do you think the likelihood is of that happening to me? Slim to none?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:09 am (UTC)A steeple library would be absolutely fantastic. Ooh. And the very top could be a reading room with comfortable seating, and amazing views. You have to do this.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:19 am (UTC)There are some small churches to be had in the country in Quebec. I suppose it all depends where we end up, but there is the SLIMMEST of chances that I could teach there, and we could have a flat in MTL and a house in the country.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA that is so never happening. Sorry, it's hilarious. I"M POOR! But maybe someday?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:30 am (UTC)We don't shelve in any order, and I do like the randomness factor, but it's also because we buy books so regularly and the thought of having to reshelve them all every time scares me. One day I imagine things will be all organised, but not anytime soon.
I'd consider cataloguing books, though.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 07:34 am (UTC)I love my catalogue. It was annoying doing the bulk of it, but now I like being able to update, or check quickly whether or not I have the edition I'm looking at on ebay, and see when something was first published.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:11 am (UTC)Ooooooooooooh, I should do an entry on how I shelve books too. Everytime I'm upset, I shelve books, sort out what's placed where and all that. *nods*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 09:11 am (UTC)I want a lovely home with lots of shelves.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 02:12 pm (UTC)I love reading about other people's shelving habits! (Sad, I know.) I shelve my books by category (non-fiction, broken down into a vague ordering of subjects known only to myself; fiction - interpreted very broadly to include other serious writing such as essays, too; poetry). Within fiction and poetry, I order by author and then usually either title or series chronology. My catch-all 'fiction' category was the result of a whole world of pain over things like kinds of fiction (e.g. should there be a separate SF/fantasy section); language (should I have all foreign-language texts elsewhere, but if so, what about translations); authors who cross categories between fiction and other things (e.g. off the top of my head, Umberto Eco, or Virginia Woolf). Then there are other oddities, like the 'Encyclopedia Sherlockiana', which it really only makes sense to shelve alongside the Sherlock Holmes books themselves... Basically, though I try not to admit it even to myself, my shelving is a nightmare of random inconsistency. But I know where things are. Er, usually.
The greatest tragedy for my shelving at the moment is that I've run out of shelf space. Boooo!
Speaking of shelving by colour, have you ever seen the New England School of Law library's 'search by colour' page? No, really: they have a couple of thousand titles indexed by colour. (I love the page name, too. Exactly what the students come in and say....)
Ahem. Sorry this is so long. I think I got carried away...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 02:28 pm (UTC)When I have space again I'm probably going to want to shelve the Chalet School companions with the series, it just seems like they should be together. Woolf is all over the place with my shelving, but most of it started from lack of space issues, and now I quite like having things compartmentalised. And I get to spend time agonising over my definitions, which is always enjoyable.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-07 02:31 pm (UTC)