Busy Reading And Editing

Life has been busy lately. 

I've gotten 'ALERT! Epilepsy' tattooed to my right arm and removed my bracelet - that was on Tuesday - and that's itchy and healing now. 

I've been organising my house for another donation run at the charity store - I did one two days ago.

And I've been editing and fixing up 'The Tour Guide' this week too! So great that this book has finally taken off of its own accord and really become a great little gem... well, you know, I think so anyway. I've yet to leave it alone and let it slow cook on its own and then go back and see what kind of mess I've made of it.

But the best thing I've done this week is score some great classic novels! Ruth Park is a favourite New Zealand writer who really opened my eyes to fantasy and time travel with the book 'Playing Beatie Bow'. So, when I spotted 'Serpent's Delight', 'Dear Heart and Gentle People' and 'One-A-Pecker, Two-A-Pecker', I knew I had to have them! They'd be wonderful to add to not only 'Playing Beatie Bow' but to my hardcover edition of 'Harp In The South'... so I took them and two other books by two other authors. 

The first one is 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute, which I've seen the movie of and adore! Then, there's 'The House of God' by Samuel Shem. Now, I've never owned a copy of the former, and never heard of the latter, but I'm glad I picked up both of these to add to the ever-growing collection. 

What have you added to your collection lately which you can't wait to get your nose between the pages of? For me, I just can't choose - there's too many choices of great books! Until my next post, happy reading! 

Series and Trilogies

As you all know, I love collecting books - yes, I have a huge collection which is growing by the day - but I also love collecting books in their complete series before I start reading them. 

Weird I know, but I want to know the book I need next is right there in on the shelf for me to pick up and read when I finish the first one. 

So far, I have the complete 'Dark Tower Series' by Stephen King, 'Lord of the Rings' is six books kept in three volumes. I have that in one big thick volume, and in three volumes as well as in the six separate books. Then, there's 'The Talisman' and 'Black House' which are a part one and two by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Garth Nix put out a brilliant trilogy I own and have read - must re-read it again. Then, I have my vampire books one of my friends - Debbie Behan - gave me when she and her husband moved up to the Sunshine Coast and they wanted downsize. The P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast books; there's gotta be around ten of these - all in order. I also have quite a few of the Janet Evanovich books - all the numbered sleuth ones - which go from 1 - 18. I don't have all of them, but I have a few of them; would love to have the rest so I can read them all at some point. I have the first one, then ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. Then, there's two other books of hers I have that aren't part of that series. I also have Tad Williams' two books - which I haven't read yet - and other books around the place which are the second books in chronicles of something by other authors; and I've yet to find the first of those, as well as the rest of those books.

Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it. Like 'The Wheel of Time' books. Yes, the series which outlived the author who wrote them... is all worth the time and effort for the reader and fans to go out searching for these books? I know it takes time to write these books; but if it's going to take so long to do all of this, and once you're finished, you get kinda stuck with the books. However, I'm the type who goes back and rereads a book over and over for the sheer joy of it... of being in familiar territory. So, what about you? Do you enjoy collecting books and the series for the joy of them being around you? Or is it just the hunt you love so much? I love both of these ... the hunt and the joy of having them around me. Reading them is the luxury of all time; especially when it's something I've been wanting to get my hands on for years. Until my next post, happy reading! 

The Unread Collection

It's known to many that a lot of people around the world love to read books as well as collect them; thus the traditional book isn't going out of fashion - it's just shifting a little.

To some having some bookcases stacked with books is a means of showing of status in the community, while for others having a collection of books - new and well-worn ones - means they just have a passion to read and collect; and have been a book nerd since they were young.

But then, there's people who have a collection of books which take over whole sections of their homes; like I do.  I have a room filled with books.  When I do finally move, I hope to expand the collection more and make my next place a more permanent home for my collection... have it part of my home instead being in just one room.

However, I haven't read all my books.

And I don't think I ever will.

And you know something?  I'm not too worried about not reading my entire collection as much as I used to be.

You see, I used to collect them to read them all over and over.  Now, I collect books because I want the books as a type of art form.  I do enjoy reading them; but I've become a much slower reader than I used to be - yep I used to zip through books only a few years ago.  I now wander through books as though they're a nice, open field and I'm just walking through the place at a nice slow pace.

There's no rush and hurry.  I'm not in school anymore.  I don't have any deadlines to reach to finish the books by; so I can totally enjoy the book for what it is instead for what I'm told it is.
I've bought entire series of books by authors and have only just begun getting into reading them; and it's wonderful to totally enjoy the reading of books while I have the time... I mean, why hurry through a book when I can take my time. 

Reading a book is like life... why hurry when you can take your time?  Life is meant to be enjoyed, just as reading is.  So, I collect books here and there, add them to my collection and may not read them for years.  Then, many years down the track, I'll sit down and read them...

... after the hype has died down...

... after everyone has forgotten about the book...


... when I'm completely ready for the surprises between the pages...

Yep, collecting a huge number of books and leaving them unread isn't just something of a waste - as many seem to think - it's a planned attack on a bigger reading list.  It's just a matter of time before I get to that list.... if I ever do.  Until my next post, happy reading.

The Seven Sin of Books and Reading Book Tag

I was tagged by Captivated Reader on Captivated Reader and she has asked me to take part in a fun meme.  I enjoyed doing the questions, but something went wrong in the end of this challenge; which will be explained at the bottom.  And I don't know what's gone wrong, it just does.

Greed - What is your most inexpensive book? What is your most expensive?

This is a tough one – seeing I have so many in my collection.  I’ve downloaded free books, but they’re of no cost to me.  I have been given books by authors as prizes but that doesn’t mean I’ve bought them… and I think you mean which book I’ve bought and it’s cost me the least.  I think it would have to be ‘Heart Gifts’ by Helen Steiner Rice I bought for $2.00 at a trash and treasure sale a couple of years ago.  It’s turned out to be 1^st edition and worth quite a bit.

My most expensive book?  Hard to say… you as in worth, or how much I forked out for it?  In worth, it’s gotta be my ‘Letters of JRR Tolkien’ edited by Humphery Carpenter in hardcover edition – worth over $20,000 due to how rare it is.  I haven’t really bought any expensive books, as I track down my reading material at bargain bookstores and second-hand stores… and normally when they’re collector’s items (and the seller doesn’t know it), I don’t tell them.

Wrath - What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Umberto Eco.  I love his work, but he goes so slow… he’s so descriptive, but please get on with the story; sometime in my lifetime and everyone else’s.

Gluttony - What book have you devoured over and over with no shame?
‘The Stand’ by Stephen King… what a book!  How I live my life without that book in my hands… I don’t know.

Sloth - What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

‘Other Colours’ by Orhan Pamuk.  He’s a Portuguese author whose prose is delicate, delicious and wonderful… but my brain is so darned impatient, it just won’t see the forest for the trees.

 
Pride - What book do you talk about most in order to sound like an intellectual reader?

I don’t talk about things I know nothing about.  If I haven’t read it, I don’t boast about it.  If I am asked if I’ve read ‘such’n’such’ by blah-blah… and I haven’t read them, I’ll say I haven’t asking what it’s like; and taking down the title on my iPod or phone (and yes, I’ll track down reviews about the book and interviews about/with the author before I even fork out money for their books.

Lust - What attributes do you find attractive in male or female characters?

I hate chauvinists… if the male is a bastard and won’t let a woman fight alongside him, the book goes into the bag by the door to be sent to a charity.  However, if he’s tough, been in a few personal wars, allows women to stand up themselves, and yet cleans up well enough to know how to treat a woman right… well… I’ll keep on reading.

This also goes the same for a woman… if she acts like a redneck on and off the fighting field, dresses like a hooker at a gala ball, and doesn’t have tact at the right times, she’s not the right character for me to get into.  But on the other hand, she’s gotta have a tough side and be able to work with a man enough to know how things in the world work, and if he asks her if she can do something – and knows she can’t – be able to admit to him she might have problems with it…

Basically, they have to be able to work as a team, or they won’t catch my attention.

Envy - What book would you most like to receive as a gift?

Oh!  That’s a toughie…  this year (as my tastes change from year to year) it’s ‘The Silver Moon: and other reflections’ by Bryce Courtney.  This is his last book he worked on just before he passed away.  I’d love to have it in hard cover… never to leave my collection.

Now, I've tried getting in and doing the adding of the the links to other sites, but blogger - infamously - has screwed up yet again.  I'm so stuffed from a full day out yesterday at the markets (and a 5am start did me no favours), and so I'm sorry, but I can't complete the task.  I'm sorry the print is so small, but blogger won't let me use any other size or style.

Uh Oh! The Office Has Been Hit! Time to Organise Again!

Yep, I'm reorganising the office again... and you know what that means!  I'm going through my books to see what I'm keeping and what needs to be given away or passed onto family and friends to read.  

Sometimes I don't mind doing this, while other times it hurts to let go of books as they're such a physical thing in my life.  I spend so much time looking for the darned things only to end up getting rid of them for one reason or another.

Don't you hate that?

Yeah, me too.

Anyway, I have a huge pile of books where I've gone through them a dozen times and still won't give them away - even though common sense sayd I should.  And I think we all have a pile of those kinds of books.  
I mean, I have the 'sad'n'saggy' bookcase chock full of books... it's so weighed down that it's a metaphore in itself.  One more book and it's likely to fall down!  yeah, that's how heavy it is.  On that bookcase, I have a shelf for my Classics and a shelf for my Biographies and Autobiographies (both double-parked) and then, there's photo ablums and a few personal journals (most of those ones have been packed away in storage in another room).  Then, there's the huge pile of books on top of the bookcase that almost reaches the ceiling!  Yeah, I need a ladder to get to this to sort through this Mt Everest Pile of Reading Material... it's my Mt Everest To Be Read!  My Whale... my To-Do list of books.  And yet, there's never enough hours in a day or days in a year to read these books - nor do I wish to be rid of these wonderfully delicious items from my life.

So, is there a pile of books you love - or anything else for that matter - which you hoped to give away or sell - and yet you couldn't?  You know my weakness in my office (which I really should sift through and yet I can't) and now I wish to know yours.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Piers Anthony Book Finds!

Don't you love it when you find a pile of books in a place you just didn't expect to find books?  Yep me too!  Well, I was out doing my fortnightly shopping when I thought to check out my local Life Line charity store and found out the front a collection of Piers Anthony books sitting in a basket for $3.00 each!  They were in good condition and I have been wanting to read some of his work but didn't want to spend a fortune on ordering in new books from QBD.

So, I looked through the collection of books there and found some old, but great, titles.  It wasn't until I got them home that I found out they were all First Editions; two of the titles being printed in the USA.  What great finds!  I can't wait to get in and read them!  They look wonderful, have lovely dust jackets and are all hard cover editions!  I love them.

Have you ever found books this way?  It's a great feeling to have them so close and yet are at a wonderful price, isn't it?  Which books were the ones you found for your collection?  Until my next post, happy reading!

What's Inside Your Collection?

Have you ever done it?  You know?  Gone through your book collection and found out just what you have in it?  I have once in a while.  And you know, it's a big surprise to me just how many books I really do have that I don't get to read or books I picked up and wanted to read at one stage and don't want to anymore.
The shelves are stacked beautifully, all the spines are facing out.  I have books piled on top of the ones standing up properly, as well as books on the tops of the shelves where they lay down so they don't fall down.  And all of those look like mountains; where they are all leaning in on each other from the edges just so nothing falls down if I add one more book on by throwing it on top.  Or if it teeters a little, something in the way it's sitting will keep it from falling down.  Or - funnier still - at some point in the next few days or nights, I'll hear a thump, and a few seconds later, a crash and race in to find all my books from the mountain on the floor!  And this book avalanche was caused by that one book on top teetering a little when I should have found a good spot for it.  Lazy me!

But seriously, do you know what you have in your shelves?  And I don't mean a rough estimate... I mean, do you know exactly which authors you have right now?  I can honestly say that I don't.  I know a few of them, but not all of them.  And that's a good thing to know.  And here's a few of them just off-hand:

Stephen King
Paulo Coelho
Maeve Binchy
Umberto Eco
John Connolly
JRR Tolkien
Douglas Adams
Imogen Edwards-Jones
Sara Douglass
Helen Garner
Jim Morrison
Donald Stephenson
Colleen McCullough
Bill Cosby
Ray Bradbury
Mark Twaine
Alan Alda
Charles Dickens
Oscar Wilde
Hugh Lunn
John Irving
Estelle Pinney
Matthew Reilly
Peter Straub
Nigel Goodall
 

I have more than one book of the above authors in my shelves... and this is who I can see from where I'm sitting. So, do tell!  Who have you got in your collection?  Are you proud to have them?  Or are some authors a big, bad secret?  Like for me having a Dr. Seus book isn't my proudest moment.  But then, I guess everyone's got a few hiding in their past.  Until my next post, happy reading!          

Favourite Classics

We all have a collection of favourites in our lives; and usually we don't let them go.  Over the years, I have read some great books and they're still a part of my collection - which is still growing.  Then, there's also some great books I've read - great classics - that I've picked up, read and don't ever want to let go.  I thought to let you all know the somewhat small list of classics I've read and loved over time.

'The Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' by F. Scott Fitzgerald

'Red Dog' by Louis de Bernieres

'Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemmingway (2nd Edition)

'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde

'The War of the Worlds' by H.G Wells

'Little Women' Louisa May Alcott

'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury

I do have a shelf full of other classics I hope to get into over the next few years.  However, I find I have to be in the mood for a classic novel; and I do love it when I read a great one.  What ones have you read?  Are they worth it or not?  Until my next post, happy reading.

Deceased Collections

This past Sunday, my family lost a wonderful Uncle to Prostate Cancer.  His service is this Friday and we're all just taking this week one day at a time.  However, I've always wondered what happens to people's collections when they pass away.  I mean, what will happen to my 1,000+ books when I'm gone?  Will my niece like the books I've picked out for her to add to her collection?  Or will she send them off to have them picked up by a charity because there's just too many?

With my Uncle passed on now, I know he has some books in his house in a spare room.  But I'm not sure who will get them.  He never specified who was going to be getting what from his Will; but I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

However, I have always wondered what happens to collections of famous people once they've passed on.  Did their families split up the books and share them around?  Or were they shipped off to a charity, a school or somewhere else?  Or did the unfortunate person who passed on not have a family to give their books to and the whole collection ended up being stuck somewhere else or given to a second-hand bookstore where it was split up completely?

So, have you ever picked up books from deceased relatives and found them to be a wonderful reminder of who they are?  I have.  I picked up my Grandparents' books - which are taking up a shelf here in my office.  And I have my Grandpa's complete collection of journals from 1926 - 1984.  What a life he had.  Grandpa may not have left a big mark in Australian history, but his journals speak of what kind of life it was over those decades; and that's just remarkable in itself.  Well, until my next post, happy reading!