Book Hoarding

[gveranon]

I've never tried to put together a good selection of books, a respectable home library. The books I've amassed reflect my own hodgepodge of idiosyncrasies, and when I look at them I see the messy history of my various interests. I have a few rare books, but I'm not a collector; I just look for decent reading copies. To value this particular assortment, you would have to be me.

My books are emphatically not for show. No one ever comes up here except those I can't refuse entry to (landlady, maintenance workers, inspectors). Even my few living relatives don't visit me here; I visit them. On the rare occasion that someone pauses to look at my shelves, I tense up and say something, anything to try to distract them. What titles are they noticing, and what do those titles say to them about me? It's nerve-racking. And what if they pick up a book to look at it, and it's one of the books with my doofus pencilings inside? That would be mortifying. Because of my sensitivity about this, if I had a spacious house, I wouldn't want a huge, manorial library room; I would want my library to be a warren of small rooms, some of which could be closed off, with perhaps even a hidden room or two. No, I don't have a collection of bizarre erotica or anything like that. I just tend to be secretive.

I've realized I can't concern myself with what will happen to my books after my death. They will most likely be carted off by strangers, and what will be done with them is out of my hands.

[Kevin]

"Kevin,

Interesting reflections in your post. But I'm not sure about the part where you say that Millennials' rejection of the past is "not necessarily a good or a bad thing." Come on my friend, you are too kind--don't be afraid to be a little judgmental here! Of course it's a bad thing!"

Ahem. Well, a close reading of my posts in this thread will make it obvious where my sympathies lie. But the 2016 presidential election took its toll: I'm so throughly tired of judgements and rants that I tread cautiously, perhaps to my detriment.

[Speaking Mute]

I was born on the cusp of Generation X and the Millennials, and I think I have the millennial mindset when it comes to personal possessions. I've always preferred the library to owning my own books. Even years after I graduated, I used to spend off days and evenings at my university's library - it was situated in a five story tower overlooking a section of the campus given over to parkland, so I would sit at a window reading in hour long sessions with half hour walks or dining in between. And if the library didn't carry something, inter-library loans gave me access to every college and university library in the state - which meant that if it was a work of non-fiction and published within the last century I could get my hands on it. At the time, my personal book collection was maybe forty books that I acquired because I constantly reread or studied them - mostly mathematics and philosophy, with the fiction almost entirely composed of the Del Rey Lovecraft and Howard series.

As ebooks gained in popularity, the university not only started shrinking the physical stacks, but opened up the floor space with more group study tables and computer banks, essentially converting the library into a student lounge. As probably the case with any TLO member, the library's increasingly extroverted character didn't suit me, and I dislike reading ebooks, so I stopped going to the library and started buying more books. But as much as I admire books, owning them induces a considerable amount of anxiety in me because I obsess over dust, fading, shelf-wear, folded pages etc. I also move quite a bit, and am in fact set to move in two weeks, which makes packing them a constant hassle - especially as to I individually wrap my hardcovers in tissue paper and bubble wrap anytime I pack them. If it wasn't for the fact that public libraries carry too limited of a selection for me and university libraries seem to be turning into multimedia labs, I'd readily sell off most of my non-mathematics books, only holding onto a couple of showpiece items I've acquired.

There were a few used book stores that I frequented in Toledo and Detroit - long since closed - but I don't have much nostalgia for them. Even with the most laid back and helpful owners and staff, they're still there to get you to buy things, whereas libraries are sanctuaries that exist solely for reading. The last used bookstore I visited was, ironically enough, The Last Bookstore in downtown LA, and I found it too noisy and eclectic to make a habit of visiting. I order online directly from publishers, Ebay, and Ziesing.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Revenant]

This thread has far and away been the most interesting and enlightening I have seen here for some time. That's not to say the others aren't very good, they are. But the stories I have read here fascinate me to no end and says a lot about our TLO members. The remarks here have been deeply personal and well written. I just want to thank you all for your candor.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[marioneta]

One way of getting rid of books you have read is to pass them along to friends and family, but this is becoming more and more difficult as the years go on. As I have posted before, my offspring are not readers of books, and finding people who appreciate getting lost in a good book is like searching for an extinct species. At least that has been my experience where I live...a Caribbean island that is a backwater of the American Dream (read Nightmare).
Necessity is the mother of invention, so I am playing around with the idea of taking a few of my read books, the ones I can part with, go to my local shopping mall, and just leave them at benches or tables at the food court in an inauspicious way so people can find them and be pleasantly surprised. Of course they could still end up in a landfill if nobody picks them up and the janitors do their job, but at least...anyway it is an idea.

"Between the two enemy religions it would be unwise to imagine a watertight barrier.Men passed to and
fro, indifferent to frontiers and states, and creeds.They were more aware of the necessities of shipping
and trade, the hazards of war and piracy, the opportunities for complicity and betrayal."
-Fernand Braudel
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II

I am not sure what this quote by the great historian Braudel has to do with what I have mentioned above, but Millennials be wary, when you least expect it, something you treasure will end, and lamentations will ensue to a world that does not see you.

[Patrick G.P]

This is a fascinating subject, I have been collecting books for many years now, but I tended to impulse buy a lot of books when I had a bit of money. For example, I bought the entire Wheel of Time series in hardback at a local thrift store, and after reading the first book, I found that I did not like it. Recently I have been going over my collection and selling off unwanted volumes, like The Wheel of Time series, but it hits me that I too often purchase books on impulse. I often bought three or more books by an author before I had read anything of him/her. I’m trying to get rid of this bad habit and just purchase books I know I’m going to read, and maybe check out one book at a time by new authors. As I have started to frequent TLO and Goodreads actively, my to-read pile has just exploded, and I fear that soon space will become a very real issue for me as well.
The subject of hoarding or collecting leads me to a question. I have no system at all in my bookshelves, some Lovecraftian/mythos books are together, but mostly its pandemonium. Each time I set out to rectify this, I get overwhelmed and feel that they should just stand where they are (the same goes for my DVDs and Records as well). Yes, a bad case of OCD right there I should think. But my question is this to all you other hoarders/collectors: How do you arrange your bookshelves, and do you have any tips about this for a neurotic Norwegian?

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Kevin]

Good question.

I strive to strike an OCD balance between over- and under-systematizing. So: I roughly group books by theme (horror, cultural history, biography) then keep all of an author's works together. That's about as far as it goes. My goal is to be able to find something if I'm looking for it and achieve some kind of basic logic. I also need to be able to move authors around a bit without reorganizing my whole library.

But as far as arranging books chronologically or authors alphabetically goes: No.

[ToALonelyPeace]

I've the same problem of buying on impulse, only that I buy nonfiction instead of series books. For some inexplicable reason, I'd get hyped over a subject and buy 4 or 5 books on it. After the books arrive, my interests also vanish with all money spent.

For organization, I put the book in either Weird,Russian, Fiction, or Nonfiction categories. After that the books organize themselves. Over half of my fiction books are Western/Eastern classic, the other half are "complainers" (in broadest term) ranting about the inanity, misery, and wretchedness of life. That section continues to expand.

Right now I'm trying to interweave fiction and non-fiction reading so I can get rid of the extras.

[Zaharoff]

Like others here, I have an unsettling amount of books.
I know that I shall not live long enough to read them all.
Nevertheless, I still buy.
The Brantley thread, however, is an uncomfortable reminder.

http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=11983

[Patrick G.P]

Quote Originally Posted by Kevin

Good question. I strive to strike an OCD balance between over- and under-systematizing. So: I roughly group books by theme (horror, cultural history, biography) then keep all of an author's works together. That's about as far as it goes. My goal is to be able to find something if I'm looking for it and achieve some kind of basic logic. I also need to be able to move authors around a bit without reorganizing my whole library. But as far as arranging books chronologically or authors alphabetically goes: No.

Thanks for your input, this seems like a pretty decent way of orginzing my books, I will give this a try.

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

Like others here, I have an unsettling amount of books. I know that I shall not live long enough to read them all. Nevertheless, I still buy. The Brantley thread, however, is an uncomfortable reminder. http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=11983

That is unfortunate, I’m still think I will be able to finish reading what I have accumulated so far, but as I purchase 5-6 new volumes for very one I read, it’s a losing battle. The Brantley thread is a sad reminder that all our passions might be a solitary endeavor that others might be uninterested in. I have not given much thought as to what to do with my books after I pass on. My wife and I don’t want children, so maybe we will end up donating them or something.
This reminds me of a video I found on youtube:

Bibliomania - YouTube