What does your "to-read" pile look like?

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Feel free to gather it into one pile if you'd like.

Or really any photos of your books, or fancy things about your books (inscriptions, etc.) are encouraged here.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 21 November 2005 07:23 (twenty years ago)

Towering and oppressive.

And yet I cannot stop buying books.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 21 November 2005 09:30 (twenty years ago)

Tell me about it.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Monday, 21 November 2005 14:00 (twenty years ago)

OTM

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 21 November 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

Since I'm on the move, my reading pile looks like 45 fucking-huge cardboard boxes, all filled to bursting point with textual indulgence.

Fuck wallpaper. The new house will feature wall-to-wall bookcases. If the rest of the family doesn't like it, they can move.

― SRH (Skrik), Monday, 21 November 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

i claimed four more shelves in the living room. so my to-read pile disappeared! now all i have is assorted library books and a stack of dissertation-related things.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 21 November 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

Photos, people! Let's see photos of oppressive piles of books and shelves dedicated to the unread.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

This is actually kind of a measly pile for us, as it covers 2 people, but note that this is post-straightening up!

http://www.theilliterate.com/archives/illiterati/bookstack.JPG

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 21 November 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

mine look like this now

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― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 06:08 (twenty years ago)

Mine looks like this
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?tag=unread

― Ray (Ray), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 09:15 (twenty years ago)

This is my reading pile:

http://www.maidenhead.net/information/library.jpg

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

Pretty modern, huh?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

shockinginly i only have two things in my to read pile

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

I tend to keep several distinct piles:
Nonfiction -- which can get rather large, as the reads are generally heftier a demand more careful study. Currently 'The Ancestor's Tale' tops the pile.
Fiction -- rather slim at the moment. 'Of Human Bondage' is on deck unless something more appealing comes along.
Essays -- this pile waxes and wanes throughout the year, as books remain 'to be read' even as I'm working my way through them a little at a time. William James is getting the most action right now.
Magazines -- I keep a decent pile of 'to be read' magazine articles, which can get wiped clean on a plane ride. Mostly Atlantic Monthly, Harpers and the New Yorker, but i guess now that I've got the complete New Yorker the magazine pile will be getting even bigger.
I try to keep the overall number of 'to be read's managable, and buy four or five books when I'm down to only a couple, just to have variety in a pinch.

― Docpacey (docpacey), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

that new alexander hamilton bio
the new sam cook bio
plutarch's "lives of the athenians"
"the roots of the blus" by samuel charters

― Special Agent Dale Koopa (orion), Tuesday, 22 November 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Technically more of a 'various library borrowings pile' than a 'to read' one but:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/slightlyfoxed/books.jpg

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

My library borrowings also get their own shelf, in case I need to return one. I hate it when they make me return one.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Heh, I like the foregrounding of Library Anxiety. Let us all know if it's any good so we can run out and get it and add it to the throng of neglected little faces.

― anzterzinger, Thursday, 24 November 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

about 1000 books in my room are staring at me, waiting to be picked up.

― Fred (Fred), Thursday, 24 November 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

I cannot show you a photo. I don't know how other people do that. I am impressed at PJM's marvellous technique, and his modern pile.

I do have a pile of books beside me, though. They are about black people and their experiences in Britain. One is called WINDRUSH, for instance.

― the bellefox, Friday, 25 November 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

Current pile's pretty small, and a few of 'em are things I'm halfway through, like Samuel Delany's Dhalgren and Russell Banks' Cloudsplitter. I just bought William Vollmann's Rising Up And Rising Down (the short version, I'm not insane) last night, and will probably start that this weekend. Got Paul Johnson's The Papacy, too. I should read the first three Krazy Kat anthologies front-to-back one of these days, but they're up on a high shelf with all the other oversized/art books, so I tend to forget they're even in the house.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 25 November 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

I don't think it would fit in a picture. I have a ridiculous amount of unread books. :-( I keep reading trashy books, because I'm too tired to be reading Susan Sontag and Barthes.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Saturday, 26 November 2005 16:02 (twenty years ago)

Surely there's a difference between "unread" and "to read"?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 26 November 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

Well, I gave up on having a pile of "to read" books as I always seem to add books. I also tend to pick books depending on the mood I'm in. So my to read books are: finish the book on European history by Norman Davies and some Kenneth Clark book on civilization.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Saturday, 26 November 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Here is my first attempt at posting pictures on this board, so here goes nothing:

My small "to-read piles" + some dictionaries/grammar books:

http://www.unc.edu/~maull/IMG_0021.JPG

I usually don't keep a whole lot of books in the room, since there is not much space in here; I also want to avoid that feeling of intimidation that results from having a gigantic pile of unread books.

― mj (robert blake), Sunday, 27 November 2005 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

Uh, sorry guys.

Can someone cut the image size down. Yikes.

― mj (robert blake), Sunday, 27 November 2005 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

Just reduce the size of the original image where it is housed and it will be reduced here. 300 or 400 pixels wide seems to work pretty well in here.

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 27 November 2005 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks, Jaq. Fixed it.

― mj (robert blake), Sunday, 27 November 2005 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

four weeks pass...

No photos, but:
One seven-shelf bookcase, double stacked, of children/Y.A. books
One seven-shelf bookcase, about half of which is double stacked, of SciFi/Fantasy books
Two five-shelf bookcases, about half double stacked, of cookbooks/foodie books
One five-shelf bookcase, partially triple stacked, of history/science books
One five-shelf bookcase, double stacked, of bios/autobios and travel books
One five-shelf bookscase, double stacked, of mystery books (most of the Vintage pubs., I think)
Two five-shelf bookcases, double stacked, of modern fiction (written in English)
One and a half five-shelf bookcases, double stacked, of modern fiction (translated into English)
One four-shelf bookcase, single stacked, of "yet to sort onto the other bookcases" books
One three-shelf bookcase of hedgehog/rat/rabbit/chinchilla/guinea pig, etc. care/husbandry and fiction
One shelf (under the coffee-table/tortoise habitat) of "books that I have accidentally bought in duplicate"
Three and a half shelves of "books that I can't recall if they're duplicates that I have at my apartment and so these are up for grabs or maybe I don't own them and need to remember to take them back to my apartment" at my sister's house

Exciting, eh?

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 26 December 2005 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

That's just the "to-read" pile?!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 26 December 2005 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

Um, yeah. It's an addiction, I'm afraid. If I have money, I buy books. But right now I'm pretty much completely broke (thanks to some hellacious vet bills) so I've not bought myself any "new books" in the past two months. *sigh*

On the other hand, my list of "I gotta buy and read this book right now" purchases is practically non-existent, too.

Oh, on the above list I forgot the stacks of books downstairs that D. snagged off my shelves saying "Hey, I wanted to read that!" or "You're never gonna read that, let me have it." (He's a book whore, too.)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Monday, 26 December 2005 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

How many books do you have and have you LibraryThinged them yet?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 26 December 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

if laura is posting again then i'll have to be sly enough to post my acquisitions next to hers so that i don't look so funny.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 26 December 2005 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

How many books do you have

Um, I don't rightly know. Probably in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 15,000, counting all that are in storage (all of my "read these" are in storage, except for the 17 shelves in my kitchen, which are the "read these and no longer have room in the storage unit to store them" books).

Well, wait, let me think on this ... figure that there's an average of 70 books per shelf - and I have about 90 shelves here in the apartment - that makes about 6300 books in the apartment. And I have at least that many "shelves worth" in storage. So, yeah, I guess I was right - roughly around 12,000 books.

God. That's a lot of books.

Funny thing - when we moved into this apartment (which is on the second floor of a three storey building, which is NOT to earthquake code), the movers got to the point where they refused to bring in any more boxes of books, saying that they were afraid that the floor'd fall in - and they were serious!

and have you LibraryThinged them yet?

No, I've thought about it, but right now my computer time is pretty limited/devoted to other things. But that's on my "gonna get organized and do that some day" list.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

Laura, you should buy a barcode scanner and get it hooked up to LOC so you can catalog/enter them in less than a few years! I know there are sites w/ instructions -- it was MeFi-ed years ago -- but I haven't kept track. Still, for a library like yours I imagine it's worthwhile.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

if laura is posting again

Hmmmm - yeah, I know I'm bad about not posting for ages and ages, but I've had good reasons for that (all part of taking over the world, etc.). However, I'm just as likely to go back into hiding, too *grinning*.

then i'll have to be sly enough to post my acquisitions next to hers so that i don't look so funny.

So, um, you're saying my acquisitions look so funny that your's are more, um, "normal" in comparison? Should I feel complimented or insulted?

Heck, I'm in a benevolent mood - I'll go for complimented and assume that you admire my eclectic tastes *laughing*.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 00:51 (nineteen years ago)

buy a barcode scanner and get it hooked up to LOC so you can catalog/enter them in less than a few years

This is a most brilliant idea. Now, is it in bad taste to ask for an "after-Christmas" present? *laughing*

But, seriously, this would make sense. Thanks for mentioning it. I am going to go look at my options.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

Barcode scanning experiment.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 02:20 (nineteen years ago)

Although I found entering by hand into LibraryThing to not take terribly long, and to often go faster because I knew whether I'd have to type in the ISBN to get the right edition of the book, or whether I could just type "delany times square hardcover", which I can type fairly fast, and which caused the right book to pop up very quickly. I'm not sure how long it took me to enter my approaching 1000 books -- I had a lot of manual entries, since I have a lot of little obscure poetry books and I wanted to catalogue various journals and comic books as well. Still, it was ridiculously fun, and reminded me that I have a few books.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Also, I want to propose the hypothesis that a "to-read" pile is different from an "unread" pile.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 02:24 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, I'm in the middle of a barcode scanner (actually a handheld CE computer w/scanner) project at work. Time to bring one home for, uh... ....testing!

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 03:45 (nineteen years ago)

funny only because of their number, laura!

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 05:21 (nineteen years ago)

Chris, that's the exact site I remember! Are there so few or is that just the most interesting?

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 06:04 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, uh, that's Zarf. We like Zarf. Zarf writes awesome interactive fiction. His website is generally worth reading. And I suppose I'm not surprised that he's been MeFi-ed; he's the sort of person who at least some of the people on MeFi would know about.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 08:10 (nineteen years ago)

Also, I want to propose the hypothesis that a "to-read" pile is different from an "unread" pile.

All books are "to be read" until they prove otherwise, either through destruction or deceasement.

― Navek, Tuesday, 27 December 2005 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I have books that I'm not planning on reading any time -- well, ever, unless I change my mind, which I might. And there's a stack of books which I am planning to read. And there are some books that I am theoretically reading but which I haven't touched in months (or years!).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

funny only because of their number, laura!

Ah, okay - thanks for the clarification :)

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 29 December 2005 06:13 (nineteen years ago)

Nearly all my books are to be read, because once they are read they go back to Oxfam, whence they came. The only books I keep nowadays are ones I buy new or get as presents, and that's maybe only five or six a year. This is why I don't do Librarything.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 29 December 2005 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

http://static.flickr.com/36/78867144_4d8c1e1f8c.jpg

Not sure this will work.

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Thursday, 29 December 2005 12:28 (nineteen years ago)

Awesome!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 29 December 2005 19:01 (nineteen years ago)

read the big one first before it crushes your other books!!

― Josh (Josh), Thursday, 29 December 2005 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

It's frustrating how much easier it is to buy books than to find the time to read them!

― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Thursday, 29 December 2005 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

But, Josh, that one is keeping the others down.

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Friday, 30 December 2005 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

OMG!!!! OUR BOOKS CAME FROM POWELL'S!!!!

http://www.theilliterate.com/archives/illiterati/small_powells.JPG

Plus about 10 others we hand-carried home. Yay!!!!

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 20 January 2006 02:53 (nineteen years ago)

I keep imagining this thread having Dr. Seuss-like pictures of side-by-side moon-scraping book towers, accumulated by two competing members of rival reading tribes in their pointless quest to outdo each other.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 20 January 2006 03:34 (nineteen years ago)

I finally faced the to-read pile Weds. night, and it is daunting, to say the least. At least I have something to live for

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Sunday, 22 January 2006 20:26 (nineteen years ago)

I like the look of Jaq's pile. All my books, read and unread, are in boxes and have been since I moved two weeks ago. But my new shelves arrive tomorrow...

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 23 January 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Dick Francis, "Forfeit"
"Brooklyn Is -- Southeast of the Island: Travel Notes," James Agee
"Local Government in England and Wales," W. Eric Jackson
Alain Robbe-Grillet, "The Erasers"

and I am reading "The Women of Trachis," by Sophocles, trans. C.K. Williams and Gregory W. Dickerson, which is totally fantastic!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9638/02280614311lr.jpg

there are more elsewhere

(p.s. new phone with camera yay!)

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

also, some are "just read" in the top shelf.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.nypl.org/press/images/lionwpigeon.jpg

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

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