Sorting my library of fiction A to H

[oggbashan]

I have started to sort my library. At the moment books are scattered throughout the house and I want to know exactly what I have got.

So far I have accumulated and shelved authors A to H but I am aware there are several books missing that need finding. So far I have only filled twenty feet of shelving. My sci-fi, fantasy, and westerns are not included - yet. (Anderson, Asimov, J T Edson, Zane Grey etc.)

I have collections of:

Austen
Barham
Bates
Buchan
Christie
Clancy
Clavell
Cornwell
Cussler
Defoe
Dickens
Doyle
Duggan
Eco
Eliot
Farnol
Farrar
Forester
Gallico
Guareschi
Hardy
Heyer
Hope

But where is my Ainsworth?


What authors would you add - up to H?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Akhmatova
Ballard
Banville
Blake
Bradbury
Cohen
Coleridge
Durrell
Eliot
Faber
French
Harris
Hilton

That's just my upstairs bookshelf, with more than one book per author.

 

[SamScribble]

A few come to mind. Douglas Adams, J G Ballard, Julian Barnes, Saul Bellow, Anthony Burgess, Peter Carey, John le Carré, Joseph Conrad, Robertson Davies, E L Doctorow, J P Donleavy, Robert Drewe, John Fowles, Graham Greene, Joseph Heller …

Oops! Missed off J L Carr, Roddy Doyle, and Lawrence Durrell.

 

[Bramblethorn]

What authors would you add - up to H?

Given the rest, I'm surprised you don't have Brontë or Hemingway.

For me, counting only those for whom I have at least two books, I'd add:

Adams (both D and R - I seem to recall they were cousins, though I can't now verify that)
Banks
Barker
Bradbury
le Carré
Clarke
Crowley, depending on what one counts as "fiction"
Dahl
Foglio
Gailey
Gaiman
Harrison (maybe, can't remember what I actually have)

Hmm, why are so many of my female authors in the second half of the alphabet?

 

[KeithD]

Aarons, Edward
Abani, Chirs
Abro, Ben
Adams, Derek
Adams, Ellery
Adams, Richard
Adamson, Lydia
Addams, Douglas
Airth, Rennie
Allingham, Margery
Ambler, Eric
Amis, Kingsley
Amis, Martin
Archer, Jeffrey
Arnold, Elliott
Asimov, Isaac
Atwood, Margaret
Austin, Jane
Awwad, Taqfiq Yusuf
Ayckbourne, Alan
Bach, Richard
Bain, Donald
Baldacci, David
Bannalec, Jean-Luc
Barnes, Linda
Barr, Pat
Barrett, Lorna
Barth, John
Bartlett, Lorraine
Barrett, Lorna
Batuman, Elif
Beaton, M.C.
Begley, Adam
Bellow, Saul
Benchley, Peter
Berendt, John
Berry, Steve
Biggus, Earl Deir
Binchy, Maeve
Black, Cara
Bland, Eleanor Taylor
Bond, Larry
Bondurant, Matt
Bosse, Malcolm
Bourjaily, Vance
Bowen, Rhys
Box, C.J.
Bradley, Alan
Bradley, Jane
Bram, Christopher
Brand, Max
Braun, Lilian Jackson
Breslin, Jimmy
Brightwell, Emily
Brinn, David
Bristow, Gwen
Brown, Dan
Brown, Rita Mae
Buchan, John
Buck, Pearl
Buckley, William F. Jr.
Burch, Cyril
Burdett, John
Butler, Robert Olen
Cameron, Dana
Camilleri, Andrea
Camus, Albert
Carlson, P. M.
Carter, M.J.
Carter, Nick
Cather, Willa
Challinor, C.S.
Chavalier, Tracy
Chamberlain, William
Chandler, Raymond
Chavalier, Tracy
Child, Lee
Christensen, Henrik
Christie, Agatha
Church, James
Clancy, Tom
Clark, Carol Higgins
Clark, Mary Higgins
Clavell, James
Coffey, Billy
Collins, Paul
Collins, Wilkie
Connelly, Michael
Conrad, Joseph
Cook, Robin
Copperman, E.J.
Cornwall, Patricia
Corris, Peter
Costain, Thomas
Crane, Stephen
Creassey, John
Crichton, Michael
Cross, Amanda
Cussler, Clive
Cussler, Dick
Daheim, Mary
Dahl, Julia
Daneshvar, Simin
Davidson, Lionel
Davis, Lindsey
Dawson, Roger
Deaver, Jeffery
Deighton, Len
Dexter, Colin
Diamant, Anita
Dickens, Charles
Diehl, William
Dimona, Joseph
Doctorov, E.L.
Dostoyevsky, Fydor
Downie, David,
Downing, Charles
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan
Drury, Allen
Durrell, Lawrence
Durkthas, Ann
Eco, Umberto
Edvardsson, M.I.
Ekman, Kerstin
Elegant, Robert
Engel, Marian
Erlichman, John
Evanovich, Janet
Everhart, Mignon G.
Farjeon, J. Jefferson
Farell, J. G.
Faulkner, William
Fearing, Kenneth
Ferber, Edna
Fesperman, Dan
Field, Rachel
Fielding, Henry
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Fleming, Ian
Follett, Ken
Forbes, Colin
Forester, E. M.
Forrest, Richard
Forsyth, Frederick
Fowles, John
Francis, Dick
Frank, Dorothea Benton
Frazier, Charles
Furst, Alan
Gainham, Sarah
Galbraith, John Kenneth
Gallant, Frank K.
Gao Xing Jian
Gardner, E. Stanley
Gardner, John
George, Elizabeth
Gibbons, Kaye
Gilstrip, John
Golden, Arthur
Golding, William
Goldsmith, Martin
Grafton, Sue
Greenberg, Martin H.
Greene, Graham
Grey, Anthony
Griffin, WEB
Grimbert, Philippe
Grimes, Martha
Grisham, John
Grossman, David
Gruber, Michael
Gruen, Sara
Guterson, David
Hailey, Arthur
Hailey, Elizabeth Forsythe
Haley, Alex
Hamilton, Marci
Hammett, Dashell
Han Suyin
Hardy, Thomas
Harrison, Sarah
Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hay, Sheridan
Heinlein, Robert
Heller, Joseph
Hellman, Lillian
Hemingway, Ernest
Hepinstall, Becky and Kathy
Heyer, Georgette
Ho Ping-ti
Hoag, Tami
Holsinger, Bruce
Holt, Victoria
Horan, Nancy
Hornsby, Colby
Hosseini, Khaled
Hsia Chih Lyen

 

[oggbashan]

Some interesting ideas above, Thank you. Some of the names mentioned are somewhere in the house. Now I have to go looking for them,

But I said it was fiction and excluded sci-fi, fantasy and westerns. Poetry e.g Blake and Coleridge are in another section.

I also omitted single volumes by an author. My list is of collections.

 

[vanmyers86]

I'm on the road, so doing this from memory. Excluding sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Multiple novels only:

Austen, Jane
Cather, Willa
Christie, Agatha
Ferguson, Will
Follett, Ken
Francis, Dick
Gabaldon, Diana
Greeley, Andrew

I feel like such an underachiever! But I just got rid of a few hundred books in my most recent move.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm on the road, so doing this from memory. Excluding sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Multiple novels only:

Austen, Jane
Cather, Willa
Christie, Agatha
Ferguson, Will
Follett, Ken
Francis, Dick
Gabaldon, Diana
Greeley, Andrew

I feel like such an underachiever! But I just got rid of a few hundred books in my most recent move.

You're not. I have reduced my personal library from 15,000 books to 3,000 and I am trying to get it smaller still. I have given 2,000 this year to a friend's son's girlfriend who is a teacher and has been made responsible for the school library that had no books. She had a small budget to buy books, possibly 100 a year, but mainly due to me, the library is close to 5,000 books and growing.

But I now have over 250,000 books on my e-reader.

 

[Handley_Page]

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET e.e>'DOC' SMITH.

 

[oggbashan]

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET e.e>'DOC' SMITH.

HP.

1. That's not A to H, and

2. That's Sci-Fi/Fantasy so is a separate section which includes Asimov (inc complete Foundation series), David Gemmell, and E E Doc Smith's complete Lensman.

 

[KeithD]

A-H Fiction, two or more books each:

Addams, Douglas
Archer, Jeffrey
Asimov, Isaac
Austin, Jane
Baldacci, David
Bannalec, Jean-Luc
Barth, John
Bellow, Saul
Berry, Steve
Binchy, Maeve
Bosse, Malcolm
Braun, Lillian Jackson
Brightwell, Emily
Brown, Dan
Brown, Rita Mae
Buck, Pearl
Buckley, William
Camilleri, Andrea
Cather, Willa
Callinor, C. S.
Child, Lee
Christie, Agatha
Church, James
Clancy, Tom
Clark, Carol Higgins
Clark, Mary Higgins
Clavell, James
Connelly, Michael
Conrad, Joseph
Cornwall, Patricia
Corris, Peter
Costain, Thomas
Creasey, John
Crichton, Michael
Cross, Amanda
Cussler, Clive
Daheim, Mary
Davis, Lindsey
Deaver, Jeffry
Deighton, Len
Dickens, Charles
Downing, Charles
Drury, Allen
Durrell, Lawrence
Eco, Umberto
Elegant, Robert
Erlichman, John
Evanovich, Janet
Faulkner, William
Ferber, Edna
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Fleming, Ian
Follett, Ken
Forbes, Colin
Forsyth, Frederick
Fowles, John
Francis, Dick
Furst, Alan
Gardner, E. Stanley
Gardner, John
George, Elizabeth
Grafton, Sue
Greene, Graham
Grimes, Martha,
Grisham, John
Gruen, Sara
Hammett, Dashell
Hardy, Thomas
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Heinlein, Robert
Heyer, Georgette
Hemingway, Ernest
Hoag, Tami
Holt, Victoria

 

[vanmyers86]

You're not. I have reduced my personal library from 15,000 books to 3,000 and I am trying to get it smaller still. I have given 2,000 this year to a friend's son's girlfriend who is a teacher and has been made responsible for the school library that had no books. She had a small budget to buy books, possibly 100 a year, but mainly due to me, the library is close to 5,000 books and growing.

That's exactly the kind of project I would love to help support.

 

[oggbashan]

That's exactly the kind of project I would love to help support.

When I had my own secondhand bookshop a local National Trust property was thinking of having a book sale weekend. They had been given a few hundred books by other local National Trust properties who hadn't been able to sele those titles or had too many duplicates.

They appealed for donations from the public and I thought 'what about my surplus stock?'. For that weekend I gave them about 6,000 books and the local council library gave them 2,000. The general public gave about 1,000.

After that weekend, which was a great financial success - why not? All the stock was free, all the staff were unpaid volunteers and they owned the marquee - they decided to set up a continuing bookstall with what was left and ask for the public to donate books for the bookstall.

That worked well. Ever since they have made an average of £60 pounds a week from nothing. The books aren't priced - they just ask for a donation, and people bring books back and put them on the shelves. From time to time they need to rotate the stock because some books will just stay there, but they have a reserve stock because:

Over the years I ran my shop, I gave them seven tonnes of books. Twenty years later, they still have three tonnes left...

 

[EmpressV]

Not to highjack your thread, but ... what was it like to run your own used book store? I've often thought that might make a good post-retirement job, but I may be romanticizing it.