Book Physics?

[gauchecritic]

On categorising, a Venn bookshelf is definitely the way to go. I think Ikea do a range in different woods, lengths and heights which are stacked in the store on Venn display shelves. All shelving in Ikea comes completely free of matching threads for both nuts and bolts.

The nuts and bolts manufactory itself is a tesseract with the output conveyor directly feeding the input hopper.

 

[cantdog]

Thus truly one of those Satanic mills you read about...

 

[BlackShanglan]

The really tragic thing is that I do only keep the books that I genuinely prize. Years ago, when I was a teenager, I had two bookshelves full of pop science fiction and fantasy; not a one of those remains, nor anything much like them. There's hardly a standard-sized paperback in the lot.

 

[Recidiva]

The really tragic thing is that I do only keep the books that I genuinely prize. Years ago, when I was a teenager, I had two bookshelves full of pop science fiction and fantasy; not a one of those remains, nor anything much like them. There's hardly a standard-sized paperback in the lot.

Oh...that's sad. I have everything that has managed to survive moving 15 or so times.

Even a book of contellations my father and I looked through and compared with the view through our family telescope.

I have..container after container of romance novels, science fiction stuff...some of them have been read so often that they fell to pieces and have had to be replaced. I think this is my third copy of "The Windflower" - my favorite romance.

 

[haldir]

Glad to know that there are people out there with similar experiences.

I got home from work today to find several books lurking under discarded newspapers on the coffee table that I dont remember buying. No-one else has been in since my last clear up though - the mystery deepens.

 

[trysail]

In the matter of categorizing and shelving, I try to keep it fairly simple.

I consider biography to be history. With the exception of reference, science, nautical, and travel, non-fiction gets shelved chronologically. Obviously, reference, science, nautical, and travel is, thus, segregated and shelved separately.

Fiction goes on its dedicated bookshelves (by author), though the collections of Mencken, Menckeniania, Twain, Barth, Tyler, Irving, le Carré, and regional items go behind glass doors in a prominent place.

 

[Frank Noir]

2. Categorising by genre always leaves me with some poor lost souls. This is true no matter how many sub-genres I create. Is this a type of book fractals in operation?

3. I have also found that the more I use sub-genres the more it appears that book s can belong in more than one genre. I find this unsatisfyingly untidy to say nothing of expensive. Are these the same books or are they evolving to fit the sub-genres available? (I know, I know - its biology not physics but hey ho!) or are the books spontaneously shifting from one sub -genre to another depending on whether they are deemed to be "high lit" or "low lit"?

Any thoughts?

Congrats. You now have a conversation topic that will induce ecstasy in any librarian.

The next time you meet a libriarian at a party, mention your categorization woes and watch his/her eyes light up.

 

[glynndah]

And there are always a few that don't seem to fit into any precise category so you start a "miscellaneous" shelf. Soon you find that all the books seem to belong there.