Neil Gaiman's bookshelves

[Stella_Omega]

i want to live here!
http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/09/neil.html

 

[RogueLurker]

oh ... my ... god. I'd never leave the room.

*swoon*

 

[glynndah]

Please tell me he has one of those sliding ladders. Wheeee!!!

 

[Freefall_mc]

ooooh myyy....holy frack!
Enough said...where's my bookmark....where's....
Derrr, i compromised with Vista so I could have performance? Why? What was I thinking?!

 

[Stella_Omega]

What gets me is the way very bottom shelf is tilted back, so you don't have to lay down on the floor to read the titles..

I want to lay down on the floor anyway. To snuggle those bottom shelves.

 

[Liar]

That chair looks insanely comfy.

 

[lance gt]

I wonder if the room is lockable so no one can bother you while you read. That would be heavenly.

 

[jomar]

A sweet retreat.

 

[oggbashan]

It looks like the main library in my old house used to look except that my shelves would have had far more 18th and 19th Century volumes. Most of my main library's books were hardback.

My subsidiary libraries in other rooms: westerns, detective fiction, science fiction/fantasy; Latin and Greek classics; foreign languages in original and translations were mainly paperback.

Og

PS. The working library I was and am jealous about is at Sissinghurst. It was the library of Vita Sackville West and her husband, Nigel Nicolson. It fills a converted barn but was very obviously for use, not for show. They also had separate personal libraries.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Gawrsh, and I thought my house was full of books. Some years back I counted 1500 individual volumes. I have no idea what it's up to now but Gaiman makes me feel like a piker.

 

[oggbashan]

In my part of the UK it would be easy to acquire a library as large as Neil Gaiman's - if you had the space.

This morning I went to a boot fair. Several stalls were selling good condition paperbacks and hardbacks for 10 pence each. At the end of the morning you could have haggled for bulk purchase.

We have a dozen charity shops in the town. All have are given far more books each week than they can sell. Most would accept offers for their surpluses.

As a secondhand bookdealer I cleared several houses of books. One was very near my shop, occupied by a deceased widower. After his wife died, about fifteen years before he did, he started to collect books. He didn't select them. He just wanted books, any books.

His extended family took all the books they wanted. I cleared the rest. It took three trips in a large panel van to empty a small two bedroom house. When he occupied the house, apart from the kitchen and bathroom, every room was full of books from floor to ceiling in teetering stacks with narrow passageways between them. The house structure was overloaded.

When I closed my bookshop when I retired, I gave seven tonnes of books to a local site of The National Trust. Five years later they are still selling my surplus books. The exercise has become self-perpetuating. People buy the secondhand books. On their next visit they bring their surplus books, or the ones they bought last time and have now read, and the stock grows larger.

They still have three tonnes of my original donation in the boxes I provided - unopened.

Og

 

[trysail]

I didn't see much non-fiction or reference. I did see some Heinlein, Vonnegut, and Tolstoy but there was a whole lot of stuff that was perfectly uninteresting to me.

Whenever I visit a house I haven't been in before, the first thing I do is check to see if there are books. If there are, I make a point of trying to scan as many titles as I can. I can figure out as much or more about what someone is like through ten minutes of looking at what they read than through days/weeks of contact.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You're looking for non-fiction in Neil Gaiman's bookshelves?

That thought would never have occurred to me.

 

[_Lynn_]

Gawrsh, and I thought my house was full of books. Some years back I counted 1500 individual volumes. I have no idea what it's up to now but Gaiman makes me feel like a piker.

I might have fifteen, counting the dictionary and reference books.

 

[oggbashan]

I might have fifteen, counting the dictionary and reference books.

I've got more than fifteen on my desk right now, about three or four hundred in the room, and this ISN'T my library.

I have drastically slimmed my library to about five or six thousand.

Og

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Anyone THAT obsessive-compulsive about organizing their books doesnt enjoy reading.

I buy the books I love and borrow the rest from the public library.

 

[THROBBS]

I've got more than fifteen on my desk right now, about three or four hundred in the room, and this ISN'T my library.

I have drastically slimmed my library to about five or six thousand.

Og

Funny. I have always associated you, Og with books and literature.
You have stepped out of a book and should be surrounded by them.

 

[_Lynn_]

I've got more than fifteen on my desk right now, about three or four hundred in the room, and this ISN'T my library.

I have drastically slimmed my library to about five or six thousand.

Og

Once I've read a book, it's out of here.

Anyone THAT obsessive-compulsive about organizing their books doesnt enjoy reading.

I buy the books I love and borrow the rest from the public library.

I've been to the library a lot, but I also get books from second-hand stores. When I'm done, I either pass them on to someone else, or donate them back.

 

[THROBBS]

As one might expect (if one knew me), I have relatively few literary works in my library. I have tons of reference... National Geographics and indexes back to the 60's, Photo compilations of Animals, cars, architecture, art books Communication Arts magazines, graphic novels, comics, erotic art books, Handy man and home improvement magazines... and toys and biological specimens (bugs, bones, feathers...), globes.....

Someday, My library will have nicer shelves and display cases. that is a long term goal. I built nice shelves for my wife in her study.

It LOOKED like Neil had open joists in his basement library, as do I. I really dig the Lights and the bottom shelve at an angle.

 

[Verdad]

I want to move in, too!

But, I can't say I'm surprised. No one who's read any Gaiman should be. Literary allusions are his trademark—he drops them left and right, referencing tons of oft-obscure original materials. The man is nothing if not well read.

That said, I wouldn't be enamored of him if not for Sandman. Sandman I thought a true masterpiece; Gaiman's non-graphic novels are very amusing but also very forgettable. The Hugo he won for his latest will probably make me read it too, though.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Once I've read a book, it's out of here.


I've been to the library a lot, but I also get books from second-hand stores. When I'm done, I either pass them on to someone else, or donate them back.

I get lotsa books from FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY sales. I wait til the last day of the sale and get a bag of books for a buck. The last sale I brought home maybe $300 worth of books based on their AMAZON USED prices. One sells for $150 used, another $75.

 

[_Lynn_]

I get lotsa books from FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY sales. I wait til the last day of the sale and get a bag of books for a buck. The last sale I brought home maybe $300 worth of books based on their AMAZON USED prices. One sells for $150 used, another $75.

We have that kind of sale here, but I've never gone to one. Maybe I should check one out.
That's an awesome deal for sure.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We have that kind of sale here, but I've never gone to one. Maybe I should check one out.
That's an awesome deal for sure.

Its my consistent experience that buyers miss most of the valuable used books becuz theyre looking for Grisham and Clancy and Steele and Cornwell. On the last day of the sale all thats left are Readers Digest books and valuable non-fiction. My last trip I bought a self-published book about Florida fossils, signed by the author. Very crude/cheap type and binding...worth $150. Out of print, limited edition, author dead. Cost me 10 cents.

 

[_Lynn_]

Its my consistent experience that buyers miss most of the valuable used books becuz theyre looking for Grisham and Clancy and Steele and Cornwell. On the last day of the sale all thats left are Readers Digest books and valuable non-fiction. My last trip I bought a self-published book about Florida fossils, signed by the author. Very crude/cheap type and binding...worth $150. Out of print, limited edition, author dead. Cost me 10 cents.

I'll have to watch for the next sale here.

 

[THROBBS]

Rather than clutter this thread with my non-literary library, I posted it "upstairs" .

it goes on for several posts....