Saturday, February 10, 2007
Hard Copies
I have about one and a half thousand books by my last count (a couple of years ago), and a whole room is given over to them. However, I have found it quite disturbing to listen to an audiobook, and have no 'hard copy' of the book, to pop on the shelf like a trophy. Part of me wants to buy a copy, just so I know I have read it. But I have a 'one in, one out' policy on my book shelves now, or it will be two rooms before we know it. What to do? Maybe I should have book sized blocks of wood, and I write on the 'spine' as I finish an audiobook, to pop on the shelves. Maybe I should print out a copy, and bind it myself. Maybe I should get over it, buy a digital book reader, download all of the gutenberg project onto it, bin the hard copies, and buy a pool table.
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3 comments:
I understand the need to have a hard copy. I myself find it difficult to fight the urge to grab a book in a store (usually used book store) that has been made into an LV recording, even if I haven't listened to it! It's silly, I know. We too have been on a book diet, although we don't have nearly so many as you. Our diet is due mostly to the fact that we plan to move again in the future. Hopefully some day we'll have a more permanent home where we can devote a WHOLE room to books.
Do you have ideas on how to catalogue them? I have this pipe dream that one day I will organise them by date of first publication, so I will have a visual representation of the history of literature - and I'll be able to see, say, which Dickens novel coincides with a George Eliot etc etc.
Of course, it will be impossible to replace anything on the shelf without a printout of the whole lot...
I agree with Kristin -- there's nothing like moving, or the threat of moving, to thin down one's book collection . . . a few moves within a few years of one another can give one an enhanced appreciation of digital books! There's nothing like holding one in your hand, though, and having them around you and at your beck and call. So put that pool table on hold for a while, Chris!
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