Show us your book "shelfies"!

[Gwangi]

Title says it all, show off your book shelves! If you can get close enough for us to read a few titles than that's even better! I'll post mine eventually but it's dark in the house now, so I'll wait for better lighting.

[stargatedalek]

I'm not certain what this is, but I'm curious!

[tyrantqueen]

Sorry about the dust





Plus a few misc magazines I had lying around

[stargatedalek]

I recently had a huge clear-out of my books actually. Mostly just science fiction and aquarium encyclopedias left. Every shelf used to have books on it before.

[Halichoeres]

TQ, that's an impressive array of dinosaur books. My book collection is, let's say, less thematically coherent. I'm going to start with stuff completely irrelevant to this forum. Hope you'll all forgive me for the diversion.


Humanities. The one standing on its fore-edge is the Bhagavad Gita, which was an extraordinarily thoughtful gift from an old girlfriend. When I was 16, my parents kicked me out of the house for owning one, which I had kept mostly for the art, and I never saw it again. After hearing that story, my ex got me this copy for my birthday, which has different art but no less beautiful. You can probably guess my parents' affiliations and also where I've landed on questions of religion--my becoming a scientist constituted an act of arrant rebellion.


Biography, history, and political commentary.


Social sciences. The one on its fore-edge is El Ascenso de Chimborazo, a lushly illustrated account, in Spanish, of Alexander von Humboldt's expeditions in the Andes.


I believe that cities will save the world, if anything can. Some of these books have theses that I disagree with, but they nevertheless contain arguments that are interesting and intelligible. Not so Joel Kotkin's book--I think he's dangerously misled and misleading. The unassuming gray volume next to Speck's Walkable City is Meyer's The Environmental Advantages of Cities, an unheralded but extremely important book. Anybody who considers himself or herself an environmentalist should read it.


Kind of a grab bag. Many of you will recognize the compilation of paleo-art over on the right.


I've tried to learn all these languages at some point, but I really only speak Spanish. Immersion makes all the difference.


Some of my silliest books are here. Two dinosaur-themed titles hiding here: Nash's How to Keep Dinosaurs and Delgado's Age of Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians.

[tyrantqueen]

TQ, that's an impressive array of dinosaur books. My book collection is, let's say, less thematically coherent. I'm going to start with stuff completely irrelevant to this forum. Hope you'll all forgive me for the diversion.

Thanks, it's still growing

[Newt]

As with the desk thread, I am too ashamed of my untidiness to show pics here. In a few months, however, I will be moving, and making built-in bookshelves at the new place. In the brief period while my books are freshly-placed and presentable, I will take photos that will force all of you to acknowledge my bookworm supremacy. 

Truth be told, my girlfriend has even more books than I, but I at least have read almost all of mine. Except those darn German textbooks. Wie Gehts? my foot!

[Halichoeres]

Truth be told, my girlfriend has even more books than I, but I at least have read almost all of mine. Except those darn German textbooks. Wie Gehts? my foot!

I never used to have more than a small stack of unread books, but ever since I started grad school the rate of accumulation has exceeded the rate of completion. I look forward to playing catch-up when I graduate.

Another bookcase; this one houses basically all my fiction/literature. I used to have more than this, but several years ago during a move, an old roommate not only emptied one of my boxes of books, but replaced the contents with phone books so I wouldn't notice the weight difference. Among the casualties were the hardbound boxed set of Calvin & Hobbes strips, some dinosaur books, and the entire works of Dorothy Parker and JD Salinger. I've since outgrown Salinger anyway, but I still miss the others.


I arrange fiction and essay collections by author's nationality. This shelf is French, Italian, Spanish, Latin American, and British up through the 18th century.


More British and Irish stuff. The Buried Giant is a signed first printing.


Canadian, African, South Asian, a smattering of US authors.


American, 19th and 20th centuries.


American, 20th century. This Is How You Lose Her is signed. I've been hunting the hardcover edition of Lorrie Moore's Self-Help for a while now, but I don't want to pay $80 for it, which is usually what it goes for.


American 20th and 21st centuries; German.

[Libraraptor]

Wow! Impressive! These are some of my shelves:

[Lanthanotus]

Wow! Impressive! These are some of my shelves:

I spot a hell lot of things that I own, used to own or read (library loan) myself .... Star Wars, Dinos... you don't happen to collect Lego?!

[CityRaptor]

Lots of familiar books, Libraraptor. ( Well, minus the Star Wars, mammal and solar system ones )
Many I have, some I have in a different version, some I used to have, and some I still need to get.

[Libraraptor]

Wow! Impressive! These are some of my shelves:

I spot a hell lot of things that I own, used to own or read (library loan) myself .... Star Wars, Dinos... you don't happen to collect Lego?!

Actually, I don´t which I regret a lot. I love LEGO very much and have lots from my childhood still in the attic. But space and money are always holding me back from digging deeper into collecting LEGO Star Wars. I do have some of it, but not too much. Boba Fett´s Slave I, a TIE Fighter, a Battle Trooper and some smaller sets.

[Halichoeres]

I don't speak any German, but looking at your shelves it becomes clear what "Urzeit" means at the very least! Quite an assortment!

[Libraraptor]

I don't speak any German, but looking at your shelves it becomes clear what "Urzeit" means at the very least! Quite an assortment!

Thanks! Yeah, "Urzeit" means primeval times, you´re right. I collect books concerning these, including books about the "Urzeit" in my region, dinosaurs, evolution a.s.o.

[Libraraptor]

Social work literature - my main profession has got a shelf in my office.


My second desk for classification of newly arrived books.


Complete view of my main bookshelf at the gallery.


This is my "nest". I use to sprawl here and read, relax and listen to music.

[CityRaptor]

That is a comfortable looking nest, although I generally prefer something a bit more over the ground, like a chair.

[Lanthanotus]

This is my "nest". I use to sprawl here and read, relax and listen to music.

Your nickname is indeed well choosen it seems.

Hell, it almost looks like those shelves would crush down onto your nest,... I'd be afraid

[Libraraptor]

This is my "nest". I use to sprawl here and read, relax and listen to music.

Your nickname is indeed well choosen it seems.

Hell, it almost looks like those shelves would crush down onto your nest,... I'd be afraid

They won´t, they´re stable due to their instability

Well, actually my nickname intended to represent my love to both books and dinosaurs. But then it must be "Liberaptor". And still this would not be correct, for the Genitive plural if liber is "liberorum".
My correct nickname should thus be "Raptor liberorum" - Robber of the books.

Libra raptor means "robber of the SCALES", for libra means "scales" and not "book".

But after seven years on the forums I don´t want to change the nickname. And I´d actually be quite thankful if someone stole my scales.

[Lanthanotus]

Well, actually my nickname intended to represent my love to both books and dinosaurs. But then it must be "Liberaptor". And still this would not be correct, for the Genitive plural if liber is "liberorum".
My correct nickname should thus be "Raptor liberorum" - Robber of the books.

Libra raptor means "robber of the SCALES", for libra means "scales" and not "book".

But after seven years on the forums I don´t want to change the nickname. And I´d actually be quite thankful if someone stole my scales.

Oh my, I recognize my Latin skills are left out less than rudimentary these days , my apologies....

.... it seems tho, that it would still mean "book robber" in Albanian   

[Halichoeres]

Science shelves!

An Appetite for Wonder is autographed.


Believe it or not, I consult these old science texts occasionally. They're usually more intelligible than Wikipedia articles on the same phenomena.


Here's where the good stuff starts!


The one that's turned around is Witton's pterosaur book. I was pretty disappointed in the Falcon Field Guide.









And that's about where I run out of space. The rest of my bird books, and all the mammal, anatomy, and animal behavior books are lying around homeless in stacks.

I could move them to my office to join these, but I try to limit my office books to things that are directly relevant to my work, to minimize distractions.