Show us your book "shelfies"!

[tyrantqueen]

What's your opinion on Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia? Is it worth getting?

[Gwangi]

OMG, I still have not contributed to my own thread. I'll get on it soon.

[Halichoeres]

What's your opinion on Grzimek's animal life encyclopedia? Is it worth getting?

If you have $2800 lying around, sure. I only have one volume from the 1970s edition that I found at a book fair, and I only bought it because it's the fish volume and I study fish. The new edition is really nice, but I think it's really intended for libraries more than private residences. For anyone here, though, I'd definitely recommend the two special volumes on extinct animals ($300), even though, as always, parts of it are already out of date.

[Libraraptor]

Impressive science shelves, Halichoeres!

[Halichoeres]

Thanks! Now waiting on you, Gwangi!

[Gwangi]

Thanks! Now waiting on you, Gwangi!

Working on it. 

[Lanthanotus]

So here's my contribution to the thread. As you can see here, a part of book shelf is integrated in my workplace, other books are scattered throughout several shelves in the appartment and barely sorted by any theme. A considerable part is stowed away in either my or my parents attic, for example my almost complete Easter Island literature and lots of old dino and animal books. Last but not least I have a long list of read books that I'd wish to own but lack money and space, but luckily we have a well sorted public library in my town.

[Gwangi]

Of course you have "Varanoid Lizards of the World". I need that book but it's quite pricey.

Tonight guys, tonight I'll post. I promise.

[Gwangi]

Okay folks, here we go. This is gonna be a bit picture heavy. Although there are a of of books here I actually went through a massive culling process about this time last year. I used to have a book room but due to the birth of my daughter I needed to convert it into a baby room. As a result I got rid of roughly 1/4th of my collection.

First up, the field guide shelf. Everything from plants to insects to marine mammals.







Now this green book shelf is the shelf I had growing up. To think when this was all I had I somehow thought I owned a lot of books? Maybe for the average kid I guess. Most of the books in there now belong to my wife. You'll see books on gardening, occupational therapy (her profession), child rearing, sustainable living etc. etc. Some of the books in there do belong to me. The Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan titles, farming and livestock, and pet care books specifically. It's basically a random shelf.



Now we're getting to the big boys.



Books by Steven J. Gould, natural history and paleontology, and of course dinosaurs. Lots of dinosaurs.




More dinosaurs and other paleontology books. This is also where books on birds begin.


More bird books and some reptile and amphibian books too, mostly care guides.


Reptiles and amphibians.


A couple more reptile books, a pitiful few on insects and then mammals, mostly regional guides.


More mammals; felines, canines, ursids, and cervids.


Primates and whales, then some general wildlife books.


General wildlife, ecology, nature writing, that sort of thing.


This is where fish books begin, at the end of this shelf.


Fish books.


A lot of shark books on this shelf.


More sharks, and then fishing books. A few random titles at the end there. Scary stories and such.


Cryptozoology mostly and some less serious books on dinosaurs, anthropology a human evolution at the end of the shelf.


More titles on human evolution, anthropology, native peoples, a few history books and then some random titles at the end. And that's it folk! Now you see why it took me so long to share.

[Lanthanotus]

Very impressive, Gwangi. "Eyelids of morning", still need to get my hands onto this.

I often wonder about the variety of themes in general .... "Birding from Tractor Seat", now that's a curious one

[Gwangi]

Very impressive, Gwangi. "Eyelids of morning", still need to get my hands onto this.

I often wonder about the variety of themes in general .... "Birding from Tractor Seat", now that's a curious one

I just saw another copy of "Eyelids of Morning" at a book sale last spring. I knew I should have picked it up. If I see it again I'll keep you in mind.

Having spent much of my life on a farm I just had to pick up "Birding from a Tractor Seat", that's basically what I did whenever I found myself on a tractor, in a field all day. There were always swallows following behind the tractor, eating the insects I stirred up. Or hawks following the tractor and eating any rodents. And that's basically what that book is about, the birds you'll see on a farm.

[Halichoeres]

Nice contributions, Lanthanotus and Gwangi! They're giving me fits of envy, especially the herp books. That's a definite weak spot in my collection.

[Halichoeres]

I forgot a shelf!  Fish books more concerned with husbandry than biology (though it's a fuzzy line sometimes), and some miscellany. Also hiding here are my few back issues of Prehistoric Times.

[Doug Watson]

Some very eclectic collections here, by everyone. Especially impressed by Libraraptor, Gwangi, Halichoeres and Lanthanotus. I'll post my non prehistoric books here when I can load them on Photobucket. Its interesting to see that many of the people here have a lot of the same books that I have plus a great deal many different ones. Lanthanotus, I love your varanid book collection. I have Auffenberg & Murphy's works on Komodos as well, mind you you have real live monitors so you have me beat and green with envy, the Komodo Dragon is one of my favourite animals. Varanoid Lizards of the World is now on my wish list.
Funny, with spell check when I typed varanid and varanoid here they became veranda and paranoid respectively. Would have been embarrassing if I wasn't paying attention.

[Doug Watson]

I have already posted my paleo books here http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3118.0

These are my other books. In addition to these I also have shared bookcases with my wife with fiction, gardening, Disney etc.

shelf 1. Classic Movie Monster books, cars & oversized fish


shelf 2. paleo books, birds


shelf 3. birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish


shelf 4. zoo books and mammals


shelf 5. mammals


shelf 6. Wildlife Encyclopedia, primates and general science


shelf 7. cars, Brooke Bond Albums, insects, plants and fiction


shelf 8. sculpture & art history


shelf 9. cars, toy collecting, museums & fantasy art


shelf 10. movie special effects, model making, movie history


shelf 11. CineFX magazines, TV & Movie books, museum collections books, moulding & casting.


shelf 12. Animal tracks, Moulding & Casting, Model Making, Disney Magazines, Art and Museum Conservation handbooks.


shelf 13, Modeller's Resource, Amazing Figure Modeler and Prehistoric Times magazines. The folders are hard copies of scientific papers.

[Gwangi]

Nice collection Doug, I see we have quite similar tastes and I recognize quite a few of those books. "The Great Aux" is one I'm still kicking myself over. I had the chance to get it last year but didn't. I particularly like your movie monster/horror collection. I've wanted the John Landis book for some time.

[Lanthanotus]

Impressive collection, Doug. I wish I had the space to keep all the books I read and want to read Love your collection of movie and FX related books, I had a very small collection of those too once (SW, JP, Alien etc.) but never really was aware of the Ray Harryhausen books, an artist I really admire from his films.

[Halichoeres]

The art shelf is enough to make a person drool!

[Doug Watson]

Impressive collection, Doug. I wish I had the space to keep all the books I read and want to read Love your collection of movie and FX related books, I had a very small collection of those too once (SW, JP, Alien etc.) but never really was aware of the Ray Harryhausen books, an artist I really admire from his films.

Thank you all. Lanthanotus, I of course was a big fan of Harryhausen's, near the middle of the shelf the book with the white spine, "From the Land Beyond Beyond: The films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen" is another one you might be interested in. Unfortunately it is from 1977 and oop so you would have to scour ABE or eBay for an affordable deal. The images are all in black & white but well worth it. It was all I had for years until Harryhausen became cool again and those newer books came out.

[KilldeerCheer]

I should really get to posting my book collection when I get the chance (I was supposed to about a year ago 😅). Still haven't figured out how to upload photos (I guess I need a photobucket account?).

But excellent collections everyone! Whether they're used for research, casual reading, field identification, or simply for the art or historical value, I just love nature books. 😌