Your Personal Library Policies

[Innocent]

I too, like Hassan, mark in my books. I used to keep my books immaculate, but after reading Mortimer Adler's advice on marking books in his book How To Read A Book, I started marking in books.

I mainly get books only after reading a lot of reviews (usually on the internet), but I also enjoy occasionally going to bookstores without any pre-conceived plan of getting a particular book and looking around for interesting books available that day.

Currently, the main way of adding to my library is by printing out entire books from the [url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=105661"]Internet Archive.[/url]

I visit both second-hand and first hand bookstores, though I enjoy second-hand bookstores more.

While there is a certain thrill in seeing what some previous owner has scribbled in the books I get from a second-hand bookstore, I prefer unmarked books since I don't want my thinking to be influenced by a previous reader before I've completed at least one complete reading by myself.

I never give away any books. Once I get a book I keep it with me.

Rarely, I do lend books, but most of the books I've lent so far have not come back to me.

I almost never use libraries, unless it is for academic reference.


[quote name='Era Might' date='15 June 2010 - 04:00 AM' timestamp='1276551005' post='2128807']
I've greatly reduced my library. It's become an obsession with me to only keep the books that I absolutely need or want.
[/quote]

Are you sure this is a wise decision? What you are doing (giving away your books) is practically irreversible (it would be too tedious to get back books if you want to at a later time).

What if your obsession wears off a few years later? You would have a large amount of regret about the books you gave away.

I understand that you feel the need for an ascetic lifestyle, but why should that include books? (Books don't provide physical comfort, after all. I suppose you might say that you want to reduce the mental comforts you have, too, but most of the books you've listed so far are not frivolous and thus seem more like a tool of discipline [like exercise equipment] than a mental comfort.) If you lived in a house full of books and with no furniture other than a straw mat to sleep on at night, that would be an ascetic lifestyle too, wouldn't it?

If you still feel bad about keeping books, may I offer a suggestion?

You can turn the front room of your house (or select some other area, like the clubhouse of your local residents' association) into a lending library for your neighbourhood community (community creation and maintenance in the real world is your chief area of interest right now, isn't it?), using the books you want to give away.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Innocent

[Era Might]

[quote name='Innocent' date='15 June 2010 - 11:39 PM' timestamp='1276659562' post='2129651']Are you sure this is a wise decision? What you are doing (giving away your books) is practically irreversible (it would be too tedious to get back books if you want to at a later time).

What if your obsession wears off a few years later? You would have a large amount of regret about the books you gave away.

I understand that you feel the need for an ascetic lifestyle, but why should that include books? (Books don't provide physical comfort, after all. I suppose you might say that you want to reduce the mental comforts you have, too, but most of the books you've listed so far are not frivolous and thus seem more like a tool of discipline [like exercise equipment] than a mental comfort.) If you lived in a house full of books and with no furniture other than a straw mat to sleep on at night, that would be an ascetic lifestyle too, wouldn't it?[/quote]
Merely having books is not an obstacle to an ascetic lifestyle. If I needed the books, then I would keep them. But other than being an expression of my personality, my personal library doesn't have much of a purpose. I can easily get these books from the library.

Exercise equipment would be used every week. With a lot of these books, however, I would read them at most once every few years. And some of these books are just useful for reference. The public library serves my needs sufficiently.

My obstacle to an ascetic lifestyle is not merely having books, but rather, having (or buying) books when I don't need them, and when I can obtain them just as easily from the public library.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Era Might

[jeffpugh]

My library is more specialised because they consist of liturgical music. Most of them are old. Anywho, my criteria:

* Book must be of orthodox thought

* Books are mostly used, unless it's a good title, like some of Papa Ben's new works

* Narrow down my music collection to polyphony or chant. Sometimes trad carols

* Instruction books or interpretation books on chant:
* Anglican is acceptable. The content must be scholarly/historical
* Good condition, few markings

* I prefer my books be marked up as little as possible. This is for my neural decision that if I need to reproduce a page, it will be fresh for marking then.


I think this is all for now. Like I said, it is hard to get my hands on music material. I don't think I'll cash in on anthologies. I like originally bound works better (that is, the content is in its original context). For music, it follows a true sacred idiom, and the words are orthodox. I'll scrutenise a book for a while until I deem it useful for data-mining

ETA:

I didn't really give my criteria for sheet music. That's a great part of my library. And text books, such as the Norton Anthology of Western Music. Woot to that. Lots of scores in there. I don't dare mark those textbooks because I [i]know [/i]I'll need it for teaching later! In short, I want my music library--seeing that I like to pick up rare books--to be more of a semi-public resource. The only problem I have, which may be thought to as an advance atm, is that people don't want what I have. But I see that as a problem! It means no one is interested in authentic restoration of Catholic music

Edited June 16, 2010 by Sacred Music Man

[Deeds]

[quote name='IgnatiusofLoyola' date='15 June 2010 - 05:14 AM' timestamp='1276571697' post='2129106']
Sure, I can do that. Give me a day or two to look through my collection and rate my "cozies" and I'll send you a PM. Some of the "coziest" books are the older mysteries, of which you can probably find some at the library, but the library probably won't have everything a given author wrote. If you like Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, you'll like some of the English cozies. In the list, I'll be sure to include Sister Helen's favorites--the religious Sister "stamp of approval." I also like cozies with a sense of humor, I'll include a few of those. But, any book I recommend IS going to have a corpse, since it's a mystery, but it won't dwell much on the murder itself, mostly on the characters.

I'd say call me Iggy (or, since there is another Iggy on Phatmass who shows up once in awhile, you can also call me IggyLoy).
[/quote]
Can you copy me into that PM too please? I love a good mystery. I only got into Agatha Christie about a year ago but I think I have around 1/4 of her works now. Those have been the only books I've bought during the past year though - I make good use of libraries for the rest of my reading.

[jeffpugh]