Let's talk about books

[JJEH]

I don't consider myself a bookaholic or someone with a compulsive buying disorder, even though I might be borderline when it comes to books.

I have read a few fiction (Jon Land, David Morrell and a few others), but I do prefer non-fiction like biographies, business, political, military, guides, and of course history.

I have never counted all my books, but here's the majority of it:

There are more in the office and a few others are in the bedroom.

Not all of them are meant to be read cover to cover, there are many technical books from when I worked in the automotive business, reference books, language books, etc. And yes, I do buy faster than I can read them

My favorites are true stories, like Lucky Bwana, The Gun That Wasn't There, the Chrysler war books, the Dodge Brothers books, Days of the Kilimanjaro, some Robert Ruark and Peter Capstick I haven't finished yet, and my newest interest, the American War for Independence.

I truly feel that reading old literature is a privilege and we should do everything in our power to preserve it.

This book I'm holding was printed in 1835, 187yrs ago, it's written by M.L. Weems and its title is "The Life of Benjamin Franklin."

Imagine this book could talk, or it was written by Dr. Franklin himself?! I know he died in 1790, but just imagine.

Crazy, really. It's currently the oldest book we have, but I'll make sure it won't be for long!

Recently our school district had a parent survey going on, asking parents for input. I made sure to let them know that I support more books and less internet.

Let's wait for the next school board meeting, other parents hate me already

Please feel free to share your libraries and interests

 

[Greyman50]

This is one of my oldest books, 99% are packed up along with my military history books. About all I have here is most of my gun related books. Need to find a place.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I am convinced that Amazon created Kindle Books just for me.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I like real books, I prefer hardback but can afford new paperbacks.

I have a very wide taste in literature.

I am or was something like dyslexic, so I'm a very slow reader, but I tend to remember most details for 20 or more years.

My areas of interest:

Military History

American History

Christian/Church History

Firearms usage and users.

Space and military Science Fiction

I prefer Honest Biographies as oppose to Autobiographies.

Ivan

 

[cherrypointmarine]

If you think that's a lot of books , you ought to look at my book shelves . My trouble is I read really fast , a good book I can read in 2-3 days . We had a used book store move into our town , it's been great . I go in there and at checkout they always ask are you aware of our trade policy ? I tell them I don't get rid of my books , I keep them . It works cause I can read a book and go back 1-2 years and read it again .

 

[Greyman50]

LOL, we have “ The Book Mine” in JAX. One can literally spend weeks in the place.

 

[lihpster]

You want books? New books? Rare books? Out of print books? Well then, come here.
Powell’s Books | The World’s Largest Independent Bookstore

 

[mckenney99]

I never read as a kid, other than the Dr. Seuss books but I started reading Stephen King in College and was hooked. I've always got a book bookmarked sitting next to my recliner. I tend to read a lot of military history, WWII, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars. I wish there was more written about Korea. I also got sucked into W.E.B. Griffin a couple years ago and I think I now own and have read all but maybe the latest ones,
Reading is therapy for me, as it tends to calm me in the evening which aids my issues with sleeping.
I find that authors have a style of writing and if I find one that I like, I tend to buy all of their books, ie. John Grisham, Vince Flynn, Patrick Robinson, Brad Thor, Lee Child, Brad Taylor, Richard Marcinko and my absolute favorite, James Heriot.

 

[Dave_n]

I do not even count anymore. Military historian by avocation particularly naval, so all of the Jane's Fighting Ships in their reprint series from 50 plus years ago including the 1890s. Add to these the Conway series and a heck of a lot more. My wife is looking at the shelves and wondering if I can find someone who would like to "take them off my hands in due course". Add to these many pistol and rifle books and a lot of WWI and II histories from all sides. Even the complete series from the Greenwich hand drawn set.Dave_n

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Voracious reader myself, strictly non-fiction. I use the library as my book store since I found in my book buying days that many books are like magazines, have a limited shelf life, you read them 2-3x then you don't get anything else from them. Trying to limit my book buying to real reference books, gun books, etc.

 

[delcrossv]

Avid reader, nonfiction is mostly journal articles: general relativity, nuclear structure, etc.

Fiction is mostly Sci-Fi or Fantasy although I do like good spy or military fiction as well. I do like my escape literature.

Geez, number? Boxes and boxes- and I do re-read the good stuff.

 

[Onomea]

Here's my oldest:





1834, so 188 years ago. My late father picked it up at a church used book sale in rural Virginia perhaps 30 years ago. I doubt if he spent more than a couple of dollars on it, if that.

 

[Rpg]

I’ve always been a voracious reader.

About 30 years ago, I realized that I had gone a little over the top in keeping books: I was paying $70/month for a 20x20 storage unit I’d filled with the excess books I’d accumulated. It was stacked near the ceiling with boxes of books.

I devoted a week to sorting them and ended with a few bankers boxes full of books I wanted to keep. I had an industrial dumpster placed outside the storage unit and filled it with the rest of the books ( those I hadn’t looked at for at least a year) and had it carted off to where ever the dumpster people take stuff. Interestingly, I can’t think of a single book I threw away that I’ve missed over the years.

In the ensuing years, I’ve been pretty good about throwing away books after I read them instead of hanging onto them indefinitely. Now, I keep only the books that I am likely to use for reference or are difficult to replace.

Today, I have a half dozen 4 level glass fronted lawyer’s book cases and an equal number of plain bookcases filled to overflowing at home and a few more at the office, but it’s much more manageable than my storage unit days.

I’ve also developed the habit of using the public library and inter library loans for most of the fiction and current events books I read. I also use the library for books I want to reread: much more cost and space efficient than buying and storing them indefinitely.

The public library is my friend.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[SS336]

You want books? New books? Rare books? Out of print books? Well then, come here.
Powell’s Books | The World’s Largest Independent Bookstore

That store is pretty amazing. Been there a couple of times. If you want a book it will be there somewhere.
That and Voodoo doughnuts when I have to go Portland.
My oldest book is 1890. I have a few in the early 1900’s.

 

[Greyman50]

I only read factual books as I’ve found that real events were/ are better than made up ones.
As far as real books on WWII go this autographed 1 st edition is one of my best. Was at a Battle of the Bulge re enactment years ago, off loading at the line of departure when this “ land yacht” pulled up with 3 WWII Vets. They got out, walked over to us and 1 said,” I wore that patch” pointing at our 2 nd INF DIV patch. Turned out he was Capt. MacDonnald’s runner in part of the Battle of the Bulge. Gave him our unit sign and corresponded with him for about a year. Remarkable man as he still fit in his WWII uniform.

 

[JohnRippert]

I went through my 5th grade reading books by the time I was just starting 3rd grade. So they stuck me in a speed reading class. Books have always been my most expensive addiction. I am down to about 600 books in my room with Dad's, now my, almost complete collection of Louis L'Amour hardback books covered in that faux leather in a bookcase in the den. I have given close to 700 books to the MD Anderson Cancer Center library and sold hundreds of others at Half Price Books when I no longer find them interesting. My collection is pretty much distilled to books I still love to reread.

 

[DWalt]

I am surprised at the prices now being asked for many of my OOP books that I originally paid little or nothing for.

 

[rockquarry]

With the exception of about 250 gun books, I've been giving books away to friends that I think would enjoy reading them. The lesser books and paperbacks, my wife periodically gives away to some charitable organization.

Most books have little value and unless you have some really good ones you want to read twice, they're no more than dust catching paper weights. If I kept all the books I've bought in the last fifty or so years, I'd have a very crowded home.

I've found with gun books that many of the limited edition books that were expensive (to me, anyway) when I purchased them years ago now command ridiculously high prices on the used market. I certainly wouldn't sell mine as I still use them for reference.

It appears younger shooters avoid buying books because they think they can find everything on the Internet. These folks miss out on a lot without knowing it.

 

[tlawler]

Ah! Poor Henry Bemis. “It’s just not fair!”