Book Bites is now on Tumblr

Book Bites now has a Tumblr ^_^ It is a place for me to share and reblog quotes, book p0rn and bookshelf p0rn! Because, you know you want to… ;-p I'll still be uploading pictures to Flickr, so mostly the Book Bites Tumblr will be where I post random pictures that excite a bibliophile like myself ^_^

NB bookshelf p0rn and book p0rn are pretty pictures of the same. I don’t post any naughty pictures there – just in case you are the type to worry about that (sexy pictures get posted to a different Tumblr LOL).

You can see the new Tumblr at http://bookbitesoz.tumblr.com

What kind of pictures do you want to see there? What quotes should I add? Do you have a Tumblr obsession too?

A question of storage for the book addicts

I have a question for book addicts like myself. Do you ever put part of your collection in cold storage? I have too many books for the space I have to shelve them. I either need to buy two large bookshelves (and find somewhere to put them!) or buy some large plastic storage boxes and put them on top of my wardrobe. My mother muttered that I should stop buying so many books and sell some of mine (!) but we all know that will never happen (“OVER MY DEAD BODY!” was my actual response). Currently my largest bookshelf is double stacked, with the books laying flat. Where I used to have five paperbacks standing up, I now have about twenty laying down. That bookshelf is just under 2m high by maybe just over 2m long. On top of the hardcovers standing on the top of that bookshelf, I have stacked more books on their bellies, as high as I can get safely them. Lucky I have vaulted ceilings, hey?! In front of the large bookshelf I have a small bookshelf I bought during my first year of university. It is about a metre by a metre, and was made in someone’s shed in Townsville. It is a bit wonky, but it has a nice design for display purposes. That display capacity is not being made use of right now! I have all my Nora Robert’s books (I own most of them now) crammed in this bookshelf any way I can fit them, and on top I have books stacked about ten high. Next to this I have 2 teetering piles of books about waist high. They are holding each other up, and braced by the smaller bookshelf on the left and the large bookshelf behind them. Yes, the smaller bookshelf is placed immediately in front of the big bookshelf. I need more room! I also recently took my shoes out of their shelf and replaced them with books. The shoe shelf is kind of like a dvd cabinet. I have books crammed in there two books thick, and it is about 2.5m tall, although only about 50 cm wide. There are still more books under my bed and on my desk. So what is the solution? I think I need to buy two new tall bookshelves, throw out the smaller ones and move my desk around so there is more wall space. It is expensive though. If I was leasing by myself I would just buy some bricks and 2by4s. I grew up with bookshelves like that and they may be cheap and nasty, but they WORK! The problem is, if they get bumped, they can scratch the wall. The lease on the sharehouse I am currently living in isn’t in my name and Lachlan would kill me if I scratched the walls. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t really afford to buy bookshelves, but the books aren’t stacked safely and I am always worried some fell breeze will knock them over. I don't want to be a Jacq pancake! (although, what a way to go!) I am hoping to move this year, but that isn’t a given because I buy books instead of dumping that $40 in the bank every fortnight. Books are a necessity of life, I refuse to listen to my Mum when she says they aren’t! If I lived anywhere near my parents I would just ask Dad to make me a big arse bookshelf, but they live fourteen hours away, so that is not going to happen.

Yes, I know, I am talking myself in a circle. There isn’t really anything I can do. I think I need to buy some large plastic storage containers and go through my books and figure out which I am unlikely to read in the next year or so. The biggest problem with storing my books like this is that our house is prone to damp. Can you recommend a way of keeping the damp out of plastic boxes? I don’t want to hurt my books. At least on the bookshelves there is nowhere for damp air to gather…Is there a product which will attract the moisture without hurting my books with chemical?

What are your solutions when you have too many books? Do you buy new bookshelves, cull your collection, stack them creatively or put them in storage? And do you have suggestions on the best way for me to put some of my preciouses out of the way on top of my wardrobe?

When books attack!

I scared myself last night. My friends on twitter and facebook both laughed at me whilst commiserating, but I am really scared. I started reshelving all the books I have been reading this year as well as some of the new ones I have bought. My books are now laying face down, and instead of five books to the width of a book, there is now twenty (ten high by two deep). Even that wasn’t enough room. So I started stacking them on top of the last row of books (the books on the top shelf are vertical). Those are stacked 15 high. My main bookshelf is approximately 2 metres long, and with the books on top, it is now about 2 metres tall. It looms over my bed, reminding me of the forest in Charles de Lint’s Spirits in the Wire. I am afraid it will collapse and smother me in books whilst I sleep. You think I am joking, but my bookshelf is so FULL! And it is holding more books than it should! And then, to add to the madness, there are books precariously stacked on top of books on top of books. Want to know what is worse? I haven’t even finished! I only got about half way through my unshelved books. I have more in storage as well. I think I need to splash out and buy more bookshelves. I have 2 small ones, but they are in a similar state.

At the moment, I am thinking of buying this Esprit Large Book Case in Chocolate from Officeworks. It doesn't have as much soul as the large one made by my great uncle, but I don't have time to wait for my Dad to make me one. Lets face it, by the time he does, I will have bought even more books I will need to house! This one is only $99, and is more than 2 metres tall. I think I should get at least two. One to replace the two short bookshelves (they are cheap and nasty) and one for unshelved books and future purchases. I get paid tomorrow… I would have to rearrange my room. My desk would have to go between my bookshelf and the corner, and that would free up 2x1 metre of my room (I think). And I will have to dispose of 3 shelving units some how. I think only one would be of use to anyone else… I am planning on buying a bedroom suite with my tax return as well, so I am eventually getting rid of most of my furniture.

I really am jonesing for proper storage space. I am sick of storing books anywhere I can find some flat surfaces. It means there is no order to my room and it is driving my crazy! I have given up organising my room as it is a complete and utter lost cause. I hate feeling anxiety about my room, as it is my last refuge from the world at large. Normally I look at my books and I get a glow. As of last night, I am scared they will squish me as flat as a pancake when I am sleeping LOL I have no idea how many I have, and I REALLY don’t want to think too closely about how much I have spent on them!

I am the #7th Top User at Goodreads! :D

Oh wow! I just logged into my goodreads account and noticed the status under my picture. I am ranked Number 7 in the top users!!! Hoooollllieee sshheeett! I am sure it is just in Australia, and I did add nearly 200 books to my shelves this week, but hot damn! I am excited anyway LOL

Add me on goodreads if you are a user! I used to have all the other book networking sites, but decided that I needed to focus on just one site. I like the streamline design of goodreads, which is what it came down to. Booktagger is just all over the place, and unfortunately that overwhelmed the fact that it is Australian based and has great Australian competitions. Shelfari was a near call, but their shelves are bulky, and do not look that great when integrated into blog designs. I had others, but Booktagger and Shelfari were the only contenders with Goodreads.

Anyway, my url is goodreads.com/obsidiantears83 if you want to compare books!

Book jackets - face savers or design elements?

The literary range of BCJ

There is a new face on the market! Well, not a face, a cover that saves face. There is a website that caters to the reading and interior design markets called Book City Jackets. They have created a range of covers to slip over your book if you are embarrassed about what you are reading. You can make it look like you are reading "serious books” while you are actually reading your beloved trashy paperbacks. Or you can cover up an unattractive cover (I personally hate the Penguin Classics' orange covers, but that is just me) or a tattered cover with something attractive. They have two basic types of covers. One has the title of a classic literature novel (such as Moby Dick, Ulysses, War & Peace) emblazoned across the cover, the other has line art.

I am a bit scornful of the “serious” titles, but I have to admit the first romance novel I owned, I painted an abstract design and covered the book with it. I still have that book somewhere… I was 11 and didn’t want my friends know that I was reading M&B. Silly, because I was reading Sweet Valley University and some fantasy that was more graphic and more embarrassing in my peer group LOL I have reached the stage these days that proudly proclaim the fact that I love trashy paperbacks. I like reading paranormal romance, dabbling in romance, and I have always loved trashy fantasy and pulp science fiction (you know the type – they normally have over sized mammaries and rippling eight-packs!). I used to be embarrassed when people perve on my books on the trains, now if they show particular interest I just tell them it is a good book, show them a closer look at the cover if they are interested, and ignore them if their eyes pop out as they read a sex scene over my shoulder. I can’t help it that they have hang ups! I read what I read, and I am not going to hide it.

But others might wish to, and that is where these products come into play. You can cover up the bindings, the cheesy or raunchy images, the embarrassing titles or author’s details with something that is less suggestive of your reading habits and something that says “I only read big books”. Does anyone else look at these and think of a Film Noir spy in a trench coat, fedora and dark glasses? Surely it is more suspicious if you are obscuring the cover than if you were blending in? Ask someone who knows. I am more embarrassed of the M&B novel I covered as an 11 year old now as an adult than I was then. Now it is obvious I was trying to hide what I was reading LOL And it looks so out of place on my bookshelf. I think these covers would have more play in the house of someone conscious of interior design ascetics. If you are reading your books frequently, covering the bindings with non-related covers does not make much sense (it makes them harder to find) but if you are designing a pretty lounge room, they would be ideal. I think this comes down to the question – What is a book to you? Function or design element? If you answered design element, consider buying these in bulk. They are quite attractive. Better yet if anyone wants something like this, just buy some brown paper and some permanent pens… It is a hell of a lot cheaper!!

The pretty line art of the artistic range of BCJ

One of the unwrapped book jackets - I do love the kraken!

Stylish, no?

I freely admit that I want this book jacket! Maybe I should use it to cover my copy of Portrait of an Artist of a Young Man?

Pretty, it reminds me of some vintage children's books I read in my youth...

The design element... I couldn't find any that had the literary covers, but viewing the above pictures, you should get the gist.

So what do you think? Would you use these? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Charles de Lint: Newford, my collection and the cover art

Charles de Lint just posted a note on facebook (yeay! I'm his facebook friend! LOL) on the order of the Newford Stories. It's also on his FAQ on his website, but I thought I would post it here for future reference. Both Linda and I are fans (we are getting matching Crow Girl tattoos) so it makes sense that we have something we can refer back to. Oh, FYI, as well as the website and mailing list, you can keep up to date through Charles' twitter and facebook. His facebook is fun, because he talks about music he is into as well, and if you are anything like me, you admire him for his taste in music as well as for his writing LOL


Order of the Newford Stories

1. Dreams Underfoot (collection)
2. The Dreaming Place (young adult novel)
3. A Whisper To A Scream (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
4. I'll Be Watching You (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
5. Memory And Dream (novel)
6. The Ivory And The Horn (collection)
7. Trader (novel)
8. Someplace To Be Flying (novel)
9. Moonlight And Vines (collection)
10. Forests Of The Heart
11. The Onion Girl (novel)
12. Seven Wild Sisters (short novel, also available in Tapping the Dream Tree)
13. Tapping the Dream Tree (collection)
14. Spirits in the Wires (novel)
15. Medicine Road (short novel)
16. The Blue Girl (young adult novel)
17. Widdershins (novel)
18. Make a Joyful Noise (chapbook)
19. The Hour Before Dawn (collection)
20. Old Man Crow (chapbook)
21. Little (Grrl) Lost (novel)
22. Promises to Keep (short novel)
23. Dingo (young adult novel)
24. Muse & Reverie (collection)

I have to admit, I haven't read the last couple of stories. I recently bought Mystery of Grace (not a Newford story) but previous to that, the most recent (timeframe-wise, not when I read it) were The Onion Girl and The Blue Girl. Unfortunately, Charles de Lint's books are quite expensive to buy brand new in Australia, and second hand stores only sell the usual culprits (Moonheart, Yarrow, Greenmantle etc).I am gradually filling out my collection of Charles de Lint novels.

My CdL Collection
Of the top of my head I remember that I own:

• Greenmantle
• I'll Be Watching You
• Into The Green
• Memory and Dream
• Moonheart
• Mulengro
• Spiritwalk
• Tapping The Dream Tree
• The Blue Girl
• The Dreaming Place
• The Little Country
• The Mystery of Grace
• Wolf Moon
• Yarrow

I will own them all eventually! I also have a number of anthologies that contain his stories, and the only ones I haven't read are those that have been out of print (and not in the library system) and the newer publications (also not in the system and too pricy to purchase). I will update this list as I get more of his books.

Cover Art
I really admire some of the artwork on the covers of Charles de Lint's novels. Particularly that by John Jude Palencar, Charles Vess, Terri Windling, Jim Hoover, David Bergen and Fletcher Sibthorp - and we can't forget the original Brian Froud illustrations The Wild Wood. I love John Jude Palencar's artwork. They are very atmospheric and beautiful They don't always take on the gritty nature of de Lint's novels, but they do convey the mystery. I think Fletcher Sibthorp's covers best convey the darker side of his covers - a perfect example of this is his cover of Mulengro, where you see the spirits rolling out of the fog that roils around the villain just as it does in the book. I love Charles Vess and Terri Windling's cover art, as it emphasises more of the mythos behind the stories - either the Celtic or the Native American folklore, done in pen, watercolours and washes.

Now onto Brian Froud: sadly there were copyright issues with publishers with The Wild World, so you can't buy the original version of this book any more. It is such a shame, as it is one of the best illustrated books I have ever laid my eyes on. I refuse to buy this book until I can find a Brian Froud version. I hate it when publishers mess shit up like this! It was such a lovely concept! Basically Brian Froud did a number of artworks (I think about 50?) and invited 4 author friends over to choose a selection of them each to write a story about. The results were wonderful! *sigh* stupid publishers! After the first two books in the Faerielands series were publish, Bantam changed its fantasy publishing and the project was discontinued. Because it was with Bantam, other publishers couldn't republish the paintings, so reprints of the stories by de Lint and McKillip have artwork by different artists, as does the now published Snyder; the paperback of Windling's novel has a new Froud artwork on the cover. I am trying to find original copies of Patricia McKillip's "Something Rich and Strange" and Charles de Lint's The Wild Wood, but I won't bother with the Midori Snyder as it hasn't been released with Brian Froud's artwork.

John Jude Palencar

Fletcher Sibthorp

Terri Windling

Jim Hoover

Interesting things found in books

Source: http://www.neatorama.com/2010/02/06/interesting-things-found-in-books/

AbeBooks asked their booksellers to reveal what items they have found inside the books that pass through their hands.  They reported many instances of discovering credit cards and banknotes, including this heartbreaker:

“A wealthy, elderly woman in my town died a few years ago and left a large book collection with many fine books, much of which wound up in my inventory. The remaining books went to a local thrift shop, including a microwave cookbook which, as it turned out, contained 40 $1000 bills. The book was purchased by someone from out of town who was idling away the time waiting for her ride. She took the money to a local bank to verify its authenticity and that was how we heard about it. She didn’t give a cent back to the thrift shop, either. A deeply frustrating experience for many, I can assure you.”

Other items have both monetary and historic value:

“Inside a volume, one of eight bought at a local garage sale, I found a charming child’s Christmas card with the inscription “Merry Christmas to Harry from …..(fairly illegible). About two years later while trying to decipher the signature, the name suddenly revealed itself….”from Frank Baum.”

Other dealers have found items such as a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a golf scorecard signed by Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, a diamond ring, and a variety of other odd and unusual items, including the inevitable… strip of bacon.
Perhaps most impressive is this report from Bookride:

Eight relief hand-coloured etchings [by William Blake] discovered by a book collector between the pages of an international rail timetable bought in the late seventies from a ‘North London book dealer’, and recently acquired by the Tate for £441,000. Apparently, the reason suggested as to why the dealer hadn’t bothered to check through the huge timetable before putting it out for sale was because it was so ‘ boring’.

What have you found?  Or what have you lost?  Do you use something odd as a bookmark?

---

Jacq: I collect bookmarks and have a facination with them. I plan on writting some bookmark entires at BookBites at a later date!

Surfer's [Reading] Paradise

Source: ABC

Surfers look at books on a set of 30 bookcases set up on Sydney's Bondi Beach by a Sydney furniture store on January 31, 2010. To take a book, people are being invited to swap one of their books for a book from the shelves or make a gold coin donation, with all donations going to The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.

Fiction: My Top 40 Favourite

This is a list of my top 40 favourite books. That is my favourite fiction. I will do another list of my favourite non-fiction and my favourite plays and poetry at a later date. All of these books had an impact on me in some way. It may have been for the simple pleasure of reading them, I may have thought them the best I had read on a particular subject, they may have influenced the way I see the world or I may have liked how the words flow. The why isn’t really important. Put simply, these books are the ones I would rescue from a fire first!

• Acheron – Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Beowulf – RM Liuzza translation
• Birthright – Nora Roberts
• Bitten – Kelley Armstrong
• Boundary Lines – Nora Roberts
• Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
• Chrysalis – Libby Hathorn
• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• Dune – Frank Herbert
• Green Monkey Dreams – Isobelle Carmody
• Greenmantle – Charles de Lint
• Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
• Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
• Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
• Kirkland Revels – Victoria Holt
• Lover Revealed – JR Ward
• Magician – Raymond E Fiest
• Merlin’s Keep – Madeline Brent
• Mulengro – Charles de Lint
• Obsidian Butterfly – Laurell K Hamilton
• Persuasion – Jane Austen
• Piers Plowman – William Langland
• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• So Much To Tell You – James Marsden
• Someplace To Be Flying – Charles de Lint
• Spirits in the Wires – Charles de Lint
• The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
• The Horse and His Boy – CS Lewis
• The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
• The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
• The Merry Go Round In The Sea – Randolph Stow
• The Painted Men – Peter V Brett
• The Reef – Nora Roberts
• The Talisman – Stephen King and Peter Straub
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
• The Wood Wife – Terri Windling
• Trickster’s Choice – Tamora Pierce
• Trickster’s Queen – Tamora Pierce
• Waylander – David Gemmell

Although I read voraciously, and I have read a lot of books, there are still thousands of books waiting out there for me to read. I am sure I am missing some which will probably make the list after I read them LOL Don't argue with me for something I included that you think is substandard, but I would like to hear what you would include instead! And if you have any of these on your own list.

Be Still, My Heart

jacq reposting from her old blog

Okay, this one is for all the bibliophiles out there.. You know you can't help yourselves! You swoon at the thought of a room full of books, you dither for hours at the bookstore trying to narrow down the selection of what books you can afford to buy this time, you enhale deeply the scent of old books - that musky perfume of aged paper and old ink. You, the people who dream about books - even when you are not sleeping.. I am guilty. My biggest obsession, addiction, passion in life is books - reading them, collecting them, reading them again and again. I look at my collection and I feel an immense feeling of elation. They are old friends I can visit whenever I please.

Now, my biggest day dream is of how I will eventually house my collection. I want to renovate an old house, and dedicate one room to my books. Wall to wall shelves that reach from the floor to the ceiling. Just enough room for a bay window and a door. The furniture will be in the centre of the room (a couch, 2 comfy armchairs and a small desk - standing lamps) and there will be a windowseat in the bay window. The sole focus of that room will be books. On this note, I did some searches to see what is out there.. some of the older libraries are amazing! Trinity College and Cambridge were the most facinating.. But there was just so many pictures... I will have to go back and blog again another time - i had planned on creating kind of a scrapbook about how i wanted it designed, but i got distracted by all this whimsy... so this is the big brother to my personal library... What my library wants to be when it grows up. The abundance of books, that deep rich wood funishings, that dedication to the World of Words...

And this is more what I will be aiming to achieve..