How Big Are Your Libraries?

[Shanoncia]

Yes, well world travel has taught me that it's really the only word you need to know in a foreign country...

 

[FicusFan]

Belgium and Holland are seperate countrys and I think that The Netherlands is another name for Holland and you are Dutch, if you come from Holland.

Thanks. I feel better.

 

[Julian]

I'd certainly prefer the magnificent charms of Holland to any other nation in the known world. Someday lovely, I'll pass through.

Shan,

To turn things around just a wee bit:
Someday you pass through, it'd be lovely

(Sorry, I'm in a poetic mood... It'll vanish in a second or so.)

Ficus,

Holland? Belgium?? Yes, it's like the backdrop realms in a fantasy without a map... But use your own imagination. That's the fun part! Oh, and you forgot to mention The Netherlands, and Wallonia - all part of this slight but exuberant exercise in Confusing People Who Live Elsewhere. It's a national pasttime. Or international, perhaps... Who knows??

Hope that explains things

Hmm - sudden thought: aren't we getting a little off topic? Not that I mind, mind...

 

[FicusFan]

Shan,

To turn things around just a wee bit:
Someday you pass through, it'd be lovely

(Sorry, I'm in a poetic mood... It'll vanish in a second or so.)

Ficus,

Holland? Belgium?? Yes, it's like the backdrop realms in a fantasy without a map... But use your own imagination. That's the fun part! Oh, and you forgot to mention The Netherlands, and Wallonia - all part of this slight but exuberant exercise in Confusing People Who Live Elsewhere. It's a national pasttime. Or international, perhaps... Who knows??

Hope that explains things

Hmm - sudden thought: aren't we getting a little off topic? Not that I mind, mind...

On Topic:

My library seems to have only books about painters from that area. At least that openly refer to that area. I haven't been there so I can't tell if it is a perfect fantasy setting (ala New Zealand and LOTR), and may have been used as a secret backdrop in a book or not.

Off Topic:

Now I am not feeling better - confused again

 

[Julian]

On Topic:

My library seems to have only books about painters from that area. At least that openly refer to that area. I haven't been there so I can't tell if it is a perfect fantasy setting (ala New Zealand and LOTR), and may have been used as a secret backdrop in a book or not.

Off Topic:

Now I am not feeling better - confused again

On (of sorts):

The Low Countries (The Netherlands and Belgium, taken collectively) are hardly a perfect fantasy setting. The name alone implies this: these are essentially flat expanses of land, with hardly any interesting topographical features at all. Oh, and to help you along: if you pop over from the very south of England to the continent of Europe (you're heading straight East, here), first thing you'll find is Holland (aka The Netherlands). Go down south a bit, and the next country is Belgium.

Off (again, of sorts):

Shan (and in response, I) was speaking a bit figuratively. Holland (= The Netherlands) is rather a wonderful little country, with one hell of a history (the painters you mention evince this). But, in essence, Holland is special because of its history and its people: we're a sort of Hobbiton, of sorts (even though we were a little Empire, once upon a time, which included countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, and that little section of the US now called New York...)

All of this is off topic, of course - but hope you're a little less confused, nevertheless...

Err.. are you?

 

[knivesout]

Ah yes Holland. Land of dikes, tulips, clogs, painters, merchant bankers and some very cool laws.

I don't know if I mentioned that my own library has crossed the 700 mark mark? My boss is contemplating directly crediting my salary to the various bookstores in town!

 

[Julian]

I don't know if I mentioned that my own library has crossed the 700 mark? My boss is contemplating directly crediting my salary to the various bookstores in town!

A milestone, surely!

But how do you know? How do you keep track (barring any (un)fortunate actions of your boss)?

Some of us use software programmes, but me, never got around to that, really...

 

[knivesout]

A milestone, surely!

But how do you know?

Thanks! I sat and counted them all because I'd picked up a lot of new books this month. I really should at least catalogue them in an Excel sheet soon...

 

[emohawk]

I really should at least catalogue them in an Excel sheet soon...

Book Collector is pretty good. Plug in the name of the book or ISBN and it downloads details from amazon or the like, including cover image if available. You can enter your own information or modify it as wanted as well.

 

[knivesout]

Thanks! I'm trying out the demo version right now.

 

[Julian]

Thanks! I'm trying out the demo version right now.

Let us know what you think, okay?

I know that a few other programmes (like Readerware) were mentioned on this board before, but I have to admit I lost track...

Book Collector is pretty good.

Emohawk, do you use this programme? Does it work with older (i.e. out of print) books, as long as you have the ISBN?

 

[Shanoncia]

Shan,

To turn things around just a wee bit:
Someday you pass through, it'd be lovely

(Sorry, I'm in a poetic mood... It'll vanish in a second or so.)

...

To be onest, I wish it wouldn't pass and that I might see more of it.

 

[Talvalin]

I don't know if I mentioned that my own library has crossed the 700 mark mark? My boss is contemplating directly crediting my salary to the various bookstores in town!

I know that feeling. I used to have a part-time job in a comic shop, and about a third of my wages would go back into buying comics. If I had worked in a book shop, it would have been a disaster!

 

[FicusFan]

On (of sorts):

The Low Countries (The Netherlands and Belgium, taken collectively) are hardly a perfect fantasy setting. The name alone implies this: these are essentially flat expanses of land, with hardly any interesting topographical features at all. Oh, and to help you along: if you pop over from the very south of England to the continent of Europe (you're heading straight East, here), first thing you'll find is Holland (aka The Netherlands). Go down south a bit, and the next country is Belgium.

Off (again, of sorts):

Shan (and in response, I) was speaking a bit figuratively. Holland (= The Netherlands) is rather a wonderful little country, with one hell of a history (the painters you mention evince this). But, in essence, Holland is special because of its history and its people: we're a sort of Hobbiton, of sorts (even though we were a little Empire, once upon a time, which included countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, and that little section of the US now called New York...)

All of this is off topic, of course - but hope you're a little less confused, nevertheless...

Err.. are you?

I know about New Amsterdam trust me. I am from the part of the country called New England which has 6 states and New York is not one of them, but the historically challenged see the 'new' and lump it in. Even major news organizations !!

And I know about the Spice Islands. Actually I made a mistake before, I do have an old book (from my mom's library) about the colonials on one of the spice islands and a rebellion. Can't remember the title or the author at the moment.

Edit: Silver Nutmeg by Norah Lofts, Published in 1947. Also I just realized that I have a book called Tulip Fever about the Tulip craze, may also have a non-fiction one too. I guess I have more books on the low countries than I thought.



The part that was tough was the Walloons (SP ?) that you mentioned earlier. I had heard there was a group of people who spoke a different language, but wasn't sure how they fit in ( so I was happily ignoring them - no offense to any from that group), but then you mentioned them.

 

[emohawk]

Emohawk, do you use this programme? Does it work with older (i.e. out of print) books, as long as you have the ISBN?

Yes, I use it. The online search for the books is only as good as the entries on the sites like amazon.com and, as you no doubt know, the information on those isn't always correct, let alone exhaustive. I find that it finds a hit for most of them, even a lot of the 50 year old paperbacks from secondhand bookstores it will get at least some information on. It depends on the level of detail you want stored for your books and the quality and consistency of the information. Basically I use it just to prefill the basic information and then fill the rest out/modify it to meet my needs. If you're just wanting it to find author and title though you'll probably get a 95% success rate. I was able to enter all my 430 odd SF&F books into it in a basic name/author form in a few hours. Takes a fair amount of time though if you want to add information like publication year, year of original publication, edition, pulisher, format, number of pages, what series it's part of if any, awards it may have won/been nominated for, cover image, etc. Depends on your dedication and spare time I guess

One of the good things about it is that it has several fields you can customise to suit your needs (I have a couple for awards for example) and you can also customise the way the information is presented (what fields, etc) if you're willing to play around with the XML a little, which isn't too hard. There's instructions/guidelines on the website or the helpfile or somewhere. It also has a "Loans" facility to help you manage who you've lent your books out to and for how long, etc., which is a nifty feature.

Definately worth a look if you're willing to spend a few hours playing around with it and customising it to present the information you want how you want it. Becomes a pretty simple process after that, especially if you keep up to date with it.

 

[Julian]

Definately worth a look if you're willing to spend a few hours playing around with it and customising it to present the information you want how you want it. Becomes a pretty simple process after that, especially if you keep up to date with it.

Thanks, Emohawk... Playing around with the demo version as we speak.

First thoughts? Well, it seems to do most things I'd like. Doesn't quite feel all that great though. For example, if I try and enter an out of print book I bought a few years ago from Amazon, I'm stumped. Which is basically what you said, didn"t you?

Hmm, I'll have to see...

Anyway, thanks for the comments!

 

[Egomancer]

Well,

I have around 400 sf/f books (I think) but my shelves store around 2000 (most of them are my parents' books). And yes I have read almost all of them .

Lately I found a good resource: #bookz on irc. I downloaded more than 1GB of books and basically I have ALL the SF&F books that have ever been published. The only problem is that after I read around ~100 books in half an year my eyes started blurring so I will give up reading on my laptop and I will buy paper books.

Egomancer

 

[DrBloodmoney1]

Countdown to egomancer's post being deleted 3, 2, 1...

There are a few IRCers running around these forums. Due to the illegality of downloading copyrighted books (not to mention the fact that there are authors who post here) posting about where to get them is probably frowned upon.

 

[Egomancer]

Even if I have the books in txt format I DO NOT reccomend to read them on the computer. This is for a simple reason: they destroy your eyes. ANd believe me that they worth more than 20$ you spend on a book.

But there are people that do not live in UK/US/Canada and that want to read the books and can not buy them (the problems are not financial but rather technical). I am from Romania and Amazon.com does not send items in ROmania so I need to find someone to buy the book for me and send them here .

I am working in the software bussiness and I have the same problem with the intellectual property (from the opposite point of view) and this kind of thing will exist all the time. So if you want to get blind...just steal the texts and read them on the computer . It is cheaper to buy them than to get them printed at home, so it is better just to buy the book (this is why the copyright and the online texts are not such a big problems for the editors).

Egomancer

 

[Shanoncia]

I myself frown upon even paid for e-books. People always challenge that, and I think it's ridiculous that they would. NO e-books do NOT bring books to new audiances, NO e-books are NOT protecting litterature, and NO e-books are NOT practical. The written word is sacred, and there is little I wouldn't do to protect it from our endless modern bullsh!t. Computers have their place and purpose and it certainly isn't with books. And gah if any of you jump down my throat, I'm just not going to respond. This is a forum for open discussion and different opinions. Diplomacy works quite nicely.