Just some notes on my progress so far. Starting with a few numbers (I like math, so sue me), I have recorded 1508 books, of which 1319 are fiction, 1143 are science fiction, 698 are fantasy, and 56 are history. My best estimate is that I am half done, and the second half will be more work.
- Despite my infinite spare time, fooling around with Librarything has monopolised my other extracurricular activities (cycling, reading, taking pictures, sleeping).
- I'm almost finished with my SF&F. Using the rest of the members as (hopefully) a representative statistical universe for reading geeks, I have reached the following operating hypotheses:
- I have a fair number of Science Fiction books. This is based on the fact that there is one other person in the group with more books tagged "science fiction". Given that about half my books were destroyed by another's neglect, it is possible that I have more science fiction books than most science fiction geeks.
- Regarding fantasy books, I am more mediocre, being in tenth position.
- In my collection so far there are 72 books that no other member has. While not surprised in general, there were some books that I thought would have been more popular. Here are some of the more obvious examples.
- Machiavelli's The Prince. No one wants to be a ruthless leader any more?
- The Corvette Navy, by Lamb. In the 80's it was fairly popular in Canada.
- My childhood collection of Lord of the Rings. I'm surprised that any version of these books is not represented on the site (whoops, I guess it is now).
- Ann and Seamus by Kevin Major. Fairly popular and new in Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces.
- There were also a few science fiction novels that surprised me a little, but less so than the above.
- The routine of looking at all my old fictional friends makes me feel like Smaug checking out his hoard. While I have been filing I've also been putting aside old favourites for re-reading. I've kept the list to less than a hundred, I think.
- Some of my old friends are aging badly. I'll probably replace some of the best ones, but there are too many good books out there, and re-reading too much is a waste of lifespan.
- In many cases the book covers in Librarything don't match my older books, which is totally understandable. To compensate I have contributed more than 400 covers to the site.
Now to pick another subject to file. Let's see, fantasy and science fiction art books, Irish and Celtic folklore and art, history books, my problem solving books, general fiction, knots, …
I love that you call them your “old friends”. 🙂 That’s the way I feel about books.
Thanks. Some of them are family, including Bridge of Birds, LOTR, Dune, and a few others.
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100%, but that’s just my opinion, which indeed could be wrong.
p.s. You have a very good template . Where did you find it?