Bookcase of Shame

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I have now reached the Matt Smith episodes of Doctor Who so I went to the local shop in the search of fish fingers. I didn’t see any so I asked the shop lady just in case I had overlooked them. She looked at me like she was wondering if I was really seriously asking for fish fingers. Apparently most people stop eating those after the age of 10 or so. I was never most people. I did how ever have to make do with the grown up side of a haddock thing.

Amazon was very close to going back to the boycott list. I love books and I very much like a good bargain on books so for a long time Amazon was my main dealer for books. Books here in Denmark can be very expensive. It’s gotten better but still not compeatable with Amazon or Bookdepository prices. Danish books cost about 40£ for a brand new hardback and about 30£ for a paperback. After a while they do go down in price and if you’re lucky you may find an old book in a supermarket for 10 or 8£. Now English books tend to be a bit cheaper.

But one of the things that made Amazon my main dealer was that they used to have free shipping to Denmark if you used over 25£. I usually ended up buying more to hit the free shipping so in my mind it was a bit of a win win for the both of us. But then one day they said no more free shipping and I said fine! No more buying from you. Well most of the time. I have been loosening my no buying band against them though. I mean if America can loosen up against Cuba then surely I could forgive a bit of shipping.

But my point with this was that during the times I have bought quite a lot of cheap books. I have a very long wish list and every once in a while I’ll go in and order a big stack. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had some years of absolutely no concentration. I had trouble just watching a film in one go. So I have collected quite a few books that I still haven’t gotten round to reading. And as there was still coming out new and shiny books it was getting a bit much. So last year I made my first new years resolution; read more books than I buy. I did pretty good last year. I read 25 books in total. This year has been a bit slow so far. I’ve only read about 4 so far.

So I’ve mentioned to some before about my bookcase of shame. It is my bookcase filled with the books I still haven’t read. I am slowly making my way through it. And yes, I know it’s probably a lot of books for some people. But I regret nothing! Well perhaps some of the classics. I must have been very optimistic when buying Moby Dick, Shakespeare and that Alan Greenspan one.

Enough talk here it is in all it’s glory

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47 thoughts on “Bookcase of Shame”

  1. My bookshelves are full of books I am going to read again, some of which I already have, several times. I give away the rest of them. English books don’t come all that cheap in France, so this works well for the hard core readers.

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    • I once had a boyfriend who told me that I had way too many books so I went through the process of going through my books and trying to find out who should leave the island. I think I found 4. One was a book I didn’t like one bit, two was English lit books I’d once found in a second hand shop and the last was book 4 or 8 in a series of speaches by Lenin. Bf wasn’t all that impressed but I felt like I’d accomplished big things.
      My mum and I have a motto saying that first we buy books and cds and if there’s any money left we will buy unimportant things like food and clothes.

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  3. I’m glad your bookshelf is as untidy as mine, though to to be fair, my bookshelf doesn’t just hold books. It has a couple of stuffed toys, several miniature pieces of china, a sweet tin (empty) and a ceramic pot for odds and sods (full). I keep meaning to buy another bookshelf and decant some, so my place will look a tad more tidy, but you know what it’s like…

    Best intentions and all that :o)

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    • This sounds like my bookshelves. I’ve got five, all cluttered with ornaments and books lying on their sides on top of upright books. And waiting to be read books up the staircase, plus other repositories. A lot of books in case I ever run out. I must have over a thousand now. But the place still doesn’t look tidy.
      More book shelves. Must buy more books.

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    • Oi you – It usually has a few stuffed toys and some decorations but I moved them for the pictures. My dream is to have a wall filled which shelves to keep all my books. I have sent Leggy a reference photo so he knows what to make in the future.
      And I will say that there is a system to the books although it may not seem like it.

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  4. My old Dad died in May. In his house he had a library room about 20 x 20 feet, nice big fireplace etc. Two walls were floor to ceiling bookcases crammed with books, with piles still not added to his catalogue and without his “Ex Libris” stickers on them. Well over a 1000. I sorted them out – most of them had clearly never been leafed through, let alone read. We all have good intentions………….

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    • I’m sorry for your loss. Sounds like an awesome room. I have bought a few of my books used so maybe if I die before reading all my books people will think that I was the one reading them.

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  5. I have now reached the Matt Smith episodes of Doctor Who so I went to the local shop in the search of fish fingers.

    Yes, that’s logical. I reached the Matt Smith episodes and that also brought on a bout of shopgoing.

    Also, I notice Alan Greespan on one shelf. Hmmmm.

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  6. My grannie spent the last few years of her 92 making sure that everyone around her was as miserable as she was. I bought my mother a book for Christmas one year; when she told grannie, the sweet old thing demanded loudly ” What do you want a book for? You’ve got a book!”

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  7. The one thing I regret about the Internet is that I hardly ever find time to read a book. I was a great reader and have shelves just like yours. I used to get through four or five books a week but couldn’t tell you the last time I read one, on the flight to Canada I think. I still buy a few but never seem to get round to reading them because I spend so much time reading on the net. Changing times I guess.

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    • Wow! You’re a fast reader! I have wondered if I should start modernise my reading and try out one of those Kindles. My geeky side is thrilled but my book loving side is more traditional.
      My mum is a librarian and I always had books. Even as a child I had a ton of books. So suddenly having my books in a tiny machine feels a bit strange. I know it’s silly and I may like it since I do already read quite a bit on the internet as you mentioned that you also do. I’ll have to commandeer Leggy’s Kindle and see how I like it.

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      • One of the (very few) silver linings to the cloud which was my employers’ reaction to the smoking ban (i.e. to ban smoking everywhere – outside as well as inside), has been that I have rediscovered my long-lost love of reading a good novel. There is actually a small library just a couple of doors down from where I work, so when I was obliged to “reorganise” my lunchtime routine (I now leave the premises and no longer patronise the staff canteen), I started borrowing books from there to read during my lunchbreak, and I re-discovered the joy of a “bloody good read.” I used to be a voracious reader but, like Cherie, I now read so much on the internet that I sort of got out of the habit.

        But – disaster! – last month I heard that the little library that I frequent is to be “relocated” some distance away and although in theory I could probably still go to the new location and borrow books, I suspect that I’ll be too lazy to do so. I really don’t want to start buying fiction. I used to, but I’m not a great one for re-reading a novel once I know how it ends, no matter how good it was, and so in my home, once read, fiction tends to just get ignored and gather dust for the next 20 years, so borrowing them is a much better choice for me. So, it looks like I, too, might have to invest in a Kindle or some such device, although, like you, CSM, I’m not sure that I’ll really “take” to it in a big way. We’ll see.

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  9. Dunno the details of their shipping policies to Denmark, but thriftbooks.com has some very good prices — particularly if you’re buying during their “10 books at $3/book” specials. If you bought twenty or thirty I’d guess it would more than cover the shipping anywhere!

    :>
    MJM

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  11. Last count I had 4,000 books. A lot of them text books, so you don’t really READ them, you use them for what you want and put them back on the shelf. “Reading” books are around the 1,500 to 2,000 mark.

    Probably 500 of them still waiting to be read.

    But the bastards keep publishing MORE! It is worse than heroin addiction!!! (Never tried that, but have seen and worked with many who have.)

    Amazon. Another case of them pulling numbers out of a hat, a bit like the “21 unit a day” lobby.) Here the limit is €25 before you get free postage. There 25 quid, I wonder if it is also $25 in Canada, Oz, U.S.A?

    ALSO, whilst we are discussing Amazon.

    My account is in my name. I pay through my Wifes bank, and her name (She did not change it on getting married.)

    Now, if the bank account details are “secret,” how come I keep getting adverts from Amazon addressed to my WIFE!? The details of the account with Amazon, and bank details are meant to be kept strictly seperate.

    BOLLOX they are!

    THEN, your Amazon acc number is printed on the address label!

    What was that shite about “Account seurity” they keep on about?

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