Charts for Book Nerds
April 23, 2016 3:46 PM Subscribe
Many, many book nerds are perfectly fine with you dog-earing the pages of their books and even never returning them.
I love books, but it's the words in them that matter to me, not the physical objects.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:30 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
I love books, but it's the words in them that matter to me, not the physical objects.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:30 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
I'm fine with you dogearing my mass market paperbacks. Try to dogear my hardcovers and we'll see if bloodstains come out of paper.
posted by Justinian at 4:45 PM on April 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 4:45 PM on April 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
feel free to dogear my epubs
posted by indubitable at 4:54 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 4:54 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
I'll get my pliers.
posted by drezdn at 4:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 4:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
Hi, my name is fairmettle... and I'm a biblioholic.
posted by fairmettle at 5:06 PM on April 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by fairmettle at 5:06 PM on April 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah. I am absolutely addicted to books. I worship them. and I am an unpententant page-folder (as bookmarker), and frequently use the inside back cover of books I am reading to jot down notes that occur to me while I am reading them. I loan out books with an expectation I will never get them back.
But other than that one weird materialist chart, the rest more or less describe me.
posted by 256 at 5:24 PM on April 23, 2016
But other than that one weird materialist chart, the rest more or less describe me.
posted by 256 at 5:24 PM on April 23, 2016
They left out "bought a house to accomodate the books."
posted by thomas j wise at 5:26 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by thomas j wise at 5:26 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
I kind of feel like this is the I Fucking Love Science of bibliophilia.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:37 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:37 PM on April 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
You know you're a bibliophile when your brother gives you an etched copper bookmark with a quote from a book on it, and the quote is also about books.
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
I assume you all recognize the quote because if not you're dead to me.
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Justinian at 5:57 PM on April 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
lol I'm not illiterate I'm such a nerd!
posted by cmoj at 5:58 PM on April 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by cmoj at 5:58 PM on April 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
These are neat? I guess? In that someone made effort and put something that I can kind of identify with on the web. That said, the older I get, the less I identify with books being cool for their own sake. This may be a function of hyperabundance, both of texts of any sort (Kindle, magazines, www, &c.) and of actual books--books, which are harder and harder to unload at used bookstores or even Goodwill because of that same hyperabundance. I live in a small place, our home library has something close to a book-in, book-out policy.
I love to read, I can't not read, but I guess I don't care as much about the substrate as I used to.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 6:25 PM on April 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I love to read, I can't not read, but I guess I don't care as much about the substrate as I used to.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 6:25 PM on April 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Justinian, where in the seven hells was that bookmark procured from?
posted by Ber at 6:26 PM on April 23, 2016
posted by Ber at 6:26 PM on April 23, 2016
I used to know someone who very nearly destroyed a house with excessive bookshelf placement. The first story was well over its load limit. Steps were taken, none of which included getting rid of books.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:26 PM on April 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:26 PM on April 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
I used to know someone who very nearly destroyed a house with excessive bookshelf placement.
There's a reason why my library is on the ground floor. On a concrete slab. With no basement underneath.
The last time I went house-hunting, I looked at a late-Victorian house that had no real bookcase space on the ground floor. "Oh, you can put them on the second floor," said the seller. Hahaha no.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:50 PM on April 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
There's a reason why my library is on the ground floor. On a concrete slab. With no basement underneath.
The last time I went house-hunting, I looked at a late-Victorian house that had no real bookcase space on the ground floor. "Oh, you can put them on the second floor," said the seller. Hahaha no.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:50 PM on April 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
Justinian, where in the seven hells was that bookmark procured from?
It was a Christmas gift so I don't know, though I think it was custom from overheard comments. Somewhere in San Francisco is the best I can do without asking but I can probably find out.
posted by Justinian at 7:06 PM on April 23, 2016
It was a Christmas gift so I don't know, though I think it was custom from overheard comments. Somewhere in San Francisco is the best I can do without asking but I can probably find out.
posted by Justinian at 7:06 PM on April 23, 2016
I am not okay with dog-earing, but I take exception to the other part of that chart, wherein lending books is done only begrudgingly, for 24-hour periods. Much of the point of buying books is being able to lend them out!
posted by Shmuel510 at 7:07 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by Shmuel510 at 7:07 PM on April 23, 2016 [9 favorites]
You know you're a bibliophile when your brother gives you an etched copper bookmark with a quote from a book on it, and the quote is also about books.
I assume you all recognize the quote because if not you're dead to me.
I don't, and the copper may be etched in some sense, but I'd say the quote is stamped rather than etched -- stamped beautifully, by hand, with single-letter stamps.
posted by jamjam at 7:09 PM on April 23, 2016
I assume you all recognize the quote because if not you're dead to me.
I don't, and the copper may be etched in some sense, but I'd say the quote is stamped rather than etched -- stamped beautifully, by hand, with single-letter stamps.
posted by jamjam at 7:09 PM on April 23, 2016
I have somehow ended up surrounded by non-readers I don't know why, but anyway I never have to loan out my books so it works for me.
posted by emjaybee at 7:11 PM on April 23, 2016
posted by emjaybee at 7:11 PM on April 23, 2016
google tells me the quote is from George Martin Fire & Ice thingie which I have never even thought of reading. Really Justinian? That is the hill you want to kill on?
posted by bukvich at 7:12 PM on April 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by bukvich at 7:12 PM on April 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
I don't recognize the quote, but I do recognize the book it's being used on, do I win?
posted by tau_ceti at 7:15 PM on April 23, 2016
posted by tau_ceti at 7:15 PM on April 23, 2016
Really Justinian? That is the hill you want to kill on?
Books bring out my bloodlust.
tau_ceti: good enough! Did you read it yet?
posted by Justinian at 7:18 PM on April 23, 2016
Books bring out my bloodlust.
tau_ceti: good enough! Did you read it yet?
posted by Justinian at 7:18 PM on April 23, 2016
That said, the older I get, the less I identify with books being cool for their own sake. This may be a function of hyperabundance, both of texts of any sort (Kindle, magazines, www, &c.) and of actual books--books, which are harder and harder to unload at used bookstores or even Goodwill because of that same hyperabundance. I live in a small place, our home library has something close to a book-in, book-out policy.
That's pretty much how I feel. If you borrow a book* from me, it's yours! Forever!
*Does not apply to first editions, signed copies, or the Brideshead Revisited with the ugly cover.
posted by betweenthebars at 10:43 PM on April 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
That's pretty much how I feel. If you borrow a book* from me, it's yours! Forever!
*Does not apply to first editions, signed copies, or the Brideshead Revisited with the ugly cover.
posted by betweenthebars at 10:43 PM on April 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
> I used to know someone who very nearly destroyed a house with excessive bookshelf placement. The first story was well over its load limit.
The first alteration we made in this house when we moved in was to have a jack put in the cellar to hold up the floor where I was about to put in four bookcases back to back (not to mention an iron filing cabinet) to hold as many as possible of the thousands of books I wanted around me. I now work (and spend most of my day) in a space as much like a library carrel as I can manage, and it makes me very happy.
And yes, I love my Kindle, and it's cut down on the unsustainable influx of new books to add to the groaning shelves, but 1) there's lots of stuff not available electronically, and 2) I still like physical books, especially poetry and reference books. Also, I can't remember a time when I was reading fewer than half a dozen books at once.
posted by languagehat at 8:22 AM on April 24, 2016 [5 favorites]
The first alteration we made in this house when we moved in was to have a jack put in the cellar to hold up the floor where I was about to put in four bookcases back to back (not to mention an iron filing cabinet) to hold as many as possible of the thousands of books I wanted around me. I now work (and spend most of my day) in a space as much like a library carrel as I can manage, and it makes me very happy.
And yes, I love my Kindle, and it's cut down on the unsustainable influx of new books to add to the groaning shelves, but 1) there's lots of stuff not available electronically, and 2) I still like physical books, especially poetry and reference books. Also, I can't remember a time when I was reading fewer than half a dozen books at once.
posted by languagehat at 8:22 AM on April 24, 2016 [5 favorites]
Yup, I love books including as physical objects, but ebooks are wonderful. There's still an allure to a leather bound hardcover with watered silk endpapers, acid free paper, and gilt edges. But for just reading rather than coveting I prefer ebooks. If only they still weren't priced to make me feel like a sucker for buying them.
No, Amazon, priced higher than a paperback is not the right price for an ebook.
Plus, of course, the pain in the ass of either liberating or pirating every ebook I buy. I refuse to let my book purchases be potentially held hostage or even undone by the bookseller.
posted by sotonohito at 9:04 AM on April 24, 2016
No, Amazon, priced higher than a paperback is not the right price for an ebook.
Plus, of course, the pain in the ass of either liberating or pirating every ebook I buy. I refuse to let my book purchases be potentially held hostage or even undone by the bookseller.
posted by sotonohito at 9:04 AM on April 24, 2016
I still like physical books, especially poetry and reference books.
I thought I was being so clever by buying a huge programming language reference as an ebook. "Ha, instead of hauling this huge damn thing between the office and home all the time, I'll just put it on whatever reader I have with me!" Unfortunately, ebook UX sucks. You'd think that ebooks would have the ToC directly encoded in the format so the reader could present its own navigation UI, but no, publishers can't be bothered with that. Instead, I found myself having to dig through their halfassed ToC encoding to dig out the typeset ToC any time I wanted to get anywhere.
In contrast, I had a physical reference book for another language I was working with at the time; whenever I wanted to look something up, I just picked it up, flipped to the well-worn pages that I usually visited, recognized the layout and could skim to the right place.
I guess ebooks are alright for material that is supposed to read linearly, but it seems like an awful waste of their potential.
posted by indubitable at 9:24 AM on April 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
I thought I was being so clever by buying a huge programming language reference as an ebook. "Ha, instead of hauling this huge damn thing between the office and home all the time, I'll just put it on whatever reader I have with me!" Unfortunately, ebook UX sucks. You'd think that ebooks would have the ToC directly encoded in the format so the reader could present its own navigation UI, but no, publishers can't be bothered with that. Instead, I found myself having to dig through their halfassed ToC encoding to dig out the typeset ToC any time I wanted to get anywhere.
In contrast, I had a physical reference book for another language I was working with at the time; whenever I wanted to look something up, I just picked it up, flipped to the well-worn pages that I usually visited, recognized the layout and could skim to the right place.
I guess ebooks are alright for material that is supposed to read linearly, but it seems like an awful waste of their potential.
posted by indubitable at 9:24 AM on April 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
I do buy ebooks regularly, but from the point of view of making my academic $ go further, they're rarely the best deal--it's often noticeably less expensive to pick up a secondhand academic monograph than it is to buy an electronic copy. Moreover, publishers can be really antsy about loc. cit., so it's a gamble whether or not you can actually cite your ebook, depending on if it has page #s. This produces, um, frustration.
posted by thomas j wise at 9:52 AM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by thomas j wise at 9:52 AM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
You'd think that ebooks would have the ToC directly encoded in the format
It absolutely does.
posted by nev at 2:09 PM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
It absolutely does.
posted by nev at 2:09 PM on April 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah sorry, it's been a while since I got frustrated with it and gave up. I just revisited the problem: it's one of those titles with several levels of subsections under each chapter — the Kindle app deals with it by only listing chapters in the in-app ToC, while my Kobo deals with it by listing out every single entry in like over a hundred pages of ToC that has to be swiped through. Neither one has apparently heard of collapsing trees. So I amend my complaint: lots of eReader software sucks.
posted by indubitable at 2:37 PM on April 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 2:37 PM on April 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's not "one more page"; it's "one more chapter".
Also, opening the trunk of my car reveals my evidence of bibliophilia - it's where I keep all the books I can't fit in my house, until I can sneak them in without my wife realising I've bought more books.
posted by robotot at 5:08 PM on April 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, opening the trunk of my car reveals my evidence of bibliophilia - it's where I keep all the books I can't fit in my house, until I can sneak them in without my wife realising I've bought more books.
posted by robotot at 5:08 PM on April 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
No pie chart for '% Weight of All Belongings when Moving House', which in my case would be 75-80% books and then just 'I don't know, this other stuff in the two other boxes I guess'.
I married a fellow bibliophile and that just made it worse. Our bookshelves are three deep.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:21 AM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I married a fellow bibliophile and that just made it worse. Our bookshelves are three deep.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:21 AM on April 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
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Going broke
Going to the library
posted by njohnson23 at 3:54 PM on April 23, 2016 [1 favorite]