What does your bookshelf say about you?

[belamyi]

My shelves say I'm living in a fast paced digital world where even most web pages/articles are already out of date.

I have a few history books written by or about my ancestors

The Arachnids?

 

[belamyi]

It says a family lives here. Everyone has books because we are readers. When our son was about 4, he had a friend over and he showed her a bookshelf with his books on them. "These are my books", he said. She said "Oh!" a pause, then "Can you read?". He told her he could so they sat down on the floor with one of his books and because we had read them to him so many times, he repeated the story while pointing to the pictures. She was impressed.

Impressed by being able to read at four, in their mother language? when, where was that? how old and prevalent that habit of leaving six year-olds analphabet?

 

[belamyi]

Supreme nihilist.

You mean you have no Nietzsche there at all, or that you have his complete works?

 

[belamyi]

My flat is full of wall-to-wall bookshelves in most rooms.
They are crammed with non-fiction books on many subjects.
They probably say, 'This guy has too many books'.

'Too many' for what?

 

[dpnice]

I no longer have any bookshelves. After reading a novel I now give it away for someone else to enjoy. I also use my Kindle quite a lot. I do have a few coffee table books on gardens and places I have visited.

 

[HoodedRat]

'Too many' for what?

Too many to fit on the bookshelves. There are stacks of books on the floor, as well as on my table and desk.

 

[belamyi]

Too many to fit on the bookshelves. There are stacks of books on the floor, as well as on my table and desk.

So?

 

[sixthson]

Impressed by being able to read at four, in their mother language? when, where was that? how old and prevalent that habit of leaving six year-olds analphabet?

No, he couldn't read. In his 4 year old mind he was reading because he recognized some words and he knew the story. That, to him, was reading. Sorry for being unclear about that.

 

[sixthson]

Too many to fit on the bookshelves. There are stacks of books on the floor, as well as on my table and desk.

Does it drive you crazy or are you okay with it?

Books seem too hard to give away because we have such affection for each one. Any one we don't, we should give away.

 

[rareboy]

So?

All of this and without the attempt at organization. Somehow it just gets away form one.

 

[unloadonme]

Books seem too hard to give away because we have such affection for each one. Any one we don't, we should give away.

I never give books away, I just accumulate more and more.

 

[belamyi]

No, he couldn't read. In his 4 year old mind he was reading because he recognized some words and he knew the story. That, to him, was reading. Sorry for being unclear about that.

No, sorry for ME being unclear about that, because you were perfectly clear: my point was how long ago started the currently prevalent trend of not having a child start learning to read until reaching the age of being ready to accept the Holy Ghost
Four is a good age to start learning reading (we did so in kindergarten, and my parents had taught me at home one year before, when we were starting to learn writing in what one might call pre-kindergarten).

 

[belamyi]

All of this and without the attempt at organization. Somehow it just gets away form one.

Well, the pics didn't seem to show any attempt at organization either, only sad attempts at home decoration, but with the books stacked on the floor, or over tables, just like you say they are at your home.

 

[teddy]

La bibliothèque dirait sûrement : on mange quoi en dessert ou quel temps fera t'il demain .

 

[Alistair]

All of this and without the attempt at organization. Somehow it just gets away form one.

If books are stacked they're never read.

Whenever I accumulate a mass of books that they're taking over the house I box them up and take them to the high school i graduated from. I've donated thousands of them.

 

[belamyi]

La bibliothèque dirait sûrement : on mange quoi en dessert ou quel temps fera t'il demain .

"fera-t-il": my English is broken, by French just a bit less

 

[belamyi]

If books are stacked they're never read.

Whenever I accumulate a mass of books that they're taking over the house I box them up and take them to the high school i graduated from. I've donated thousands of them.

So we can safely assume that if books are boxed up, they're never pulped down... not in the USA. Very much unlike in Spain.

 

[Alistair]

So we can safely assume that if books are boxed up, they're never pulped down... not in the USA. Very much unlike in Spain.

Well they don't stay in the boxes the high school puts them out on the shelves of the library

The librarian is the same one that was there when I went there, she's very appreciative of the donations. They don't get much of a budget to buy fiction books.

 

[belamyi]

Well they don't stay in the boxes the high school puts them out on the shelves of the library

Damn, you truly live in a Third World area, if people are so desperately in need of whatever books they will throw to them

Here they would throw away whole libraries... no, the "would" not, they do throw them away: no room, no interest... luckily, these places give many of them a second chance...

I only donate to libraries what I know they are in need of, not just the redneck leftovers of a pulp feast

 

[LeicsDom]

No, he couldn't read. In his 4 year old mind he was reading because he recognized some words and he knew the story. That, to him, was reading.

And that is exactly how most of us started to read