Maybe we need a book group thread with book suggestions ... or a "what are you reading now?" list (I just finished Henna House by Nomi Eve and just started Ordinary Grace by Willian Kent Krueger, and I also have been reading short stories - The Unamericans by Molly Antopol).

I don't reread often, but I do like to keep books to be reminded of the ones I've loved, and to have them on hand to lend to family and friends if I think they were that fabulous.

heck i should have kept them just to remember them all. i read 5 + week til my cancer. now 1 if i am lucky.

havingfun that is what I love about my nook - I can look up what I've read easily! Even if it's a borrowed e-book from the library that has expired, the title still shows on my device. Sorry about your cancer, I know chemo and illness in general can do a number on concentration.

susan, it seems like we ARE having a book group thread ;-) What fun!

less, I borrowed Margeret Atwood's 'The Blind Assassin' from a friend today, looking forward to reading it.

I'm going to have to check out some of these authors and titles!

I re-read a LOT of my fiction books (mostly Science Fiction). I started to list all the series that I've read more than 4 times, but even that was a long list. If I had to pick one series, probably David Brin's Uplift novels are my favorites. In fact, I've enjoyed almost anything he's written OTHER than The Postman.

I'm not so much a sci fi girl, but I did love Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God.

David Brin is in my bookcase, but those books are my husband's. I like to read historical fiction and fantasy, but also more serious literature. This year's favourite so far is probably Jonathan Franzen's "Purity".

edit: I was also blown away by Kate Atkinson's 'Life after Life'. drdeb, I saw K.A. in your bookcase!

Oh babophz, you're a KA fan too?? She's my favourite author. I'm currently (very slowly somehow, lots of distractions) reading "A God in Ruins". She writes sublimely.

Atwood is a wonderful anomaly. Her more noted novels combine sci-fi-esque (she doesn't consider her writing true sci-fi) with literary fiction. Loved Oryx and Crake, but what I've scored are some way less sci-fi, lesser known goodies (Edible Woman, Surfacing ...). Anne Patchet comes to mind. Sue Miller, Love Alice Munroe ... yes, we could go on and on.

I'm crushing hard on Jonathan Frazier. So now I have to search out some others!!!

love that this has turned into a book thread:)

A couple of my favorite authors / books - Cormac McCarthy (The Road was a gorgeous book), Stephen King (started reading him as a young teenager, but more recently really enjoyed Under the Dome), and also Wally Lamb (She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True).

Having, I did my MA dissertation on Tolkien -- LoR. I still have all the books from doing that in the '70s.-- going back to Beowulf and Gilgamesh. Yes, a bit of a shrine. Among recent favourites, Alice Hoffman's The Red Garden. I like crime fiction, have only just started exploring Minette Walters. I read a lot of non-fiction. But all the latter from the library, the budget doesn't allow for book buying any more. Lousy memory makes it hard to list many recent favourites. I keep promising myself a decent booklist but never get around ot it.

PS Douglas Adams -- few people have made me laugh as he did. Heaven bless him. He was the man who said he loved deadlines. "I love the whistling sound they make as they go by."

Spike Milligan did it too with Puckoon, I must say. I read the whole (quite short) book aloud to hubby (before we were actually married, but we were shacked up in a one-room apartment in central Joburg, so it could go long into the night). I also read him Tolkien's story "Leaf" out loud. He thought I was screwy until I read that -- he was no reader -- and then he said yes, he got it. He never did get the need to do a whole durn degree on the subject, though.

I inherited a whole D Adams collection in one volume from a beloved friend. The print is so small I can only tackle it with a magnifying glass. Whimper.

My gas heater is running out of gas. Falls back, clutches throat. It's winter here, you understand.

A dark color is a great idea. It would balance the room to have all of the shelves be a dark color, while the walls are white. I would also recommend maybe a salmon colored rug. I think it would complement your blue chairs well.

By the way, very cute home!

Ja, I'm fine. Wearing my woolly gown (ummm, robe) over my winter clothes.

Oh, I like the idea of salmon. If you don't want a rug, in some other way. There's a lot of salmonish colour in the bookcase.

ok so when we go to the dark side can we continue a patch of darkest blue on the ceiling and put a few stars up there? i know, 59 and can still harbor those childish dreams.

darn i have to go. but real quik, non fiction douglas adams last chance to see- nothing like the show. funniest serious non fic ever.

koontz' newest series, odd thomas, no more true horror of old. good for me. can no longer enjoy king since hospital experience - true king becomes real stuff.

most amazing recent book - the art thief. aaron somebody red cover. to top it off author knows he is all that and acts it! only book i ever read where i could not explain the end! i got it, but trying to explain it? a whole nother can of worms.

great stories for couples to read aloud, oh geesh, original author of ali baba and 40 thieves, must get adult version. stupid stupid brain.

Wow, what a wealth of book knowledge in this thread! Wonderful, people!

emily, susan, Lynne, havingfun: thanks for sharing these names and titles. I feel like stryker, I have to check them out :)

Rina, Tolkien is one of my all time favourites, must have been fun to write your thesis about his work and to read all his inspirational works.

less, try David Mitchell. Talking about anomalies... Also very weird and very good: Eleanor Catton's 'The Luminaries'.

creative6938, thank your for your encouragement. I am still very much in doubt. :)

My favorite thing about Douglas Adams was his anti-similes "The Vogon constructor fleet hung in the air just in the same way that bricks don't"

Tells you nothing about how they hung in the air, really.
Also his "The Nutri-matic machine dispensed a beverage that was almost, but not entirely, unlike tea"

Favorite fantasy collection - David and Leigh Eddings -- the 5 books of the Belgariad and the 5 books of the Malloreon. I wanted one of the second series as a birthday orChristmas present & my dad was charged with shopping duty. He recounted his discomfort at having to ask whether the store had "Demon Lord of Karanda" in stock.

Lynne, funny story! And funny Douglas Adams. Who is also in our collection, but again, my husband's :)

I guess the beverage was a little bit like tea?

ok now you see purem, here you have to go and toss something else in, if i were wanting something i would want to imagine being, it would be

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well not sitting on the toilet but....

When I grow up, I want your bookshelves.
Whether you paint them or not, they're art because of every book placed in them. Fabulous! Plus...shamelessly jealous!

susan, i do not wish to go deep but as most know, pretty rough as a kid. books were my thing. i tried the nook, but it did not have teddy bear security blanket feel and smell i think. you know been trying to think of what it was and that is it. it does not want to be held the same, no caressing or smoothing, does not hold tears well either, it just is not the same,, though it seems convenient. one thing i don't know if i can do or who to give to. you can no longer find the minor classics,like water babies at the library. nor the classic scifi writers, nor the stories from other countries. the raven tales from the one tribe. i read stories from around the world. people like us, we should start a library museum of these classics they keep tossing. and you know there D. Adams nor anyone else will ever become classic cause they don't sit long enough. they are gone in a few years. only the ivory towers choose the classics some deserve it, some? not so much.

lademers, your comment only just showed up. I dust my books one shelf at the time. In our previous house it collected a lot more dust than in this house, so I don't have to do it very often.

havingfun, I believe Douglas Adams is considered a classic. Also I have noted that a lot of fantasy is studied in the humanities departments of contemporary universities. The ivory towers are not stuck in the past per se. :)

Boyce Lumber, thank you for your nice comment!

puremichigan, thank you for your input. I have to say, muted orange is really not my colour. Nor is salmon, which was mentioned by others. Sorry! ;-)

nmp19, I've only now discovered your comment from Monday! It wasn't there on Monday, of that I'm sure. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to share your insights. I will weed out my books, but, I will keep most of them because they will be read again. My daughter is 14 and a voracious reader, she's into Young Adult at the moment, but in just a few years she will attack her parents' library, no doubt. :)

blenheim, painting the opposite wall dark is something I hadn't thought of! It's a very good idea, though scary: that wall is much wider and more open to the rest of the floor, so it would have much more impact. I will consider it, though, as it would solve issues with scale and balance. Thanks! :)

I painted my bedroom Valspar's Urban Pulse - deep charcoal that looks brown and sometimes almost purple. Love it! I did it as a background for art; would work equally well for books. Go to the dark side - all over! It will be warm and intimate and library feeling!

Havingfun; I still have my "Journey's Through Bookland." Probably the most beautiful books I own. And remember "Tom, the Water Baby" and the wonderful illustrations well.

i can not wait to see it babo

white is likely to reflect light more effectively.

Hi Karen! Nice to see you here :) The bookcase hasn't been painted yet - my painter is very popular - but I have decided against going dark. I wanted to be sure of the effect, so I bought some brown/black wrapping paper and stuck it on the side panels and top shelves. It was oppressive! So it'll be lighter, not quite certain what shade it's going to be though.

Happy New Year, everybody!!!

Hi Babophz. Nice to see you again. Please post when you have it painted.

This was such a lovely thread.

Thanks Rina! The notification came in and I was wondering who was awake at this time of the day, but of course you and I are roughly in the same time zone. I will post pics when the painting is done. It will be next year, I'm afraid ;-)

Good choice not going dark on the bookcases. :) Happy New Year Babophz !

Hi Mark, thanks! 2016 hasn't been easy, but let us not give up hope. Cheers!

I've laid in a decadent dinner and hope to see a comet tonight, hopefully, ringing in a better year from the comforts of home. I've just finished the Napoliatano Novels from Elena Ferrante. What a different read that was but very absorbing.

Love a home filled with books! I especially like the black bookcases. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Babophz!