What’s the most popular book in your [Library Thing] library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it?

Mine is George Orwell’s 1984, which another 23,068 Library Thing members have as of the writing of this post. It ranks 11th overall on Library Thing. (Seven of the top eight [...]]]>

What’s the most popular book in your [Library Thing] library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it?

Mine is George Orwell’s 1984, which another 23,068 Library Thing members have as of the writing of this post. It ranks 11th overall on Library Thing. (Seven of the top eight spots are Harry Potter books which we have at home but I consider to belong to my kids. And I must no longer have my copy of No. 7, The Da Vinci Code.)

Personally, I prefer having 1984 as my most popular book over the others. I’ve read it at least three times and not only is it among my Desert Island Books, it is the book I would save if I could only save one for future generations.

George Orwell, 1984

Do you own multiple copies of any books? Which ones? Why?

I have several and for a variety of reasons. In alphabetical order, they include:

Ball Four — Jim Bouton’s diary-style look inside major league baseball was one of my favorite sports books in my teens, as evidenced by how beat up my papereback [...]]]>

Do you own multiple copies of any books? Which ones? Why?

I have several and for a variety of reasons. In alphabetical order, they include:

Ball Four — Jim Bouton’s diary-style look inside major league baseball was one of my favorite sports books in my teens, as evidenced by how beat up my papereback copy is. So, when I saw a hardbound 20th anniversary edition in a half-price book store, I had to have it.

A Canticle for Leibowitz — I still have my years old copy of this Hugo Award-winning postapocalyptic novel but when Eos reissued it a year or so ago, one of its reps was kind enough to send me a copy.

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People — I have long been a big fan of Lenny Bruce and my paper copy of his autobiography is virtually in tatters. When I saw an edition as one of the books I could get for re-enlisting with a particular book club I’d quit a few years before, I figured it didn’t hurt to have a copy that wouldn’t fall apart when I picked it up.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse — I bought this book when it was first released in 1983, before I started law school later that year. Little did I know that after my graduation from law school I would work on the team representing Peter Mathiessen and Viking Press when former Gov. Bill Janklow sued them for libel. At the conclusion of the litigation, one of the other attorneys involved gave me a virtually pristine first edition of the book.

The Last Days of Hitler — I picked up a paperback edition of this sometime around high school or college. It turned out my parents had a first edition hardback that is now part of my collection.

The Man Who Turned Into Himself — I bought and read this book when it first came out in 1994. I was offered a review copy when it was reissued earlier this year and thought, why not?

The Sparrow — I love this book so much that when I came across a first edition hardback in the local used book store I figured it couldn’t hurt to have two first editions.

The Wanderer — Although I already had a copy of this Hugo-winning novel, I couldn’t resist it when I came across an what I believe to be the first paperback edition in very good condition in a second hand store. It now sits in protective material next to the copy I already had.

Lenny Bruce, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People

Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in [Library Thing] to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?

I don’t “collect” book series per se and those that I [...]]]>

Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in [Library Thing] to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?

I don’t “collect” book series per se and those that I do have are not recent ones. I have the original Dune series, the original Foundation trilogy, the original Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer, the Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis, the Hyperion Cantos and, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (plus one).

I have these largely because, from my perspective, they are classics. I have become less and less a fan of series over the years. There’s two reasons for that, both all too prevalent in the SF genre.

One is that so many books come billed as the first in a series. To me, the fact you can write more than one book involving the same characters or world does not mean they justify more than one book. In fact, I am rarely pick up any relatively new book that’s labeled as the first in a series because I know it will leave things open and I may not care enough to read the subsequent books to close out the story thread that might be of interest to me.

Second is what’s happened to the Dune series. From my perspective, the series was weakening on its own once we moved into the fifth and sixth books. But the spate of prequels and the like from Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson over the last several years simply trades on and — and damages — the original series. Even expert writers can fall into the trap of trying to extend a series only to weaken it, as Asimov did with his Foundation-related novels in the 1980s.

As a result, I have not yet used the series feature and am unlikely to.

Isaac Asimov, Foundation

Have you ever added a quote to the quotation field in [Library Thing's] common knowledge? What’s a quote you particularly like from a book, one that you know by heart?

Since I didn’t know what “common knowledge” was until seeing this, no. It may, though, come in as a handy resource.

Although I put [...]]]>

Have you ever added a quote to the quotation field in [Library Thing's] common knowledge? What’s a quote you particularly like from a book, one that you know by heart?

Since I didn’t know what “common knowledge” was until seeing this, no. It may, though, come in as a handy resource.

Although I put quotes at the end of each post, I’m not a big one for memorizing them. Probably an issue of too few brain cells. That said, I have always remembered this quote from Hugh Prather’s Notes to Myself: “If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing then the desire is not to write.” Although I first read the book more than 30 years ago, that still is a perfect summary of my approach toward writing.

Howard Kandel

The first is Tuesday Thingers, a kind of a round robin of Library Thing [...]]]> As inspiration/motivation to post a bit more in the book field, I’m going to try a series of regular memes that circulate in the bookblog community. They may not appear each and every week but simply as they strike my fancy.

The first is Tuesday Thingers, a kind of a round robin of Library Thing early reviewers on a different theme or question each week created by The Boston Bibliophile. So here’s this week’s question:

Awards. Do you follow any particular book awards? Do you ever choose books based on awards? What award-winning books do you have? (Off the top of your head only- no need to look this up- it would take all day!) What’s your favorite award-winning book?

The book award I probably follow most closely is the Hugo Award for Best Novel. In fact, quite some time ago I made it a practice to buy a copy of that year’s winner if I did not already have it. While a couple have fallen through the gap, I have all but two or three of the 55 winners thus far.

Other awards I follow but not as closely in SF include the Nebula Award, the Locus Awards, the Sidewise Awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. For more mainstream awards, I also at least look at the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award and, naturally, the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize. In the last year or so, I’ve also started watching the Booker Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

The book awards do occasionally prompt me to read a book. In fact, this year I bought and read Paul Verhaeghen’s Omega Minor simply because it won the 2008 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. And, as noted in prior posts, I am trying to read some of the books on the Booker Prize shortlist. It is rare, though, that I will read a book simply because it won this or that award. Equally as important is whether summaries of the book generate my interest.

My favorite award-winner to date probably would be Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. It won a number of SF awards in 1997 and 1998 but not the Hugo. It is, of course, a Desert Island Book.

Chris Van Allsburg, 1986 Caldecott Medal acceptance speech