My Bookshelf

My library is larger than it needs to be, considering that so much material is now available online. Will e-books become a dominant format for novels? What shape will tomorrow’s library take? 

I asked myself, which of my books would I keep on the shelf in any event – books I’ll open again and again? Here’s a few of them:

      The Eternal Frontier by Tim Flannery. This geological history of North America is so well-written, a pleasure to read. I keep sending it to skeptical friends. 

    Wicked by Gregory Maguire. The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What an imagination. An amazing novel.  The Wizard of Oz, a great movie, will never be the same, once you've read Wicked.

The Dartmouth Bible. Now 60 years old and out of print, it’s still my reference work for things religious.

Texian Iliad by Stephen L. Hardin. The best history of the Texas Revolution. More than a recitation of facts, the book is crammed with fascinating local color and trivia, essentials for a Texas author.

 

Now -- What’s on your bookshelf, that you wouldn’t want to give up?

 

On a personal note – Return of the Texas Ranger, by Dac Crossley, has won the National Independent Booksellers Award (western category) for 2009. Permit me to take a little bow.

 

Dac

5/11/09 

“You can do anything you want to do as long as you keep a good attitude and keep working at it. But the second you give up, you’re screwed.”  -- Dolly Parton, quoted in AARP Magazine.

Comments

[Lindsay]

Gramps, I would love to borrow your Kindle to see how it works but for now I will keep my library of volumes...Favorite books include: C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, Anything by Tolkien (spurned on by a certain grandfather), The Count of Monte Cristo, Atlas Shrugged (only because I can't seem to finish the darn thing) and of course anything autographed by the author to include Pat Conroy and two works by D.A. Crossley. HA! I love books and wish I were a librarian...

[jan O]

Dac:
Congratulations to you on your bookseller award. Fantastic! As for e books. No thank you. I prefer them on my bookshelves and in my hands.
Jan O

[Irene]

A current copy of the World Almanac. All of that information in one place, beats web searching every time. It also aids in refining a web search for specific information.
Books are my version of a warm blanket and I keep too many, but I've noticed that they record the phases of my life.

[Mike D.]

I'm a book junkie, too, Dac.

Have you read John McPhee's Annals of the Former World? Its also a history of North America, but geological rather than ecological. Simply the best geological writing I've ever found....brings the subject to life.

Mike D.

[Art McKee]

E-books? Speaking for at least a few of us modern-day Luddites: "Tools of the devil."

As for some favorite books, or at least five/six among the top 10 that sit in honored places on a bookshelf:

Don Quixote, or more exactly, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, Parts I and II, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The Seed and the Sower, by Laurens Van der Post

Winter’s Tale, by Mark Helprin

Dalva, and, The Road Home, by Jim Harrison

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

[Larry]

Dac, Congratulations on the Bookseller Award. Well deserved.
As to e-books--I prefer a book and the touch of cover and pages. I guess I'm out of step with the electronic world. Larry

[Marj]

I don't know about books; but many years ago I sold World Books for a short time. Of course, they've long since been available on line, but the "real" things were much easier to use when discussing references with my elementary students.

Our San Antonio Express-News has been reduced about two and a half inches in width and a lot in content. If they completely did away with it, Collin would really miss the crossword puzzles, etc. though he thinks the paper is very biased. And he's not about to read anything from the computer screen. That would mean printing almost everything he might want -- quite a waste of paper.

I'm not sure about what books I'd save. Both Elizabeth and Robert Browning, Walden, and one or two other poetry books for sure.

Collin told his kids as they were growing up, "In case of fire, you're on your own. I have to get my books." In recent years he's given away hundreds but still has many. He's been re-reading some recently. He was reading one the other night that he said was dated 1971 for when he last finished reading it.

[Robert coulson]

Dac:
I'm disappointed: Where's Forest Entomology?
bobc

[Ira Guy]

Have you read the rest of the trilogy(Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men)? I think Wicked is the best of the 3.
Ira

[Ed Underwood]

Dac - Congratulations on the Bookseller Award. I have noticed through the years a book that guest often pick from my bookshelf is "The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History" by Michael H. Hart. However, you must read the Premise (Forward) first.

[Eric]

Dac - Lindsay and I saw Wicked in Chicago with Steve and Tanya. It was really good. I never read the book, although Lindsay had and she said the play was very true to the book. It was an excellent play; Chicago was a very cool town too.

[Eric]

Even though IT is how I earn a living I find reading anything "online" (by computer, e-reader, whatever) annoying. Anything longer than a news article I prefer to have as a hard copy. I know many people feel the same way who are otherwise completely tech savvy. So, I doubt we'll see the elimination of printed books anytime soon.