Thursday, April 5, 2012

Bibliophilia, Part 2

Since I got all gushy about books, I may as well share with you what makes up my personal library. Well, not the really personal stuff. You understand.

Probably the largest category is computer books ... Programming in This or That, or The Whatsis Cookbook. These are the ones most in jeopardy when layoffs come. The information they hold is easier to locate via Google, and they're all obsolete by the time they get into print anyway. Still, they have a certain charm.

There's a gradual transition from the technical books through design (interface and graphic), art, illustration and cartooning. The illustrated ones are the most fun.  I mean, fiction is good for one, maybe two readings. But art books can be visited again and again, with new discoveries each time. Anyway, who's got time for fiction?

I have a long-standing, if occasionally dormant interest in what might best be called the "history of ideas," and consequently bought nearly every book with the word "idea" in the title. I was trying to capture various significant ideas in verse form for another blog, Ideas Great and Dumb, the latter part of which may be self-descriptive.

I also have a large concentration of what are best described as "humor" books.  These range from classics by Mark Twain or P. G. Wodehouse to more recent stuff.  I have an autographed set of (nearly) complete works of Dave Barry.  Unfortunately, they were only autographed by previous owners.

Apart from a smattering of books on photography and stereo-photography, and some outliers on music, theater, etc., the largest remaining constituent is made up of books of, by and for graphic novels, or comics. Since I can't write well enough to be a writer, nor draw well enough to be an artist, I always thought graphic novels might be an ideal medium of expression for me. Unfortunately, however, it turns out you need to be both a great writer and a great artist to carry that off.

Oh, well. I guess I'm a reader.

Actually, not even that, or I would have gotten through more of these. I'll have to settle for being a great book buyer.

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