The Great Bookcase Weedout of 2010

[icepixie]

I am entirely unpacked. Hurrah! As promised, here are photos of the Great Bookcase Weedout of 2010.

This is what I was up against:



There was a double row of books on each of the shelves. The narrow white bookcase you'll see later was piled even deeper.

In order to rearrange and figure out what I wanted to sell to the used bookstore, I had to take everything down. Because I am a fool, I decided to start this process at 6:30 at night. Once I started, I had to finish, because, well:







The two boxes quickly filled up with used bookstore fodder. By 10:30, I had finally finished. Behold:





Of course, it helped that we moved one of the bookcases I brought back into the dining room, and I got to take it over entirely:



My anthologies and such wound up on yet another bookcase in the den, which I haven't taken a picture of because it's kind of hidden behind a chair, and I figure this is self-indulgent enough.

Anyway. Yaaaay, it's done! Now I just have to hope that my cunning plan of using the two sets of bookends as a kind of barometer of Hey, You Need to Sell Some Books will work out for me. Once they get within a couple inches of the edge, it's time to chuck the ones I don't want anymore? We'll see.

Comments

[foursweatervests]

I do, too, and this was the year I said I was getting rid of the ones I hadn't read in 5 years or so, even if I loved them. (Amnesty was granted to YA books that shaped my tiny YA brain all those years ago.) I had a hard time with my lit section - I can't get rid of anything just yet in case I need it *for* grad school, but, boy, some of it I really, really hate.

What did you end up doing with your grad school books?

[icepixie]

(Amnesty was granted to YA books that shaped my tiny YA brain all those years ago.)

I skipped right over YA when I was that age, but I know what you mean. I have a few mediocre sci-fi books that I keep around for sentimental, rather than literary, value.

What did you end up doing with your grad school books?

Kept 'em. During undergrad, I sold everything back, or sold it to a local used bookstore, at the end of each semester, and I really regretted it when I needed some of them for grad school. So I'm keeping these in case I ever go INSANE and decide I need a PhD (the chances of this happening are roughly 562,938 to 1, but still), and because they're sometimes useful when I'm writing and want to reference something. There are some I feel like I'll likely re-read in several years or decades, and will want my marginalia when I do. I did try to get rid of any duplicates, although I had to read The Goddamned Portrait of Dorian Gray for two grad classes, so I kept both copies, as the notes were very different. (It works so much better as a Modernist novel than a Victorian one, OMG.)

[foursweatervests]

I skipped right over YA when I was that age

Y'know, I had a friend who did that. She was always so, so proud of the fact that she would only read the biggest books she could find, but she missed so much by doing that. Because, of course, a seven-year-old reading Robert Jordan isn't going to get most of it, let alone have the attention span necessary. I'm not saying that's what you did, but you just reminded me.

I still read YA - though that might be because I constantly find myself working with YAs - and I think it's some of the best literature out there. In the correct hands. There's some real crap out there, too. But if you ever get a chance, anything by Tamora Pierce is excellent, as well as Cynthia Voigt, Madeline L'Engle, Orson Scott Card, Robin McKinley and Jane Yolen. (Not all strictly YA authors, but damn good all the same.) I'm sure you've at least heard of all of them and probably read something by most of them; they just came to mind because I reread them this year.

Ugggghhhh, Dorian Frakking Gray. I'm very sorry you got put through that twice. You must have suffered enough by now. My least favorite lit course was "Bourgeoisie Novels of the 18th Century in Spain". Worst. Course. Ever. I wanted to burn everything, even the short stories. And I love short stories.

[icepixie]

Possibly we're using "YA" differently? I read entirely from the juvenile section at the library until I was eleven (so everything from Roald Dahl to Beverly Cleary to Brian Jacques to Nancy Drew), then discovered the various Star Treks and fell in love with sci-fi. Since there was a dearth of it on the children's and YA shelves, I headed over to adult fiction and never looked back. The YA shelves at my library appeared to consist entirely of Sweet Valley High books and Christopher Pike horror stories, with the odd high school romance mixed in, and my teenaged years were before bookstores had YA sections.

I have to admit to not enjoying YA now, either. Aside from being really, really, really uninterested in teenagers with their first crush/first love, or in anything to do with high school, I really just dislike reading about kids or teenagers. I think...I like reading about characters who have some experience with the world and with themselves that remains apparent even when they're in unfamiliar situations, if that makes sense. I want to see them either dealing with external events or discovering one or two new things about themselves, not watch their entire personality take shape, as it does for teens. There are exceptions, but in general, in my experience with narratives about them, teenagers don't seem to have that...stability, for lack of a better word? that adult characters tend to.

Re: your suggestions: I like some of Jane Yolen's stuff, particularly Briar Rose and some short stories. I got to all of the others too late, especially Pierce and L'Engle. Pierce in particular pinged the "don't want to read about kids" impulse.

My least favorite lit course was "Bourgeoisie Novels of the 18th Century in Spain". Worst. Course. Ever. I wanted to burn everything, even the short stories. And I love short stories.

Well, it was the 18th century. They had issues. *g*

[foursweatervests]

Yeah, we're using "YA" differently. We had those books at my library, too, but they were in the children's section for the older kids who hadn't quite graduated to the Teen Room yet. Oh, the Teen Room. It was so big and mysterious and full of older people! Plus, for some reason, it had the sci-fi / fantasy section. Not sure why, because it meant that we always had adults coming in to browse, but there was a sign on the door that read: Teens Only in big, forbidding letters.

I like reading about characters who have some experience with the world and with themselves that remains apparent even when they're in unfamiliar situations, if that makes sense. I want to see them either dealing with external events or discovering one or two new things about themselves, not watch their entire personality take shape, as it does for teens.

That makes sense; I have to be in exactly the right mindset to read YA because the character does change a tremendous amount over the course of the novel. Which, frequently, can be fucking irritating. You know those Artemis Fowl books everyone was wetting themselves over a few years ago? I tried so, so hard to like them because, hey, cool, adventures! Instead I spent the entire series wanting to smack Artemis so hard and wishing that he would die. I read them, anyway, because it helps when I can talk to my students about what they're interested in, but. Ugh. He is selfish, thoughtless, convinced of his own superiority and just a little too smart for his own good. I hate them exactly as much as I hate the Twilight series - though for very different reasons.

I think you would have to have read Pierce and L'Engle when you were young in order to enjoy them now. I still reread them every once in a while, but I think going in blind I would hate some of the characters just as much as I hate Artemis. Whereas, when I was younger, I would have identified with Artemis as I did with Pierce and L'Engle's characters.

Well, it was the 18th century. They had issues. *g*

Oh, man, are you telling me. Whooff.

[icepixie]

I remember trying to read one of the Artemis books. I got about ten pages into it before giving up, probably for the same reasons you don't like them, though I don't remember it at all now.

Oh, man, are you telling me. Whooff.

I sort of enjoy some 18th century fiction. Pamela, for example, is a laugh riot--although I'm pretty sure much of the hilarity is unintentional--and on a certain twisted level it's also kind of sweet. Humphrey Clinker is also fun and funny, and I've heard enough good things about Sterne to have Tristram Shandy fairly high up in my to-read pile. But I have to be in exactly the right mood for those kinds of books, or they become really irritating.

[foursweatervests]

The only 18th century fiction I enjoy is American, and for obvious reasons, there isn't a lot of that. If Pamela is anything like Charlotte Temple, I'm sure I'd love it. Charlotte Temple definitely has the whole unintentional-hilarity thing going for it. It's one of my favorites from that century. And from what I've heard, Humphrey Clinker is a novel I would love, while I reject eve the notion of Tristram Shandy. I simply don't have patience for the elaborate storytelling it embodies, which is one of the reasons why I can't stand any of Alejo Carpentier's work. And, unfortunately, I've had to read his attempt at magical realism 3 times.

[icepixie]

OMG, we had to read part of Charlotte Temple in the colonial American lit class I detested. Didn't really care for the excerpt, either. IMO, Pamela is much better. Instead of falling prey to her seducer/employer, she gets to keep her virtue despite his increasingly ridiculous advances, writes increasingly hilariously overwrought letters to her family about the experience (it's an epistolary novel), and eventually she and Mr. B. actually fall in love and get married, then spend the rest of the novel making fun of the snobby neighboring gentry who look down their noses at her servant girl origins.

Humphrey Clinker is another epistolary novel about a cranky, foolish extended family traveling around England. It's been eight years since I read it, but of the novels in my 18th century class freshman year, I remember liking it and Rob Roy the best.

while I reject eve the notion of Tristram Shandy. I simply don't have patience for the elaborate storytelling it embodies

I can understand that. Me, I'm all about elaborate, puzzle-like books--possibly my four favorites are Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Byatt's Possession, Kostova's The Historian, and Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. The more complex and allusory it is, the more I like it. :D Totally going to check out Carpentier's work now; I'm sadly not at ALL educated in LatAm lit.

[foursweatervests]

Instead of falling prey to her seducer/employer, she gets to keep her virtue despite his increasingly ridiculous advances, writes increasingly hilariously overwrought letters to her family about the experience (it's an epistolary novel), and eventually she and Mr. B. actually fall in love and get married, then spend the rest of the novel making fun of the snobby neighboring gentry who look down their noses at her servant girl origins.

Oh my god, that sounds amazing. I need to get me a copy of that! I loved Charlotte Temple because it was so. very. dramatic. and not because it had an awesome plot. Plus, it's interesting to see what a bestseller is at different points in history.

Well, you know what, good for you. It takes a very particular sort of mind to be able to go for that.

I'm sadly not at ALL educated in LatAm lit.

Well, you're lucky, 'cause that's basically all I'm educated in. I'm not totally sure I can recommend Carpentier to you, though. (Anyone, really.) He's...hmm. Okay, I took grad classes in Spanish as an undergrad because I was too far beyond what my first college offered Spanish undergrads. And I was the only one in that class to finish that book, and I only did so through sheer bloody-mindedness. Everyone - and I mean everyone else (who were all grad students, by the way) stopped by chapter four and just stared at the professor as he tried to get something out of us. It was boring, it was unnecessarily complex - one sentence extended an entire fucking chapter, thankyouverymcuh, which is bad enough in English but when it's in your second language....no. Just no. Also? Literally nothing happened. I don't, didn't, and never will understand the point of this book. I love magical realism, I cannot recommend Marquez hard enough. I would shank Alejo Carpentier for what he did to magical realism. If you want really good, complex puzzles of stories, try Jorge Luis Borges or Julio Cortázar. Both excellent, both very good at insane mindfucks, and both beautiful prose writers.

[icepixie]

Oh my god, that sounds amazing. I need to get me a copy of that!

Totally worth it.

I loved Charlotte Temple because it was so. very. dramatic. and not because it had an awesome plot.

Yeah, that's pretty much the selling point for Pamela as well. There's less melodrama than Charlotte Temple, though, and more of Pamela being overwrought about things we wouldn't consider a big deal today.

It was boring, it was unnecessarily complex - one sentence extended an entire fucking chapter, thankyouverymcuh, which is bad enough in English but when it's in your second language....no. Just no.

ZOMG. I enjoy modernism and its associated stylistic tricks to a perhaps unhealthy degree (Ulysses and I are like THIS), and that sounds painful even to me.

I've heard I need to read Borges, and Marquez as well. They and Cortázar are definitely going on my list. Thanks for the recs!

[foursweatervests]

No problem! For Borges, try Death and the Compass, and for Cortázar, try...Autopista del Sur. Um. It might be translated as Motorcyclist from the South? Both gorgeous modern pieces, both short stories, and seriously amazing. I'm actually more of a fan of Marquez's short stories as well (though his novels are excellent), and my favorite is A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (I'm pretty sure that's the translation in use). Un día de estos is very good as well, but I've never seen an English translation of it, whereas AVOMWEW is one of the most commonly translated even though it was only published in one printing of one book of short stories in Spanish. Funny, that.

[foursweatervests]

re: Autopista del Sur

Technically it means Southern Highway, but I seem to recall something about Motorcyclists in the translation. It's hiding somewhere in my notes but I'm way too tired to drag them out and find it. Sorry!

[icepixie]

I'll look them up! Thanks. (I'd say I'd try to read one in the original Spanish, but I don't think my skills are good enough for much beyond a picture book anymore...)

[foursweatervests]

There are some books I think should only be read in the original language because they lose almost everything that makes them unique in translation. Quijote, for example. These? Not nearly as difficult a translation project. I'm sure you'll be able to find an awesome English version of each.