Since I built my bookshelves three years ago, a number of readers have expressed a desire to be able to peruse their contents. Then earlier this month, one of my Twitter readers specifically requested I provide some means of doing so, and I realized I could simply take pictures of each shelf, because cell-phone pictures are now high enough resolution to make out the titles. So here you go; most of the interruptions from alphabetical order are due to the bottom shelves being used for oversized books, though I did notice a few where visitors had apparently taken books down to look at them and then stuck them back in some random place. This collection is mostly mine, but some are Grace’s and I don’t know where others came from. Also, there are some books floating around on my nightstand or whatever, and there are several shelves full in my Seattle incall. So if you don’t see a book you yourself sent me, it’s very likely in Seattle because a disproportionate number of those are sexwork-related. Oh, and if any of you have some personal objection to some book you see here, I hope you’ll show better sense than to complain about it.
Library
April 20, 2023 by Maggie McNeill
You are brave to bare your soul on what you all read very interesting. What percentage of the books do you think you have read cover to cover.
Nonsense. What a writer reads says very little about their personality in comparison with what they write. You want soul-baring? Buy a copy of The Forms of Things Unknown.
Wow. That’s a bunch of books. Reminds me of growing up. Dad was a teacher and we had bookcases all over. But back then there were encyclopedias filling them up. Google sure helped w making room in bookcases cuz I don’t think I have seen encyclopedias in forever.
Interesting to note Abbott’s satirical Flatland. and Ambrose Bierce’s collected writings.
Flatland also covers some mathematical issues, introducing the concept of dimensions.
My favorite Bierce is the short story “The Damned Thing”, which also raises a scientific question.
Can something be opaque, but unseen by humans, because humans cannot see its color?
A similar theme appears in the various movies based on the movie Predator, around 1984.
A couple of books well worth adding, but difficult to find, are English translations of Czech author Karel Čapek: The science fiction satire War with the Newts, and R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti).
The latter work gave us the word “robot”.
I never expected you to have books on C and Pascal programming. Just what kind of programs have you written?
“This collection is mostly mine, but some are Grace’s…” She’s the technical person around here, not me.