| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: The majority of the books on my shelves are... Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "The majority of the books on my shelves are...".
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| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 19:22
Spanish to English
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I don't know. There's probably a bit of most things... and come to think of it, I don 't really have much in the way of shelving space either. There is a second-hand bookshop in town where you can take books back and exchange them for another one or a credit note, which avoids books that have been read and you don't want to keep for posterity piling up into clutter... And it saves me the hassle of ever having to count how many books of a certain type I might have.
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In order:
Classic fiction and nonfiction (50%)
Dictionaries & style manuals
Texbooks from classes I've taken
Books by people I know, my own translations, books I've contributed to
| | | | Barbara Carrara 
Italy
Local time: 19:22
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
| Look out for typos! | Dec 8, 2012 |
Please edit 'techincal'.
Thanks.
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| All of the above... | Dec 8, 2012 |
Except, perhaps this is significant, scientific and tech, and translation related (read this on the web).
If a book is on my shelf it means that I can take it to read in bed. And before someone tries to challenge this, I am sure that I am not the only person who takes a dictionary to bed (I love to run down the Spanish words beginning with the Arabic prefix Al- in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, for instance.)
Weirdo, moi...?
| | | | Barbara Carrara
Italy
Local time: 19:22
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
| A Mixed Library | Dec 8, 2012 |
I am surprised biographies don't seem to get voted at all!
I love them, and I have a good biography section (mostly of historical figures) next to my fiction (including mystery titles) and non-fiction books, these last two taking up most of my shelf space, as I guess most personal libraries would.
Dictionaries and reference titles come next, as I started collecting them in the late 1970s. This section also includes some titles on translation and a few style guides.
... See more I am surprised biographies don't seem to get voted at all!
I love them, and I have a good biography section (mostly of historical figures) next to my fiction (including mystery titles) and non-fiction books, these last two taking up most of my shelf space, as I guess most personal libraries would.
Dictionaries and reference titles come next, as I started collecting them in the late 1970s. This section also includes some titles on translation and a few style guides.
My miscellaneous section would list third, and is also quite varied, with art, collections and exhibition catalogues (including those I fully or partly translated), magazines (including those I fully or part-translated, and those coming with memberships, e.g. the National Trust Magazine), specialist titles (from DIY to gardening, music and hobbies) plus a few old editions of mixed interest.
Titles in the food and wine section – fourth in line – are mostly about the history of food and include books by academics and journalists I know, cookbooks and encyclopedias, plus a tiny collection of magazines and guides (for two years I was part of the editorial staff of an academic journal and for another two years I was employed at a world-renowned eco-gastronomic movement which also had a publishing house).
I own very few travel guides and magazines (city monographs), but quite a lot of city maps, which I love.
Scientific and technical titles are close to zero.
No poetry titles.
Also, I have what you may call a 'clippings collection' which is very much part of my reference library, even though it isn't organized at all!
Whenever I find interesting articles in magazines or newspapers I keep the clippings for future use or reference, but the sheer quantity of these is becoming overwhelming.
Thing is, having not figured out an effective way to organize them, I am still dealing with piles of loose clippings distributed around the house.
I'd like to hear from colleagues having my same obsession and to know how they arrange their own clippings, if they do at all, that is! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alison Sabedoria (X)
United Kingdom
French to English
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| ...big and heavy! | Dec 8, 2012 |
I test bookshelves to destruction. 
Music, art and the decorative/applied arts make up the biggest (and heaviest) category. Not all "arty-farty", this includes some highly technical stuff in architecture and horology.
A fairly close second is my collection on gardening, plants, nature, well-being and spirituality - all connected, of course, which makes arranging them interesting!
Dictionaries ... See more I test bookshelves to destruction.
Music, art and the decorative/applied arts make up the biggest (and heaviest) category. Not all "arty-farty", this includes some highly technical stuff in architecture and horology.
A fairly close second is my collection on gardening, plants, nature, well-being and spirituality - all connected, of course, which makes arranging them interesting!
Dictionaries and books about language and writing probably come in third place.
However, the fiction books would win if I had enough shelf space to keep them all out. ▲ Collapse
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Fiction and poetry
Dictionaries and encyclopedias
Art, design and architecture books
Cookbooks
Magazines (mainly those I partly translated)
@Noni: I am known to do the same (taking a dictionary to bed), weirdo, moi?
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Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:22
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
| This poll reminds me... | Dec 8, 2012 |
... of those photos of translators with bookshelves in the background. We are such a clever and cultured bunch, I mean, look at all the books we have!
| | | | tradu-grace
Italy
Local time: 19:22
English to Italian
+ ...
| with Barbara for 'clippings collection' | Dec 8, 2012 |
and a mix of all options proposed in the survey plus
quite a few pile of magazine's of photos in black and white which I love.
My list is endless and the 'clippings collection' is growing ....
| | | | | | | Culture vultures | Dec 8, 2012 |
Simon Bruni wrote:
... of those photos of translators with bookshelves in the background. We are such a clever and cultured bunch, I mean, look at all the books we have!
Couldn't agree more, Simon! "'Pon my word, don't know ya!" as Trabb's boy probably said in Great Expectations...
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Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 13:22
English to Spanish
+ ...
| I'm getting there... | Dec 8, 2012 |
Thayenga wrote: About half of my approximately 480 books are historical ones. A good quarter are poetry and fiction (of course, including my own  ). The rest are mainly diccionaries and/or translation related books. And there is not a single book in my library  that hasn't been read at least once, so they're not just decoration.
I keep my book collection sorted and arranged with a nice Mac app called Delicious 2.0 (it has nothing to do with pastries). I have about 20+ shelves, including atheism, science, evolution, detective fiction (John Le Carré and Agatha Christie), medicine, monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, texts on translation training, lexicography, humor, comic strips (in English and Spanish), language and culture, technology and society, graphic design, history, typography, poetry, Spanish fiction, death, sociology, software, technical writing (in English and Spanish), and more. I keep all of my 460+ books in 6 large bookshelves and I'm proud of my choices.
Although I am an avid reader (I'm reading a book by American comedian/ranter Lewis Black this week), I collect books faster than I read them.
I started 2012 with less than 200 books. I more than doubled that by going to thrifstores and half-price book stores: for $1 or $2, you can get a nice copy like the 25th edition of Dorland's Pocket Medical Dictionary. It may be old (1996) but it is leatherbound!
Reading is a beautiful habit to have.
| | | | Alison Sparks (X)
Local time: 19:22
French to English
+ ...
I think my selection is like Noni's.
Loads of history, biography, fiction including mysteries and historical, loads of cookbooks, a few bits of poetry, (including e e cummings), several dictionaries, a very few travel guides, virtually no scientific/technical unless you count a multitude of field guides to birds, plants, insects, amphibians and gardening, and nothing at all translation related.
Oh, and don't forget the children's classics from my childhood - Winnie ... See more I think my selection is like Noni's.
Loads of history, biography, fiction including mysteries and historical, loads of cookbooks, a few bits of poetry, (including e e cummings), several dictionaries, a very few travel guides, virtually no scientific/technical unless you count a multitude of field guides to birds, plants, insects, amphibians and gardening, and nothing at all translation related.
Oh, and don't forget the children's classics from my childhood - Winnie the(r) Pooh, Wind in the Willows, What Katy did, Jungle Books, Cautionary tales, etc; plus Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in English and French, and best of all a complete set of Asterix in French.
I think all of them have been read at least a dozen times, even the dictionaries. Likewise I often take a book to bed, except the biggest dictionaries, but now I have a Kindle............. it's easier to read in bed, although nothing beats an actual book. ▲ Collapse
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dictionaries, books on law, books related to language learning and teaching (the ones I know and Arabic (which I will master someday) Plus lots of books on the history and culture of the countries I am interested in.
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