brainylady

Bookstores, books, and bookshelves

There's a big, fancy new bookstore in Taipei -- on the fourth floor of the city's big, fancy new building -- and I went on the weekend. I was hoping to pick up a knitting mag, but there were none to be found. "Well, what's so great about this bookstore?" thought I. "They don't even have knitting magazines! Harrumph!" So I began to wander and soon found myself in the Hobbies and Crafts section. Well, lo and behold! A whole shelf of knitting books, books whose titles I've read on blogs -- they're real! There was even a copy of Stitch 'n' Bitch; it was smaller than I'd expected, but thicker.* I didn't buy anything, though -- no more books for me before I leave, unless it's something I won't be able to find in Canada.

I'm thinking about books today, mostly about how out of touch I am with literature. Several people have posted the (highly debatable) list of 100 classic books and marked the titles they've read. (I won't do it. It wuddent maik mee look brainie.) The lovely and talented Ms. Cari has suggested her own top ten and begun to gather other suggestions in her comments. And I feel rather like a dummy, because I've hardly read during the past few years, and I can't even come up with ten fiction titles to recommend.

When Bill and I moved to Taiwan, we sold off many of our possessions and put the rest in storage, and since I made an inventory, I know I kept ten boxes of books. How I miss them! I don't even have a bookshelf here! I'm really, really looking forward to unpacking them all in September and organizing them on shelves -- once I have all our stuff shipped from B.C. to Ontario and find a place to live, that is. (Details, details.)

How do you organize your books? Alphabetically? Chronologically? Sentimentally? Colourifically?

* Oh, I hope I don't attract a zillion dirty-minded google searches with that.