Big Book Clean-Out!

I'm currently in the throws of a big book cull... and loving it! A few weeks ago, I told you guys I went to a friend's place to help her out and scored a great many books to read and add to my collection - well, this made me sort through my books and sent off some of my own unwanted - not to mention unread - books to another place across the country.

So far, I've already sent off two 5kg bags across Australia. One has arrived in Melbourne and one in the Northern Territory... and now another is going to the Northern Territory again; this time filled with a certain author's books. 

There's going to be one more book bag to be sent off before I approach a prison or an retirement village and see if they'd like the books I can't send away. I might try out the former and see if the inmates of one of Queensland's prisons would like to have some leftover books to add to their library. After all, everyone reads no matter where they are.

Anyway, I'm getting through these books and will be looking at the new lot of books to read soon as I'm working on new artworks as the year progresses.

So, do you do book culls - much like I do? You know, to get rid of books you're no longer interested in or want to read? Or are you a keep-them-all-no-matter-what kinda person? Until my next post, happy reading!

A Designer's Eye on Books

There's a craze going around people's private libraries at the moment, and I'm not liking it one little bit!

Well, okay, there's two crazes - but I'm not counting.

One of them is pulling the books in your library together in all the colours of the spines and making your library look like a crazy colour wheel. It doesn't matter if the books are sorted into fiction or non-fiction, romance or action... so long it looks pretty - right?

Um, no, I don't think so. I have to have my horror with horror. Romance with romance, non-fiction with non-fiction... otherwise there's just no point to having a library if there's no real order.

That's how I've seen some people sort out their library.

Then, there's the other end of the scale completely... the people who don't like looking at the titles of the books and would much prefer to look at the disgusting, whites and sand colour stylings of the pages instead. Yep, these idiots face their books with the pages outward and think it looks 'fashionable' and 'stylish'. 

One little question: how do you know what the title is if you can't see it? 

Yeah didn't think this one through did ya?

I like my crazy-coloured library with everything in its place and a place for everything. I like my Stephen King where his work's supposed to be, my non-fiction over there near the window, and my biographies all sandwiched there in the shelf... which really does need to be cleaned out, moved around and, yes, I need more room here.

And to think, I just did out the collection yesterday. Well, until my next post, happy reading!

The Rebirth of Bookstore Managment

On Thursday, my Mum and I were out seeing the doctors in the city. But that's not all we were doing. After that rather expensive hour or so with the doctor and then paying for parking, we headed off to Garden City on the south side of Brisbane in the search for some lunch.

Yes, it was a very hot day, we wanted air conditioning in the worst possible way.

Well, we had a light lunch, then a coffee and then did some shoe shopping - for Mum - and headed to QBD in the centre on the top floor not to find any books. No, when I go into this store, normally, I'm just enjoy the looking around perusing of shelves and the joy of seeing what's out on the market right now.

Like any book-lover, I enjoy just seeing books on shelves in bookstores... I could live in a bookstore because it's something I have at home - my own home library - and it brings me great joy to be around it; it brings me peace before I go to bed a night. Yes, I spend time in my home library to settle my mind; I don't know how, but it does. 

Anyway, being in a bookstore in the middle of a busy day out with anyone just helps me meditate for a while. I love just staring at the spines of the books, looking through the different and new publications and finding out what people are into right now. 

Well, just before Mum and I left the store, I spotted 'Uncommon Type' by Tom Hanks. I knew I had to have it! It was a book I had heard he was writing this book about a year or so ago, but there was no release date. And to see it on the shelves made me jump! I grabbed it and was so happy to see it I took it straight to the counter and asked about it. The young man at the counter was very helpful as he put through my QBD member's card and told me that I had plenty of points on that card to use - yay! - and so I didn't have to pay full price!

The best things I found out about this young man was that he is also the manager of this store; and yet he was in his 20's, very friendly, approachable and helpful in every way. When we got talking to him, we found out he had a huge library of books at home as well... telling us that he can't live without books being around him when he's at home either. 

Now, I'm so happy there's still hope for the traditional printed books for the younger generation; seeing I've spotted so many of them with Kindles and Kobos in their hands claiming that the paper books are dying out. With people like this great manager of QBD Garden City showing up in their stores now, I think there's hope for the traditionally printed books yet!

Have you come across this type of hope lately? Or is just a fluke and Mum and I happened across it just this one day? And have you read Tom Hanks' nea book? What did you think of it? I've only begun reading it, and already, I like it.  Until my next post, happy reading!