#personal library

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 472

Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s

Adam Rowe

Abrams 2023

Another new book from Abrams. We’ve gotten to the point in publishing where, if you’re like me and like large-format art books, you need to get used to the idea of buying them when they are released. Fewer and fewer publishers are taking the risk of releasing art books, and they are staying in print for shorter and shorter periods of time. So, when I heard about this book, I made a point of getting myself a copy, and I’m glad I did. While my preference in vintage book cover art leans more toward the pulp era, it is the 70s covers that I find myself the most familiar and nostalgic. Featuring some all-time greats—Frazetta, Vallejo, Elson, Emshwiller, Mead, the Dillons, et al—and divided into subject categories such as spaceships, cities and landscapes, plants, animals, aliens, fantasy realms, and cryptozoology, this is a beautiful and very welcome look at an incredibly creative, experimental, and occasionally ridiculous sci-fi decade.

[the-home]

[nyxshadowhawk]

My occult library! I’m pretty proud of this. I’ve got a nice mix of classic occult books, fluffy witch books, serious scholarship, and editions of grimoires. And on a broad range of subjects! I’ve got some ceremonial magic, some folk magic, some chaos magic, some ancient paganism, some neopaganism, some alchemy… I’ve basically covered all the bases!

Please don’t tell me how many of those I’ve actually read. 😬

[pagan-stitches]

Top and bottom photos are my personal embroidery, the middle two are from the book.

[bookaddict24-7]

I have never had so much space for future “read” books. My new shelves are up in my new basement library space!!! Props to my stepdad for creating a literal library for me 😭

[sugar-plum-senpai]

Fanfiction PDF Archive Notion Template | Digital Archive | Digital Library | Fanfiction Library Notion Template

Get the template on: Ko-fi

Save your favorite fanfics before they are deleted from AO3! 🥲

Save your favorite fics NOW! This template is intended to be used as a preventative measure against fic deletion. Make use of AO3’s download feature (amazing, truly!) and upload PDF files of your favorite fics to this Notion template to create your very own digital fanfic library.

What You Get:

- Aesthetic Dashboard (Pink Sakura Theme)

- Fanfic PDF Archive/Digital Library (with a button for embedding PDF files)

- Fanfic Review Page (includes automated fanfic review template)

- Fanfiction Resources Page (I've added a few helpful links to resources already!)

- Fanfic Counter Widget

- Navigation

- Spotify Playlist Widget

- Links to AO3, FanFiction.net and other fanfic websites

PLEASE NOTE: This template is for personal use ONLY. NEVER re-upload or repost a deleted fanfic to another site. If the fic has been deleted, that means the author no longer wants that fic available on the web. This template is designed to be used as a private fanfic archive for personal enjoyment.

[deadpresidents]

Seeing as how you have so many books do you ever run into the problem of buying one and then realizing you already have it when you get home? I sometimes do that after visiting used book shops!

Yes, I've 100% had that issue! I remember finding myself interested in the life of Louis Mountbatten after watching one of the seasons of The Crown, so I decided to pick up some books about him whenever I was at a used bookstore over the next couple of months. I think I ended up buying four copies of the same book. To my credit, they all were different editions of the same book, so they looked different on the outside, but they were all the same book between the covers.

I did find a solution, however. It took a little bit of time and work, but it's ended up being very helpful (and helpful with saving a little money in the long run!). I moved to a different apartment during the pandemic, so while unpacking all of my books, I just created a document on my computer with every book's title, author, and ISBN number. Now, I take a minute or two to update it every single time I add a new book to my personal library, and have a copy of the list easily accessible from my iPhone whenever I'm in a bookstore and am unsure whether or not I already have a copy of a certain book. It's also an easy and useful way to catalogue your entire personal library and keep the information fresh. There are also various library or cataloguing apps that you can use for the same reason -- many of them allow you to just snap a photo of the barcode or ISBN of a book and the app autofills all of the information it. I've used a few of those in the past*, but the simple list with the title/author/ISBN number is all I need and it's definitely helped kept me from buying something more than once.

(*If I were to recommend an app for cataloguing your personal library, I'd suggest Bookpedia. It's the best of all of the apps I've tried, simple and straightforward, easy to use, and has a clean interface without any of the clutter and crap that some of the other apps have. There was a small, one-time fee when I first started using the app, but there were no hidden, in-app purchases or features that required more money. I've been using Bookpedia for at least five years, so I'm sure there are other, newer personal library apps out there that people would recommend, but Bookpedia has had every feature I've needed out of such an app.)

[victusinveritas]

“I’m a real self-educated kind of guy. I read voraciously. Every book I ever bought, I have. I can’t throw it away. It’s physically impossible to leave my hand! Some of them are in warehouses. I’ve got a library that I keep the ones I really really like. I look around my library some nights and I do these terrible things to myself — I count up the books and think, how long I might have to live and think, ‘F@#%k, I can’t read two-thirds of these books.’ It overwhelms me with sadness.” – David Bowie

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 538

John Abbot: Birds, Butterflies and Other Wonders (Art of Nature)

Pamela Gilbert

Merrell Holberton / The Natural History Museum, London 1998

In July 1773, John Abbot (1751—c. 1840), a twenty-year-old amateur naturalist, left England to spend the rest of his life in Virginia and Georgia to collect and paint specimens for clients in England and Europe. For nearly sixty years, until his death around 1840, he worked meticulously to catalog, paint, and supply specimens for collectors and other naturalists. Though his work was prolific and in demand throughout his life, he never sought greater recognition and virtually never published, as opposed to his contemporary John James Audubon, despite having painted and catalogued many bird specimens well before Audubon began work. Besides being a talented artist, particularly of insects, Abbot was also a gifted scientist and naturalist. Many of the specimens he painted were extinct within forty years of his death, a consequence he predicted following the increase in human population and changes in farming practices.

[the-home]

[slaughter-books]

Day 17: JOMPBPC: Favourite Library

My favourite library is my personal library! 📚💞

[pagan-stitches]

These markers have a very ancient peaked-roof motif which appears in the embroideries as well.  Research shows these graves to be at least a 1000 years old; they have survived in just this form into the present day. The grave markers provide another example of a motif whose survival, like the goddess motif, comes down to our day from pagan times.  Originally in the pagan religion the dead were cremated and the ashes of the dead were placed in a small ceramic jar on a shelf, protected by the overhanging roof.

When the Christians changed cremation to burial, the shelf was turned into the bar of a cross and the marker became cross-shaped but still retained the overhanging roof.

From: Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands by Mary B. Kelly, 2007 and Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe by Mary B. Kelly, 1996 (personal library)

Second photo: my own pattern adapted from a traditional one (top right):

[sam-glade]

People seemed interested in my library and writing nook, so here's a bunch of pictures.

(requested tag: @macabremoons)

[thegoodmorningman]

Besides, if the Good Morning people think they're getting paid, I'll bleed them out in court. Good Morning!!!