Thanks for becoming a friend!

posted by lisaunger at 1:59 pm (EST) on Nov 26, 2007

When I click on my "raw" co-holders it shows that you have 680 of the books I have listed--more than anyone else. The books I have listed are all the books I have read completely in my life (books I did not finish, or only read partially, are not listed). Do you perchance have a list of the books you have read? Do you know how many of the books you have listed you have read?

posted by Schmerguls at 8:32 am (EST) on Sep 24, 2007

i am in awe....i can't imagine owning that many books...mostly because i'm a librarian and i only buy books that i love and know i'll read over and over...but WOW! amazing....
and it's cool that you and i are the only ones who have this one:
only you and carminowe share A Welsh story
rock on!
~bronwynne

posted by bronwynne at 9:42 pm (EST) on Jun 3, 2007

I bought some jewelry on the east coast made by Carminowe out of San Francisco this weekend. Any connection?

posted by varielle at 7:31 am (EST) on May 29, 2007

Hello carminowe,

Could you please check to see if your Greek cookery book by Paradissis (sp?) has the correct title? It is linked to a copy I own that looks quite different.

Thanks.

posted by westher at 9:14 am (EST) on May 17, 2007

We are up to 113 matches & I am only to my E's so far. I am really needing some of those tips for storing books. I live in an apartment with no stairs to shelve them, though. Help me, please!

Talk about stinkers, did you read Four Against the Arctic?

If you had to guess how many of your books you have read, what would it be? I have people ask me that all the time & my answer is about two-thirds of mine, since it is on a revolving basis. As soon as I finish reading one, there is at least one more obtained to replace it.

posted by theselkie at 3:39 pm (EST) on May 8, 2007

Kit Carson is a bit of a recent sideline for me. I got sidetracked with him after I read Hampton Sides' recent book Blood and Thunder which is a superb account of the opening of the West, particularly in the New Mexico Territory. I highly recommend it. I do think that Tom Dunlay's book is one of the better volumes on Kit Carson, but there is also David Roberts' A Newer World : Kit Carson, John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West. Roberts' book deals much more with the relationship between Fremont and Carson and their journeys across the Rocky Mountains.

I guess a lot of the recent literature on Kit Carson is pretty revisionist, an attempt to get away from the near universal vilification of Kit Carson, particularly among Native American Groups, to viewing the "softer" side of Carson.

posted by HMOKeefe at 1:28 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2007

Seems we're both interested in the Mountain Meadows Massacre...have you read any works about Kit Carson?

posted by HMOKeefe at 10:06 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2007

Hmm...still only 70 matches so far.

posted by theselkie at 6:27 pm (EST) on Mar 15, 2007

So far we share 174 books. I discovered this by following the Ronald Radosh link, which is shared by very few others.

posted by pdworkin at 4:23 pm (EST) on Mar 12, 2007

Hello. We share 66 titles now, but maybe by the time I enter the other third of them, we will share more. Right now most of the ones we share are the polar exploration & the Napoleonic titles.
:)

posted by theselkie at 3:47 pm (EST) on Mar 7, 2007

You and I are lucky to have Robert Dean Frisbie books - I have all six and the two by his daughter, Johnny Frisbie.

posted by NoWhining at 11:55 pm (EST) on Dec 20, 2006

I am currently reading McCarthy's new book, 'The Road.' It is a dark, haunting vision, and the eloquence we enjoy in McCarthy's pre-'No Country for Old Men' writing is here in the new work.

posted by southwestpoet at 3:12 am (EST) on Oct 13, 2006

Thank you so much for joining the group!
Paola :-))

posted by aluvalibri at 7:47 pm (EST) on Sep 18, 2006

You don't need permission to join a group, as far as I know. Just sign up. I formed the group because I saw some people had lots of true crime books but there wasn't a group in which to discuss it. But no one has posted anything yet. Please -- be the first! You and I share over 130 books so we should have LOTS to discuss! What's hte best true crime book you're read? Who's your favorite author?

posted by kageeh at 9:14 pm (EST) on Aug 20, 2006

Ha! You cataloged your videos! I've been thinking of doing my videos/dvd's, I did do my Gamewright Card games though.

posted by Opinicus at 1:00 pm (EST) on Aug 16, 2006

Ha, ha -- I've already used all your suggestions! I have so many baskets filled with books (and magazines)! I even bought new family room tables last year that had shelves to accommodate the baskets. My brother also suggested the stair risers but that leaves little space in which to navigate the stairs and in poor lighting -- well, one may trip :). I could never give up a closet for bookshelves; I've already taken all of them over (since the kids left) for my clothes. I don't have enough closets either but, as you may know, it's far easier to get rid of clothes, especially those from decades ago, than books. I guess I'll just have to continue whining . . . .

posted by kageeh at 4:37 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2006

Every wall in my house is covered with bookcases and still I do not have nearly enough space for my books, which number less than half of yours. Any suggestions?

I love your use of the tag "stinker". May I use it on my "bad" books?

posted by kageeh at 8:16 am (EST) on Aug 8, 2006

carminowe, excuse my delay in replying, but I became obsessed with hitting the 1,000 mark. And ermosted had displaced you as my number one match. However, ermosted appears to be almost entirely a wishlist (and maybe unfair in some ways). But then ellenandjim got ahead of you for the longest time. However, you have returned to your rightful place on top (ignoring ermosted) beating ellenand jim by one book. I am in awe of your library, but I try to cheer myself up by noting I have nearly 900 titles you don't (unless you have even more books to enter).

I see that we finally share one title alone: Hawaii pono. And I see that you have lots of books on Hawaii. Do you have a special Hawai'i connection? My wife was born in Honolulu and has relatives all over the islands.

posted by alibrarian at 9:13 am (EST) on Jul 30, 2006

Hi, of the not quite 200 books I've entered so far you share 53 of them, many in the mystery, history, travel area, including my current read "The Orientalist" (but it doesn't look like you have "Ali & Nino" which was written by said Orientalist :-)

I'm quite envious of your 400+ travel tagged books and I've already found a number in your list that I have no doubt will make it onto mine!

A very impressive collection, and I hope you get to build your library retreat soon!

posted by jusen at 2:14 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2006

Like for most other people, I guess, you are the person with whom I share the most books. I doubt I will ever reach you, even though I am still putting books in and I am far from being finished yet, but you certainly are an excellent example to follow.
I love this site, because it is full of people who, like me, could not tolerate a life without books.
Thanks for reading this.

Paola :-))

posted by aluvalibri at 10:42 pm (EST) on Jul 15, 2006

No matter what I enter, history, religion, classics, mysteries, you remain as my top match day after day almost since I got the first five books entered. Who are you and why do you have my books? : 0

posted by alibrarian at 12:57 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2006

Good to see someone I have 51 books in common with that aren't sci fi things. Wonderful collection you have!

posted by Jaie at 12:48 am (EST) on Jul 5, 2006

Glad to see some overlap. If you are a fan of Ivan Doig, as I am (must get organized: have all his books on shelf, tho not posted!), you might be interested to know I saw him recently. He's on tour with new book (not top-notch, but interesting). I told him that his webpage isn't current, which means some people do not even know his schedule. We became acquainted years ago, and he is a dear person, so I could get away with this.

posted by Esta1923 at 4:10 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2006

Hi, thanks for your message back in April. Just finished putting students through exams. Now I'm free and deciding whether to continue in China or move on, and where to? I would have liked to get back to my Tlingit translating (Alaskan tribe) but I seem to have left the manuscript with my other papers and books in NZ. Do you live in a lovely place, peacefully reading? Do you work? I have got the ISBN for my Maori book now, and accepted in CiP (cataloging in publication) system. So you did a journalism degree... have worked as a journalist? Reporting what?

posted by Sally-AnneLambert at 3:40 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2006

I don't know which is more impressive -- that you've collected over 8,000 books or that you've managed to get them all catalogued since November.
Either way, you're my new hero. :)

posted by axisgrid at 8:33 pm (EST) on May 15, 2006

hi there. There is a fave book of mine called the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecure (amazon link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714843...) which in the first section somewhere has this great design of a separate building to house a guys massive library.

He built it on its own up in the mountains, with a study area and kitchen etc, but the design is simply amazing. This guy had 40,000 books, so you may be able to do the same thing on a smaller scale!

Anyhow, see if you can find it at your local library and have a peek!

posted by notmyrealname at 10:03 pm (EST) on Apr 20, 2006

Yes, I own all the books and videos I've catalogued. I have one advantage over some of you: I've been collecting books and other material for almost 50 years, plus I inherited a lot of my mother's books. Wait that long and you'll wind up with just as many! Storage was a problem until we remodeled our house and put a roof over the atrium, turning it into my library. Even with that I have books in all other rooms of the house, in the guest house, and the cabana. I've dreamed of building a separate library on our property and calling it "The Retreat" -- maybe someday soon.

posted by carminowe at 7:39 am (EST) on Apr 18, 2006

do you really own all those books?! cool. that's a ton. wish i had that many.

posted by journey at 11:32 pm (EST) on Apr 17, 2006

I was pleased to see that we share My Father's Island: A Galapagos Quest by Johanna Angermeyer. I picked up that book while on holiday in Ecuador from this little english bookstore near the center of Quito. I loved it and felt it totally contributed to my South American travels.

posted by sagespot at 1:14 am (EST) on Apr 17, 2006

You have a great list of interesting books. I'm wondering, though -- how does one store 7,600 books without annexing a small suburb?

posted by FiedReads at 3:11 pm (EST) on Apr 12, 2006

Thanks for the reply! I've now found out that Amazon has it quite a bit cheaper, so I will probably treat myself. BTW, the Imperial War Museum exhibition runs until Easter -- I don't know where you are in the world, but if it is anywhere within easy reach of London, it's well worth it!

posted by perodicticus at 7:02 am (EST) on Apr 6, 2006

Do you recommend Lawrence of Arabia - The Life, The Legend? I loved the Imperial War Museum exhibit (for which it was the catalogue), but was hesitant about paying the £25 cover price.

posted by perodicticus at 9:57 am (EST) on Apr 4, 2006

You have a great linguistics collection. We share a number of books that don't show up as shared for reasons unclear to me.

I suppose you could go whole hog and make tags for every subfield, but really what struck me looking through your collection was the inclusion of bilingual dictionaries and reference works. I personally distinguish between second language acquisition related work and the rest of the field. But that's me. I'll be interested to see what you decide to do in the long run.

posted by greenery at 6:23 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2006

May I ask: have you ever considered differentiating your "linguistics" tag?

posted by greenery at 1:43 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2006

I suspected that's what the tag meant. It's an interesting list.

posted by greenery at 5:23 am (EST) on Jan 20, 2006

Stinker is my personal tag for a book that came highly recommended, or was a book group selection, that I read and found to be very disappointing.

posted by carminowe at 8:56 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2006

so what does the tag 'stinker' mean? just out of curiosity.

posted by greenery at 3:39 pm (EST) on Jan 18, 2006