# Are you part of the 3%? Talkin' Bout Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 5, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655 "2023-11-05T23:33:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655/61 "2023-11-09T12:27:18Z")
I haven’t any doubt that I have several thousand books. So does my wife. Most are either in bookcases or packed in boxes. I have at least one book by Exapno out on my shelf. They’re arranged by subject, with entire book cases devoted to, say, Religion or Classics. All my Tolkien are on a couple of shelves, as are all of my Jules Verne and my Dave Barry and my James Bond books. Science fiction/fantasy is alphabetical by author, but I’m forced to have separate sections for paperbacks and hardcover/trade because of the sizes. Paperbacks are shelved two rows deep. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655/62 "2023-11-09T15:41:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Banes, banes, banes. [Blights, blights, blights](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/blights-of-the-bookish/)! Want to read about _An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Literary and Sedentary Persons_ by the Swiss physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot from 1768? You will feel much relieved by comparison. I for one never knew I had it so good. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655/63 "2023-11-09T15:59:50Z")
Hmm, you make me wonder where my copy of _Animals Parasitic in Man_ has gotten to. It should be next to _Rats, Lice, and History,_ but I’ve moved all my books around recently, so things are a bit stirred. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655/64 "2023-11-09T16:14:44Z")
Ooh, i read _rats, lice, and history_ as a kid, but sadly, that was one of the books my parents pruned over the years, and it wasn’t on their bookshelves when i was cleaning up the estate. Neither was _plagues and peoples_. I would have kept both. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655/65 "2023-11-12T23:42:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Paperbacks I cannot bring myself to shelf separately, because keeping an author’s books together just dominates. > > I only buy bookcases with adjustable shelves. If all hardback books just kept to the 8.5" norm I could divide the spacing perfectly. But no. Some books have to be 9" or 9.5" just to make my life miserable. Author name wins out again. So on some shelves a book or several have to lie flat and spoil the sightline. I keep my oversized books in a separate bookshelf in my bedroom. Since I have two rows of books per Ikea bookshelf, I can’t put paperbacks and hardcovers together. I’ve run out of space already, that would just make it much worse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-part-of-the-3-talkin-bout-books/992655.md?page=3)