Who gets most of your shelf space?

I’ve reorganized my library for the first time in years. These are my favorite authors, by shelf space taken, in alphabetical order.

  1. C J Cherryh
  2. Tom Clancy
  3. Len Deighton
  4. Adam Hall
  5. Harry Harrison
  6. Joan Hess
  7. David Morrell
  8. Larry Niven
  9. John Sanford
  10. Donald Westlake

Who takes up most space on your bookshelves?

Phil Marlowe.

Not Raymond Chandler, Phil Marlowe. I have books about Marlowe that aren’t by Chandler.

In no particular order:

  1. Charles DeLint
  2. Patricia McKillip
  3. Ursula LeGuin
  4. Steven Brust
  5. Ceclia Holland
  6. Sharon K. Penman
  7. P.G. Wodehouse
  8. Roger Zelazney
  9. Kurt Vonnegut
  10. Terry Pratchett
  11. Doonesbury (Gary Trudeau)
  12. J.K. Rowling
  13. Will and Arieal Durant
  14. Ray Bradbury
  15. Winnie the Pooh (yeah, only 4 titles, but several additions)

If you haven’t read someone on this list, let me know and I’ll tell you why you should read them.

In roughly this order …

Terry Pratchett (because I’m trying to collect the whole Discworld series)
Piers Anthony (because I was into his stuff when I was younger and haven’t gotten rid of it yet)
Scott Cunningham (because every Pagan should have some Cunningham)
Isaac Asimov (mostly non-fiction)
White Wolf (because you can never have enough RPG books)

Oh, and my bookshelf USED to be a lot more interesting, but my mom put all but three of my books in storage when i moved away to college, and what i have now is ONE SHELF worth of books i acquired while at school.

Stephen King, not even because he’s my favorite (although I certainly like his stuff), but because his books are so damn long. I swear he must be personally responsible for clearing out several rain-forests.

Piet Hein

Martin Amis
Kingsley Amis
Robert B. Parker
Carl Hiaasen
Michael Malone
James Ellroy
Geoff Nicholson
Don De Lillo
Paul Theroux
Henry Miller
Norman Mailer

No one novelist or biographer takes up that much room . . . Footage-wise, most space is taken up with history series: Time/Life’s This Fabulous Century, Mark Sullivan’s Our Times, the Dover Then and Now books.

Collectively (me & Mr. Pol) - probably Stephen King, for the same reason ** grendel72** mentioned.

My personal collection (kinda hard to tell cause they’re in several places) - probably

  • Robert A Heinlein
  • Larry Niven
  • Piers Anthony (ditto on the Stephen King comment)
  • Terry Pratchett
  • Spider Robinson (would be more if the guy were more prolific!)

John Grisham
Lee Child
Ernest Hemmingway

Lotsa Commie books, lotsa foreign language grammars and dictionaries.

Kallessa I’ve picked up Ursula many times, but never had the nerve to buy. I want to know, please tell me.

As for my book shelf, there’s only a couple

Dorothy L. Sayers
Lillian Jackson Braun
Berkely Brethed
Barbra Kingslover
Robert Jordan–but not for long, I’ve lost faith

Interesting question… most of my favourite authors aren’t terribly prolific, so actual shelf inches don’t reflect their importance to me… so, when I actually think about this one, the results are quite surprising.

Ed McBain
Terry Pratchett
Arthur C. Clarke
Patrick O’Brian
Isaac Asimov
“Doc” Smith
Lindsay Davis
Ellis Peters
E. C. Tubb
Brian Aldiss
Michael Moorcock
Stanislaw Lem

The Heinlein Shelf-and-a-Half is definitely the dominating territory-holder. There’s a tie for a close second place by Roger Zelazny (mostly because my husband’s policy is: one copy of an out-of-print Zelazny novel, good, so three copies, better) and Robert Jordan (because when he was reading the series, he insisted on getting the big honkin’ hard-cover as each book came out.)

Kallessa, you and I would get along well.

My list:
Charles de Lint
Ray Bradbury
Kurt Vonnegut
Madeleine L’Engle
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (editors of the “Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror” annual—those suckers are THICK, so they have two shelves of their own)
Winnie the Pooh (many variations thereof, but only classic, non-Disneyfied Pooh).

Also, there are two categories that take up lots of space: gymnastics and the bubonic plague (hey, I’m a woman of varied interests).

In terms of sheer shelf space, the following authors rule my bookshelves:

Orson Scott Card - 33 books
Terry Pratchett - 27 boks (including “Good Omens”, which he co-authored with Neil Gaiman)
Isaac Asimov - 17 books

All of these are paperback editions.

In terms of sheer shelf space, the following authors rule my bookshelves:

Orson Scott Card - 33 books
Terry Pratchett - 27 books (including “Good Omens”, which he co-authored with Neil Gaiman)
Isaac Asimov - 17 books

All of these are paperback editions.

:smack:

In no particular order:
1.) Sir Richard Francis Burton (1001 nights, Pilgrimage, First Footsteps, etc.)
2.) Robert Heinlein
3.) Fredric Brown
4.) Robert H. Von Gulik
5.) Ian Fleming
6.) Jack L. Chalker
7.) H.P. Lovecraft (with a little August Derleth et al)
8.) Robert E. Howard
9.) Edgar Rice Burroughs

This doesn’t necessarily represent my favorites – some writers (Stanley G. Weinbaum) didn’t write much.