[Jeffrey]

I own several hundred books on everything from history to theology to mathematics to Hittite to the occult to politics to good ol' fashioned thriller novels. I've had friends ask to borrow them, but I've been hesitant since a book loaned out rarely returns.

So as I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment where I can keep all my books shelved and somewhat orderly, I've signed up for LibraryThing. So far I only have about seventy books listed (because they're all at my new apartment, I'm at my old one, and I'm a stickler for making sure the exact edition is the one listed on my LibraryThing account).

Has anyone else used this site? I'm thinking it will help me get organized and also make it easier for me to loan books out (since I can make a note on my account of who has what).

[AlphaSigma]

My sister uses it and she likes it. Much better than just trying to remember who has what.

[beanbag]

we used it for the antiquities department I studied in this past year. unfortunately, the system hadn't been set up to the point that we could borrow books, but we could surf the site and see what was in the cuneiform library so that we wouldn't have to try to check books out of the main stacks. it's quite handy once you figure out how to actually use the system properly.

it seems like a really great idea for lending out stuff from your personal library. I've lent out books to friends that have taken 8 years to come back (true story) or have never made it back and I can't remember who has them (another true story).

is it free to sign up?

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by beanbag

we used it for the antiquities department I studied in this past year. unfortunately, the system hadn't been set up to the point that we could borrow books, but we could surf the site and see what was in the cuneiform library so that we wouldn't have to try to check books out of the main stacks.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is it free to sign up?

Yes indeed. There's a paid membership as well, but I can't figure out what all is given.

[beanbag]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha. yes. I am now partially accomplished in sumerian--I studied it for a school year. my favorite to read is archaic, but later forms are easier to dissect grammatically. (I hate grammar.) I am very sad that I will not be doing archaeology for graduate school. I almost want to apply anyways, but I don't know what the outlook is for assyriology or sumerology, especially right now.

Yes indeed. There's a paid membership as well, but I can't figure out what all is given.

I thought it might be interesting if cgr members who sign up for librarything post their links (if I recall correctly you can hide your personal info, or at least not specify it) as a resource. like, we could browse what books other people have and ask for recommendations, or even use it to form periodic book discussions, like the one Chris attempted to launch last summer. unfortunately, I will be taking almost no books with me when I move but I am such a bibliophile that I won't be able to help acquiring a bunch after I move.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by beanbag

haha. yes. I am now partially accomplished in sumerian--I studied it for a school year. my favorite to read is archaic, but later forms are easier to dissect grammatically. (I hate grammar.)

Unbelievably cool. After doing that playful, loose Ishtar thing, I dug into the Sumerian myth of Inanna. The department head at my private school invited me to "do more ancients" in the 9th grade literature course I was assigned (I was already doing ancient history, so now I have both classes), so I compiled a small collection of ancient literature about death/rebirth, descents to the Underworld, etc. I already had The Descent of Inanna and the Hittite Telepinu myth, which I had started working on as a hobby.

Basically, for all of the pieces of literature save the two Latin pieces (Ovid and an early Christian hymn) I had to do what David Ferry did for his best-selling Gilgamesh edition: I read as many available translations and commentaries as I could find, then produced my own version. For Inanna, I especially used Kramer, Sandars, the Oxford online texts, and Wolkstein's work with Kramer.

I enjoyed rendering the Canaanite work the best (the Baal myth), but I was struck with the conviction that the Sumerian account had the most fully-formed poetic sensibility, equal or beyond even Ovid's.

I am very sad that I will not be doing archaeology for graduate school. I almost want to apply anyways, but I don't know what the outlook is for assyriology or sumerology, especially right now.

Due, partially I assume, to the US invasion of Iraq. A great amount of the world's cultural heritage suffered from looting and bombing.

I thought it might be interesting if cgr members who sign up for librarything post their links (if I recall correctly you can hide your personal info, or at least not specify it) as a resource. like, we could browse what books other people have and ask for recommendations, or even use it to form periodic book discussions, like the one Chris attempted to launch last summer. unfortunately, I will be taking almost no books with me when I move but I am such a bibliophile that I won't be able to help acquiring a bunch after I move.

Once I have mine more organized, I certainly will.

[Art]

Seems like a great idea. A DVD version would be extremely useful for me.

[beanbag]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Unbelievably cool. After doing that playful, loose Ishtar thing, I dug into the Sumerian myth of Inanna. The department head at my private school invited me to "do more ancients" in the 9th grade literature course I was assigned (I was already doing ancient history, so now I have both classes), so I compiled a small collection of ancient literature about death/rebirth, descents to the Underworld, etc. I already had The Descent of Inanna and the Hittite Telepinu myth, which I had started working on as a hobby.

Basically, for all of the pieces of literature save the two Latin pieces (Ovid and an early Christian hymn) I had to do what David Ferry did for his best-selling Gilgamesh edition: I read as many available translations and commentaries as I could find, then produced my own version. For Inanna, I especially used Kramer, Sandars, the Oxford online texts, and Wolkstein's work with Kramer.

I enjoyed rendering the Canaanite work the best (the Baal myth), but I was struck with the conviction that the Sumerian account had the most fully-formed poetic sensibility, equal or beyond even Ovid's.

sumerian is extremely fascinating, and the poetry is very interesting. there is a lot of repetition in mythological works, which is very helpful when you have sections missing. generally you can recreate what is happening in one section based on what it says in another section.

it is really interesting to read various translations of pieces. I took ancient mesopotamian lit in the fall, and one of the pieces we read was inanna's descent, translated by a scholar named foster. it's certainly very different when you know some small amount of the language and see what the word choices are and everything. inanna is generally called "kug inanna" which can translate to silver, pure or holy. that's a pretty simplistic example, but most of the words have more than one meaning or translation, and you have to choose which you want to use. also, the grammatical structure of the language keeps changing as more information is found and scholars redefine their ideas. small changes in any part of the structure can completely alter the way a sentence is read or understood, rendering a lot of older translations completely archaic. it's very, very interesting.

there are so many resources available online (including the oxford texts, which you referenced) that you can potentially start to teach yourself. there are a couple of short grammars available online (I have a grammar book in a pdf file that I downloaded from my prof, since the book is out of print and costs a fortune) and there are some extensive dictionaries online as well. I don't know if you are interested or not, but if you are let me know and I'd be happy to share links. =)

Due, partially I assume, to the US invasion of Iraq. A great amount of the world's cultural heritage suffered from looting and bombing.

yes. the baghdad museum was thoroughly secured but unfortunately there has been a great deal of looting directly from unprotected sites, and a large number of tablets and other artifacts have made their way into the black market. this is extremely damaging to archaeological research, because unfortunately tablets don't indicate their place of origin. we used to joke in class about how nice it would be if the letters were headed: "this comes from nippur," or "this comes from isin." they also don't always indicate their destination. removing them from their location leaves huge gaps in the knowledge and understanding of the movement of correspondence and other types of literature. for example, what good is a household inventory if you don't know the location of the house being inventoried? something that could potentially change the understanding of local economy because a non-regional/atypical/imported is on the list becomes lost forever when the tablets are removed.

Once I have mine more organized, I certainly will.

fantastic! I will see what other interest there is among the regulars in this forum.

*edit*

Art: maybe movies&TV would like to have a compiled list too, then?

[AlphaSigma]

That's the problem with books when you move around, you just don't want to spend the time to bring all of them with you. Packing up my library this spring was not fun.

[thelitguy]

I used this a while back, but haven't updated it in forever. It is a pretty great idea.

I also just moved and packing around 400 books or so is seriously just a pain.

[Amanda]

manders76's books | LibraryThing

Also, the paid option is for if you want to list more than 200 books. $10 is for a year, $25 is for a lifetime membership--not a bad deal.

[beanbag]

thanks for sharing, Amanda. =)

I'd do it, but almost all of my books are back in Cali. I'm slowly beginning to build a small collection here, but definitely not anything large enough to warrant an online catalog. =\

[beanbag]

i finally got one of these!

(it's because i'm trying to keep a record of the books i'm shipping back to cali. i am also insane about having exactly the right book listed, so i'll probably go back through and edit this after i get home. my mom did not work in a library adding new books to the circulation system for three years like i did, so she is not as picky about getting all of the details correct.)

here tis: library yay!

[Jonular]

Has anyone compared LibraryThings to goodreads? I have a goodreads account (goodreads.com/jonrg). From what I can tell, LibraryThings is a bit more simplistic, so for a simple list of books you own, is quite useful. goodreads even has the social networking aspect, which I will admit to being a fan of. You can also separate books into ones you've read, reading, want to read, etc., all while compiling a separate list of books that you own yourself. You can make the books you own available to a book swap, but I'm not sure what that entails.

At any rate, I'm a fan of goodreads! If there's some other interest maybe we can set up a CGR group and browse through our collections.

[farouk]

I know the feeling about lending out books and waiting to get them back...............(or even forgetting about them...)

Keeping a watch on them is good.